Leatherface Plaques
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 8, 2010
A silly little list via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder...members of the Hall of Fame (Cooperstown) with 3 or more seasons where they qualified for the batting title and had an OPS+ less than 100:
| Rk | Yrs | From | To | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luis Aparicio | 16 | 1956 | 1973 | 22-39 | |
| 2 | Rabbit Maranville | 15 | 1913 | 1933 | 21-41 | |
| 3 | Ozzie Smith | 12 | 1978 | 1994 | 23-39 | |
| 4 | Bill Mazeroski | 12 | 1957 | 1968 | 20-31 | |
| 5 | Leo Durocher | 12 | 1928 | 1939 | 22-33 | |
| 6 | Al Lopez | 11 | 1930 | 1944 | 21-35 | |
| 7 | Nellie Fox | 10 | 1950 | 1964 | 22-36 | |
| 8 | Ray Schalk | 10 | 1913 | 1925 | 20-32 | |
| 9 | Red Schoendienst | 9 | 1945 | 1956 | 22-33 | |
| 10 | Joe Tinker | 8 | 1902 | 1914 | 21-33 | |
| 11 | Brooks Robinson | 7 | 1958 | 1975 | 21-38 | |
| 12 | Bucky Harris | 7 | 1921 | 1927 | 24-30 | |
| 13 | Cal Ripken | 6 | 1992 | 2001 | 31-40 | |
| 14 | Robin Yount | 6 | 1975 | 1993 | 19-37 | |
| 15 | Phil Rizzuto | 6 | 1941 | 1952 | 24-35 | |
| 16 | Dave Bancroft | 6 | 1916 | 1929 | 25-38 | |
| 17 | Lloyd Waner | 5 | 1933 | 1942 | 27-36 | |
| 18 | Ryne Sandberg | 4 | 1982 | 1996 | 22-36 | |
| 19 | Pee Wee Reese | 4 | 1941 | 1956 | 22-37 | |
| 20 | Rick Ferrell | 4 | 1930 | 1937 | 24-31 | |
| 21 | George Sisler | 4 | 1924 | 1930 | 31-37 | |
| 22 | Frankie Frisch | 4 | 1920 | 1935 | 21-36 | |
| 23 | Bill McKechnie | 4 | 1911 | 1918 | 24-31 | |
| 24 | Max Carey | 4 | 1911 | 1928 | 21-38 | |
| 25 | Johnny Evers | 4 | 1904 | 1907 | 22-25 | |
| 26 | Bobby Wallace | 4 | 1903 | 1912 | 29-38 | |
| 27 | George Kell | 3 | 1944 | 1956 | 21-33 | |
| 28 | Billy Herman | 3 | 1933 | 1942 | 23-32 | |
| 29 | Joe Sewell | 3 | 1930 | 1933 | 31-34 | |
| 30 | Al Simmons | 3 | 1924 | 1937 | 22-35 | |
| 31 | Miller Huggins | 3 | 1907 | 1911 | 29-33 |
.
These guys at the top of the list made the Hall for the love of glove, eh?
February 8th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Durocher, Harris, McKechnie, and Huggins were elected as managers.
Schoendienst and Lopez were probably elected as combo types; Red more as a player and Lopez more as a manager, but it's not certain either makes it if they didn't have good careers in both jobs.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Hey, in the outside chance if Vizquel gets honored with a plaque in the Hall, and he well might, he will hold the record. Assuming next year he gets below +100, it will mark 20 years of sub +100.
One aspect of his career that might get him in, aside from the slick fielding and gold gloves, is during an era laden by many many question marks, Vizquel clearly played the game the clean.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
So, what's the record for most seasons under 100 by a non-HoFer? Let's not count the pitchers. Rick Dempsey had 19, same as Vizquel has so far. Kid Gleason had 20, but he was a pitcher the first few years of his career.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Wow, Cal Ripken really tailed off after age 30. I still think Alan Trammell was better...
