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Trivia Time – Lots of Homers; Lots of Teams

Posted by Raphy on February 23, 2010

In Yesterday's  "Who am I" post,  Andy mentioned that  Russell Branyan has averaged over 30 home runs per 162 games during his career.  Among the reasons that Branyan's home run proficiency is surprising is the number of franchises that he has played for during his career. In fact, Branyan is one of three players to average at least 30 hr per 162 games and play for  8 different franchises. There have also been 3 such players who each played for 7 different  franchises and 4 who played for 6.

Your challenge today is to see how many of the remaining 9 players you can name.

Lets spread the joy and limit it to only 1 player guessed per commenter. I will update the answers as people post them.

The list is now complete.  Well done.

8 franchises (3 players): Russell Branyan, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Mitchell

7 franchises (3 players): Jose Canseco, Dave Kingman, Jeromy Burnitz

6 franchises (4 players): Fred McGriff, Rocky Colavito, Danny Tartabull,Dick Stuart

Here is the PI table:

Rk Player PA HR G From To Age AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Pos Tm
1 Russell Branyan 8 2824 164 882 1998 2009 22-33 2431 347 568 117 8 396 339 27 946 27 3 24 23 13 4 .234 .331 .491 .822 537/9D CLE-CIN-MIL-TBD-SDP-STL-PHI-SEA
2 Gary Sheffield 8 10947 509 2576 1988 2009 19-40 9217 1636 2689 467 27 1676 1475 130 1171 135 9 111 235 253 104 .292 .393 .514 .907 975D/63 MIL-SDP-FLA-LAD-ATL-NYY-DET-NYM
3 Kevin Mitchell 8 4696 234 1223 1984 1998 22-36 4134 630 1173 224 25 760 491 87 719 27 2 42 89 30 31 .284 .360 .520 .880 *75/D9638 NYM-SFG-SDP-SEA-CIN-BOS-CLE-OAK
4 Jeromy Burnitz 7 6579 315 1694 1993 2006 24-37 5710 917 1447 298 29 981 739 75 1376 78 9 43 99 74 58 .253 .345 .481 .826 *987/D NYM-CLE-MIL-LAD-COL-CHC-PIT
5 Jose Canseco 7 8129 462 1887 1985 2001 20-36 7057 1186 1877 340 14 1407 906 63 1942 84 1 81 178 200 88 .266 .353 .515 .867 D97/81 OAK-TEX-BOS-TOR-TBD-NYY-CHW
6 Dave Kingman 7 7429 442 1941 1971 1986 22-37 6677 901 1575 240 25 1210 608 72 1816 53 16 75 139 85 49 .236 .302 .478 .780 37D59/1 SFG-NYM-SDP-NYY-CAL-CHC-OAK
7 Fred McGriff 6 10174 493 2460 1986 2004 22-40 8757 1349 2490 441 24 1550 1305 171 1882 39 2 71 226 72 38 .284 .377 .509 .886 *3D TOR-SDP-ATL-TBD-CHC-LAD
8 Danny Tartabull 6 5842 262 1406 1984 1997 21-34 5011 756 1366 289 22 925 768 47 1362 17 2 44 110 37 30 .273 .368 .496 .864 *9D/4675 SEA-KCR-NYY-OAK-CHW-PHI
9 Dick Stuart 6 4363 228 1112 1958 1969 25-36 3997 506 1055 157 30 743 301 34 957 22 6 37 118 2 7 .264 .316 .489 .806 *3/75 PIT-BOS-PHI-NYM-LAD-CAL
10 Rocky Colavito 6 7559 374 1841 1955 1968 21-34 6503 971 1730 283 21 1159 951 58 880 29 16 60 182 19 27 .266 .359 .489 .848 *97/31 CLE-DET-KCA-CHW-NYY-LAD
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/23/2010.

Related posts:

    Lots of Homers, Not Much Else
    Trivia time
    Trivia time: super difficult trivia
    Trivia time: which leaderboard is this?
    Trivia time: great players who split time at RF and 3B

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

32 Responses to “Trivia Time – Lots of Homers; Lots of Teams”

  1. JDV Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    Dave Kingman

  2. Xavier Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:38 pm

    Sheffield

  3. dutchbrowncoat Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 pm

    gary sheffield
    509 hr in 2576 games = 32 hr / 162 games
    8 teams - brewers, padres, marlins, dodgers, braves, yankees, tigers, mets

  4. Wez Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    Kevin Mitchell is the other 8 franchise guy.

  5. Chip Ramsey Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Bobby Bonds

  6. Johnny Twisto Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    Not sure but I feel like Canseco made it to at least 6 teams by the end.

  7. lukejamesalarson Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    juan gonzalez, cfred mcgriff..?

  8. lukejamesalarson Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    sorry.. missed the part about one guess.

  9. Brendan Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    Fred McGriff

    TBD/ATL/LAD/CHC/SDP/TOR

    32/162

    Oh and Bobby Bonds averaged 29.

  10. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:12 pm

    Sheffield and Mitchell are indeed the other 8 guys.
    Kingman and Canseco played for 7 teams.
    McGriff played for 6.

  11. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:18 pm

    juan Gonzalez only played for 4 franchises.

