Trivia time: which leaderboard is this?
Posted by Andy on July 14, 2009
Here's a leaderboard for 2009. Can you figure out what it is?
1 Jason Giambi
2 Chris Young
3 Ken Griffey
4 Chris Davis
5 Jason Varitek
6 Mike Fontenot
7 Jim Thome
8 Mike Jacobs
9 Joe Crede
10 Chris Duncan
Answer is after the jump.
These guys have the fewest hits this season among players qualified for the batting title. Hard to believe, maybe, but true.
Cnt Player **H** Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Jason Giambi 50 2009 38 OAK AL 80 317 260 38 12 0 11 40 48 1 71 7 0 2 5 0 0 .192 .331 .365 .696 *3D 2 Chris Young 50 2009 25 ARI NL 81 293 255 32 20 3 6 25 33 0 73 1 2 2 1 11 2 .196 .289 .369 .658 *8 3 Ken Griffey 51 2009 39 SEA AL 70 275 230 27 12 0 10 26 43 0 40 0 0 2 5 0 0 .222 .342 .404 .746 *D/79 4 Chris Davis 52 2009 23 TEX AL 77 277 258 31 10 0 15 33 17 2 114 2 0 0 3 0 0 .202 .256 .415 .671 *3/5 5 Jason Varitek 55 2009 37 BOS AL 67 273 230 35 16 0 13 38 37 4 49 3 0 3 3 0 0 .239 .348 .478 .826 *2 6 Mike Fontenot 56 2009 29 CHC NL 78 274 243 22 11 1 6 28 27 3 59 1 0 3 5 2 1 .230 .307 .358 .665 *54 7 Jim Thome 56 2009 38 CHW AL 72 275 220 38 10 0 14 50 54 1 71 0 0 1 7 0 0 .255 .400 .491 .891 *D 8 Mike Jacobs 57 2009 28 KCR AL 76 284 257 27 11 1 12 30 25 2 82 2 0 0 4 0 0 .222 .296 .412 .708 *D3 9 Joe Crede 59 2009 31 MIN AL 68 279 252 32 11 1 14 40 22 1 43 2 0 3 5 0 0 .234 .297 .452 .749 *5/D 10 Chris Duncan 59 2009 28 STL NL 83 295 252 25 15 2 5 32 40 1 63 0 0 3 5 0 1 .234 .336 .369 .705 *7/3D
Among them, Thome and Varitek are having respectable seasons. In fact, I'd go far as to say that Varitek is having an excellent season, considering he's a 37-year-old catcher and his OPS+ so far in 2009 is 108. He's already matched his 2008 HR output and nearly matched his RBI output from last year. Yeah, he's batting only .239, but a lot of those hits are of the long variety. And Thome is no slouch either. His power numbers are down, yes, but his hit total is low mainly because A) he's played JUST enough to qualiy and B) he's walking a lot. His OPS+ is still 129.
Crede and Griffey have been about league-average while the rest are doing what I once heard referred to as "making the top half possible."
Three Chrises, two Mikes, four J names, and one Ken.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
funny you should post this. i just noticed a few days ago that two qualifying players were hitting under .200, and Chris Davis could make it three.
can you make a list of all instances of qualifying hitters with BAs of under .200 at season's end? not that it is important, but it would be interesting to see what seasons had the most instances. surprisingly in 1968 there was only one: tom tresh (.195) .
July 14th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I'll post that tomorrow.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Definitely filing "making the top half possible" away for a rainy day. Nice.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I heard that phrase used on my first day of college when the dean addressed all of the students in my particular school. This was his version of "look to your left, look to your right, one of these people won't be here when you graduate." His exact words were "Some of you will be in the top half, and the rest of you will make the top half possible."
It's true...in my particular major (a pretty competitive field at a very well-known university) there were 130 students on that first day. When I graduated 4 years later, only 35 of those 130 remained. Many switched to a different major and many failed out entirely.
We now resume baseball discussions.
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Bretford Computer Desk Black Ec2741ffbk...
Here’s a leaderboard for 2009. Can you figure out what it is?1 Jason Giambi2 Chris Young3 Ken [...]...
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 am
andy, that reminds me of the joke Garrison Keillor repeats every week in Prairie Home Companion, when describing his fictional town he says "all the children are above average." We can't *all* be above average.