Powerless RBIs
Posted by Sky on October 29, 2007
I have no idea where this idea came from, but I had an inkling to see who had the most RBIs without hitting many homeruns. I initially set the filter at fewer than 20 HRs after 1980. Here's the list:
Cnt Player RBI HR Year Age +----+-----------------+---+--+----+---+ 1 Tony Gwynn 119 17 1997 37 2 Pedro Guerrero 117 17 1989 33 3 Al Oliver 117 19 1980 33 4 Jeff Cirillo 115 11 2000 30 5 Derek Bell 113 17 1996 27 6 Paul Molitor 113 9 1996 39 7 Marty Cordova 111 16 1996 26 8 Paul O'Neill 110 19 1999 36 9 Kirby Puckett 110 19 1992 32 10 Bill Buckner 110 16 1985 35 11 Tom Herr 110 8 1985 29 12 Rusty Greer 108 16 1998 29 13 Ted Simmons 108 13 1983 33 14 Bobby Abreu 107 15 2006 32 15 Hideki Matsui 106 16 2003 29 16 Joe Randa 106 15 2000 30 17 Keith Moreland 106 14 1985 31 18 Jeff Francoeur 105 19 2007 23 19 Willie McGee 105 11 1987 28 20 Bill Buckner 105 15 1982 32
Lots of professional hitters who didn't take a lot of walks. How could you not have rooted for Rusty Greer, Tony Gwynn, Jeff Cirillo, and Marty Cardova? Those are great names. I'm shocked to see Willie McGee on the list.
How about if we also limit doubles to fewer than 30?
Cnt Player RBI HR 2B G Year Age +----+-----------------+---+--+--+---+----+---+ 1 Joe Randa 106 15 29 158 2000 30 2 George Hendrick 104 19 20 136 1982 32 3 Paul O'Neill 100 18 26 142 2000 37 4 Terry Kennedy 98 17 27 149 1983 27 5 Steve Kemp 98 19 23 160 1982 27 6 Jeff Conine 97 14 23 139 2001 35 7 Eddie Murray 96 19 23 153 1991 35 8 Terry Pendleton 96 12 29 159 1987 26 9 Marquis Grissom 95 19 27 157 1993 26 10 Will Clark 95 19 25 154 1990 26 11 Jose Cruz 95 12 28 160 1984 36 12 Jody Davis 94 19 25 150 1984 27 13 Dave Parker 94 16 28 156 1984 33 14 Will Clark 92 16 27 123 1995 31 15 Lloyd Moseby 92 18 28 158 1984 24 16 Jose Cruz 92 14 28 160 1983 35 17 Jose Cruz 91 11 29 160 1980 32 18 Carlos Baerga 90 15 28 135 1995 26
Obviously, it's hard to knock in 100 runs when you're only hitting singles. Jose Cruz appears three times in the top 20.
Finally, how about the most runs scored with the second set of restrictions: fewer than 20 homeruns and 30 doubles:
Cnt Player R HR 2B G Year Age +----+-----------------+---+--+--+---+----+---+ 1 Paul Molitor 136 19 26 160 1982 25 2 Willie Wilson 133 3 28 161 1980 24 3 Derek Jeter 127 19 25 149 1998 24 4 Derek Jeter 124 18 26 157 2002 28 5 Derek Jeter 122 19 25 159 2005 31 6 Vince Coleman 121 3 14 151 1987 25 7 Tony Phillips 119 12 29 153 1996 37 8 Rickey Henderson 119 10 24 149 1982 23 9 Al Bumbry 118 9 29 160 1980 33 10 Chuck Knoblauch 117 17 25 150 1998 29 11 Chuck Knoblauch 117 9 26 156 1997 28 12 Kenny Lofton 116 1 28 148 1993 26 13 Willie McGee 114 10 26 152 1985 26 14 Chone Figgins 113 8 25 158 2005 27 15 Craig Biggio 113 15 24 162 1996 30 16 Eric Young 113 8 23 141 1996 29 17 Tony Phillips 113 7 27 151 1993 34 18 Rickey Henderson 113 12 26 150 1989 30 19 Rickey Henderson 113 16 27 142 1984 25 20 Brian Hunter 112 4 29 162 1997 26 21 Brett Butler 112 2 13 161 1991 34
Derek Jeter just knows how to win, huh? Brett Butler scored 112 runs in 1991 while only hitting two homeruns and 13 doubles. Yikes.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
[...] Brett Butler once scored 112 runs in a season while only hitting two homeruns and thirteen doubles. That fun fact plus many more concerning the most RBIs and RUNs without hitting for power at the Stat of the Day Blog. [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Here are a couple of related lists people might be interested in:
Fewest XBH among players with at least 100 RBI: http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/vEU3
Includes Thurman Munson (1975) and Gary Carter (1986)
Fewest XBH among players with at least 100 Runs Scored:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/fBs7
Includes Tom Goodwin (1998) , Luis Castillo (2000) as well as the previously mentioned season by Butler
October 30th, 2007 at 5:41 am
I had a similar post to this way back when this blog first starter...players with fewer than 10 HR and more than 100 RBI in a season. Paul Molitor and Tom Herr are the only ones to do it recently.
This post is here.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I did something similar recently using Isolated Slugging. I set the time frame to the 1970s onward and it was pretty similar. Thurman Munson was #1, Herr #3 or something.
Here's something that I thought would be interesting, but wasn't: 100 Runs Scored - Worst OBP. Not much of a surprise, lots of free-swinging sluggers and free-swinging leadoff men.
1. Tony Armas .300 (1984)
2. Juan Samuel .303 (1985)
3. Devon White .306 (1987)
4. Neifi Perez .307 (1999)
5. Alfonso Soriano .309 (2005)
6. Bret Boone .310 (1999)
7. Red Rolfe .311 (1940)
8. Andruw Jones .312 (2001)
9. Steve Finley .313 (1997)
10. Frankie Crosetti .315 (1939)
Sky, were you being facetious with your Jeter comment? Ha.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Yes, I was being facetious ; )
I was fully expecting Alex Sanchez's name to pop up at some point, but no go. His career high in runs is only 58, which he accomplished in about 580 PAs. For RBIs, he's a Luis Castillo type.
Which brings me back to being in awe of Willie McGee's 100 RBIs.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Look at Willie's RBI opportunities that year:
Actual Runners on Base: 544 (265-177-102), Avg. Runners on Base: 400 (195-133-71)
If I'm looking at this correctly, at each base, Willie had a 30% (or more) chance of having runners on than the average player with his amount of PA's. Was Jack Clark pitched around all the time with first base open?
In 1985, Tom Herr had 118 opportunities to bat someone in from third, versus 73 for the average player.