  12. seattle matt Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:19 pm

    jeromy burnitz

  13. JDV Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    Are we taking seconds yet?

  14. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:24 pm

    Burnitz is the 3rd 7 team guy.

    Only three 6 team guys left.

  15. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    # JDV Says: Are we taking seconds yet?

    OK.
    If anyone wants to post a second player, feel free. Thanks for following the rules.

  16. JDV Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:28 pm

    Rocky Colavito

  17. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    Colavito it is. 2 to go.

  18. Wez Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Danny Tartabull

  19. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    Tartabull is correct. 1 left

  20. Jim Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    Dick Stuart

    Averaged 33hr/162games

    Played for Phi, Pit, Bos, Nym, LA, and CAL (6 teams)

    BY THE WAY: if you set the play index searching for careers. setting the franch played for >= 6 AND set home runs > .184 Games Played you should find most (all) the guys that fit this critera. A player must hit .185 home runs a game in order to hit 30 in a yeare. hope this math isnt a spoiler. i would have found more but im not a subscriber to play index (DOH)

  21. Jim Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 2:58 pm

    And of course I just realized that Dick Stuart is the the last player not named. However, if someone would check my math on that it would be cool, I think it is effective.

  22. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    Jim - You finished it off.

    Jim- that's pretty much what I did to create the list (I used .1852). I'll post the table above.

  23. Jim Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    Thats is neat. Although when i did it my way, i recieved 10 results, could you find out who the 10th was?

  24. Raphy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    I have 10 also. Branyan was mentioned in the introduction, so I didn't include him in the Trivia.

  25. Jim Lonborg Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    Interesting sidelight to the list: 8 of the 10 played for at least 1 NY team. Of the two who didn't, Branyon is still playing)

  26. Andy Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    The Mets and Yankees both went after Branyan before last season, I believe, and I think there were rumors that the Yankees were trying to acquire him at the trade deadline last year.

    Nice post, Raphy.

  27. DoubleDiamond Says:
    February 23rd, 2010 at 7:33 pm

    For all intents and purposes, Danny Tartabull only "played" for five franchises. At least that's the way we feel in Philadelphia. On the other hand, Russell Branyan actually had fewer plate appearances during his brief stay with the Phillies, 9 for him and 11 for Tartabull, but did more in those trips to the plate. He outhit Tartabull 2-0, and both of those hits were home runs, including a game winner in a season in which the Phillies won the division by one game. Perhaps "game winner" is not 100% accurate because it was not a walk-off home run. In fact, it came in a road game, but it wasn't in the top of the ninth or an extra inning. But it was in the eighth inning and put the team ahead to stay, so I consider it to be a game winner. (I am still trying to figure out what made the difference that year - Branyan's game winning home run against the Nationals or Freddy Garcia's lone win in an April game against the Reds.)

  28. Thomas Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 1:40 am

    To DoubleDiamond:

    I seriously thought about posting this exact same thing, but then I thought, I'm probably the only one who remembers Tartabull's three worthless games in Philly... or Branyan's two weeks. Obviously never saw either of them actually play for the team...

    Speaking of which, does anyone else actually keep track of the games they've seen, and how the players played in those games? I have for about a decade now, although it's not actually that many games.

  29. Gerry Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 6:33 am

    Ha. I've been to one ballgame in Philadelphia in the last 25 years - and Branyan was in it. 21 August 2007, he came in as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 8th, and struck out to end the inning.

  30. Djibouti Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    When Russell Branyan first came up, they were grooming him to be Jim Thome's replacement. Ironically, I think Thome has had better numbers in the years since. When he got traded to the Reds in '02 he joined Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns in what was basically a perfect storm of young strike out machines. Had they each played 162 games with the Reds that year their SO numbers would be 165, 174, and 122. Throw in Jason LaRue's 117 SO in 113 G and you had a lot of swings and misses. They set a franchise record that year in SOs which broke the record set the previous year, and which was then broken the year after, and again the year after that. Although I suppose most teams have set SO records in the last 10 years.

  31. DoubleDiamond Says:
    February 24th, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    I've actually been to very few ballgames in my life, for various reasons. But I do remember listening on the car radio to the portion of the Phillies-Nationals game in which Russell Branyan hit the home run that made the difference in that game. No, I didn't hear it called by Harry Kalas because by then, he was only doing radio in the 4th inning, and this was in the 8th. But he likely got to call it on T.V.

    As for keeping track of games, sometimes my memory is too good, and other times it's not good enough. The Internet, particularly this site and the Retrosheet site, have helped refresh my memory regarding dates and other details of various games. I would like to get to a game this year on July 30 because it's the 50th anniversary of the first game I ever attended. For years, all I knew was that it was in the summer of 1960 in Griffith Stadium with the White Sox as the visiting team. The Senators (the ones who moved to Minnesota) lost in extra innings, and the score was 3-2. I've got the date now, thanks to the Internet.

    I just checked the schedule for July 30. I was hoping that the Cubs would be visiting the Nationals. But no, it's more likely that a team will be playing a division rival on any given date, and it turns out that the Phillies will be playing in Washington. Good chance for me to catch my current favorite team on the road!

  32. tmckelv Says:
    February 25th, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    Talking about freak occurrences at games we attended, I went to a game at Yankees Stadium where
    Pete Incviglia got 3 hits! For the Yankees!

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