February 9th, 2010 at 12:02 am
"Vizquel clearly played the game the clean"
how do you know that?
February 9th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Holy smokes ... Brooks Robinson? Wow. That really reinforces the brilliance of Mike Schmidt.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Brooks Robinson's hitting, looked at in a vacuum, was never HOF-worthy. He is similar to Ozzie Smith in many ways - long career, a ton of Gold Gloves, a postseason hero, and an MVP in one season (Ozzie came in second). But other than that, Brooksie was an average hitter, both in his counting stats and in his rate stats.
As for Cal, from the moment he won his second MVP, he was a different player.
Average season, first 10 years of Cal's career ('82-'91)
162 G, 97 R, 34 2B, 3 3B, 26 HR, 94 RBI, .280/.350/.467, 127 OPS+
Average season, second 10 years of Cal's career ('82-'91)
136 G, 68 R, 26 2B, 1 3B, 17 HR, 75 RBI, .271/.329/.424, 96 OPS+
While it's certainly not uncommon for a player to see lower numbers as he grows older, both in his counting stats and in his rate stats, Ripken's timing couldn't have been worse from the perpective of OPS+. He moved into a better hitter's park in an era of much higher offense, right at the time that his skills began to diminish.
Still, his first 10 years were good enough to outweigh his twilight years and his overall body of work is Hall-worthy.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:48 am
In a kind of reverse of this topic, I was looking at Mantle's record the other day and saw he had years where he batted .245 and .237 and OPS+s of 150 and 142. That seems extraordinarily high for such low BAs. I wonder how often that's been done for BAs under .250?
February 9th, 2010 at 11:09 am
If Paul Byrd took HGH then every single player is a suspect. Nothing is clear.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:21 am
What the heck is OPS+ anyway?
"Bill James...ruining baseball since 1977"
February 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Pageup, from the PI (for players qualifying for the batting title):
<th class="ranker sort_default_asc show_partial_when_sorting" onmouseover="Tip('RankThis is a count of the rows from top to bottom.It is recalculated following the sorting of a column.')" align="center">Rk
Player
<th class=" hide_non_quals" onmouseover="Tip('OPS+100*[OBP/lg OBP + SLG/lg SLG - 1]Adjusted to the player’s ballpark(s)')" align="center">OPS+
<th class=" hide_non_quals" onmouseover="Tip('Hits/At BatsFor recent years, leaders need 3.1 PAper team game played')" align="center">BA
Year
Age
Tm
<th class=" sort_default_asc" onmouseover="Tip('LeagueAL - American League (1901-present)NL - National League (1876-present)AA - American Association (1882-1891)UA - Union Association (1884)PL - Players League (1890)FL - Federal League (1914-1915)NA - National Association (1871-1875)')" align="center">Lg
G
<th class="" onmouseover="Tip('Plate AppearancesEstimated using AB + BB + HBP + SF + SH,missing catcher interferences.When this color click for a summary of each PA.')" align="center">PA
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
<th class="" onmouseover="Tip('Intentional Bases on BallsFirst tracked in 1955.')" align="center">IBB
SO
HBP
SH
<th class="" onmouseover="Tip('Sacrifice FliesFirst tracked in 1954.')" align="center">SF
<th class="" onmouseover="Tip('Double Plays Grounded IntoOnly includes standard 6-4-3, 4-3, etc. double plays.First tracked in 1933.')" align="center">GDP
SB
CS
<th class=" hide_non_quals" onmouseover="Tip('(H + BB + HBP)/(At Bats + BB + HBP + SF)For recent years, leaders need 3.1 PAper team game played')" align="center">OBP
<th class=" hide_non_quals" onmouseover="Tip('Total Bases/At Bats or (1B + 2*2B + 3*3B + 4*HR)/ABFor recent years, leaders need 3.1 PAper team game played')" align="center">SLG
