More Walks than Hits
Posted by Raphy on February 23, 2010
Yesterday, reader JDV noted that during his career, Mickey Lolich amassed more walks than hits. The concept of players with more walks than hits in a single season has already been addressed in the comments section of the blog (here and here), but I don't think that we've discussed players who have done it for an entire career. Here are the players with at least 40 career hits and more career walks than hits:
| Rk | Player | H | BB | From | To | Age | G | PA | AB | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | GDP | SB | CS | Pos | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Fernandez | 145 | 164 | 1967 | 1972 | 24-29 | 285 | 902 | 727 | 92 | 21 | 2 | 39 | 116 | 9 | 231 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 4 | 4 | .199 | .350 | .395 | .744 | *2/97 | NYY-OAK-TOT-CHC |
| 2 | Jim French | 119 | 121 | 1965 | 1971 | 23-29 | 234 | 741 | 607 | 53 | 17 | 4 | 5 | 51 | 10 | 78 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 6 | .196 | .328 | .262 | .590 | *2/7 | WSA |
| 3 | Willie McGill | 97 | 101 | 1890 | 1896 | 16-22 | 169 | 587 | 480 | 68 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 79 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | .202 | .344 | .250 | .594 | *1/9 | CLE-TOT-CIN-CHC-PHI |
| 4 | Mickey Lolich | 90 | 105 | 1963 | 1979 | 22-38 | 592 | 1017 | 821 | 63 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 362 | 5 | 85 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 1 | .110 | .215 | .121 | .335 | *1 | DET-NYM-SDP |
| 5 | Tony Smith | 90 | 95 | 1907 | 1911 | 23-27 | 170 | 633 | 500 | 46 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 0 | 60 | 3 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | .180 | .314 | .218 | .532 | *6/54 | WSH-BRO |
| 6 | Marty Hopkins | 80 | 85 | 1934 | 1935 | 27-28 | 136 | 480 | 379 | 48 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 48 | 0 | 54 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .211 | .357 | .274 | .631 | *5/4 | TOT-CHW |
| 7 | Jack Kramer | 72 | 76 | 1939 | 1951 | 21-33 | 322 | 618 | 501 | 43 | 12 | 0 | 5 | 39 | 0 | 162 | 1 | 40 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | .144 | .258 | .198 | .455 | *1 | SLB-BOS-NYG-TOT |
| 8 | Mickey Harris | 54 | 60 | 1940 | 1952 | 23-35 | 271 | 366 | 288 | 40 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 82 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 0 | .188 | .328 | .205 | .532 | *1 | BOS-TOT-WSH |
| 9 | Herman Pitz | 47 | 58 | 1890 | 1890 | 24-24 | 90 | 346 | 284 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 0 | .165 | .315 | .165 | .481 | /*2579684 | TOT |
Lolich is fourth on the list. The leader is Frank Fernandez, who by far has the most AB of anyone to post a career batting average <.200 and an OPS+ of at least 100.
There are some active players with more walks than hits, as well. Here are the players with at least 5 hits.
| Rk | Player | H | BB | From | To | Age | G | PA | AB | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | GDP | SB | CS | Pos | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Whitesell | 23 | 25 | 2008 | 2009 | 26-27 | 53 | 142 | 115 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 4 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .200 | .352 | .313 | .665 | /*3 | ARI |
| 2 | Chris Gimenez | 16 | 17 | 2009 | 2009 | 26-26 | 45 | 130 | 111 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | .144 | .256 | .243 | .499 | /3729 | CLE |
| 3 | Brian Bocock | 11 | 12 | 2008 | 2008 | 23-23 | 32 | 93 | 77 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | .143 | .258 | .156 | .414 | /*6 | SFG |
| 4 | Brian Moehler | 8 | 9 | 1996 | 2009 | 24-37 | 314 | 222 | 192 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 90 | 3 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .042 | .098 | .052 | .150 | *1 | DET-CIN-HOU-FLA |
| 5 | Anibal Sanchez | 5 | 6 | 2006 | 2009 | 22-25 | 50 | 102 | 86 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .058 | .120 | .058 | .178 | /*1 | FLA |
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Amazing, Frank Fernandez managed a career OPS+ of 114 despite a career BA of .199! I wonder if he's the only player with a sub .200 BA and an OPS+ of 100 or better with more than 500 career ABs.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Nick - Check out the link in the post. He's the only one with more than 142 AB. Since 1889 he's the only one with more than 22 AB.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I was checking into this earlier, but from a different standpoint. I was interested in guys who had a higher OBP than SLG, for both season(s) and career. As would be expected middle infielders crowd the list, with Willie Randolph managing 13 such seasons. Although the OBP > than * 1.0 SLG tool works for both individual and single seasons it does not include careers. I wonder why?
My search led me to a very interesting player; Johnny Bassler. A catcher for some great Detroit teams in the '20's. He finished (in some pretty crowded fields) in the top 7 in MVP voting three straight years. He had a great BA and OBP, but only hit one career HR and amassed a meager .361 SLG. He had over 300 more TOB than he did TBs in 811 G.
A pretty interesting find.