<th class=" hide_non_quals" onmouseover="Tip('On-Base + Slugging Percentages For recent years, leaders need 3.1 PAper team game played')" align="center">OPS
<th class=" sort_default_asc" onmouseover="Tip('Position’*’ indicates position played in 2/3rds of team games,’/’ less than 10 games played.')" align="left">Pos
1
Mickey Mantle
150
.245
1967
35
NYY
AL
144
553
440
63
108
17
0
22
55
107
7
113
1
0
5
9
1
1
.391
.434
.825
*3
2
Gene Tenace
149
.249
1976
29
OAK
AL
128
508
417
64
104
19
1
22
66
81
2
91
4
1
5
7
5
4
.373
.458
.831
*3*2/D
3
Jack Clark
148
.242
1989
33
SDP
NL
142
593
455
76
110
19
1
26
94
132
18
145
1
0
5
10
6
2
.410
.459
.869
*39
4
Mark McGwire
143
.235
1990
26
OAK
AL
156
650
523
87
123
16
0
39
108
110
9
116
7
1
9
13
2
1
.370
.489
.859
*3
5
Gorman Thomas
142
.246
1978
27
MIL
AL
137
536
452
70
111
24
1
32
86
73
4
133
2
6
3
6
3
4
.351
.515
.866
*8
6
Mike Schmidt
142
.249
1975
25
PHI
NL
158
674
562
93
140
34
3
38
95
101
10
180
4
6
1
7
29
12
.367
.523
.890
*56
7
Mickey Mantle
142
.237
1968
36
NYY
AL
144
547
435
57
103
14
1
18
54
106
7
97
1
1
4
9
6
2
.385
.398
.782
*3
8
Adam Dunn
141
.247
2005
25
CIN
NL
160
671
543
107
134
35
2
40
101
114
14
168
12
0
2
6
4
2
.387
.540
.927
*73
9
Frank Robinson
141
.245
1974
38
TOT
AL
144
579
477
81
117
27
3
22
68
85
14
95
10
1
6
11
5
2
.367
.453
.820
*D/37
10
Ralph Kiner
141
.244
1952
29
PIT
NL
149
633
516
90
126
17
2
37
87
110
0
77
7
0
0
6
3
0
.384
.500
.884
*7
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool UsedGenerated 2/9/2010.
Mantle's 150 OPS+ was the highest, and his 142 also made the top 10.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Oops, sorry about that, I was trying to put in a PI table.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Hey Whiz, thanks, I was actually wondering if 150 was the highest for someone qualifying for the batting title who'd batted under .250.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Robin Yount - 1980's were very good, 1970's and 1990's were very bad - most of his >100 OPS+ seasons came while he perhaps should have been in the minor leagues...but then again, does he make the Hall of Fame without all of those extra PA's while very young? I think the 3000 hits were very necessary for him to make the HOF.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
To BCK: How was the first and second half of Cal Ripken's career 1982-1991?
February 9th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Yeah, that's what I thought.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
ImAShark-
It was a typo, obviously. How old are you, anyway?
February 10th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Dave, OPS+ is a simple metric used to compare players to their contemporaries. On-base percentage and slugging percentage are added together to make OPS, and a player's OPS score is then divided by the league average OPS. (The result is then multiplied by 100 in order to make average 100 rather than 1.) The best players generally hit 120+, with the worst dropping below 90. It allows us to look at just one number and immediately know how good a hitter is.
One of the reason we add on-base percentage and slugging percentage is a funny story, actually. Some statisticians (I think Thorn and Palmer) were trying to create a single metric to analyze all hitting ability. As it turned out, their fancy calculations equalled the simple OBP+SLG formula.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
The one that surprises me on the list is Ryne Sandberg. He had a relatively short career for a HoFer (13 qualifying seasons plus 2 partials and a cup of coffee), so having 4 "poor" seasons would seem like it would put a damper on his HoF chances. Of course, he had an OPS+ > 120 in six of the other nine qualiying seasons, 10 All-Star selections, 9 Gold Gloves (at a middle infield position), 7 Silver Sluggers, and an MVP award to boost his credentials.