Did you know that the PI includes height and weight data? For some reason, after yesterday, I was inclined to look at lighter players today. Here are the top seasons since 1977, ranked by OPS+, for players listed at 175 lbs or less, minimum 400 PA:

 Cnt Player            **OPS+**  Wt  PA Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+--------+---+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Lonnie Smith         168   170 577 1989  33 ATL NL 134 482  89 152 34  4 21  79  76   3  95  11   1   7   7  25 12  .315  .415  .533  .948 *7
    2 Magglio Ordonez      167   170 678 2007  33 DET AL 157 595 117 216 54  0 28 139  76   8  79   2   0   5  20   4  1  .363  .434  .595 1.029 *9D
    3 Robin Yount          166   170 704 1982  26 MIL AL 156 635 129 210 46 12 29 114  54   2  63   1   4  10  19  14  3  .331  .379  .578  .957 *6/D
    4 Sixto Lezcano        164   175 566 1979  25 MIL AL 138 473  84 152 29  3 28 101  77   5  74   3   6   7  11   4  3  .321  .414  .573  .987 *9/D7
    5 Adrian Beltre        163   170 657 2004  25 LAD NL 156 598 104 200 32  0 48 121  53   9  87   2   0   4  15   7  2  .334  .388  .629 1.017 *5/6
    6 Oscar Gamble         162   165 470 1977  27 CHW AL 137 408  75 121 22  2 31  83  54   2  54   6   1   1   3   1  2  .297  .386  .588  .974 *D9/87
    7 Don Mattingly        161   175 742 1986  25 NYY AL 162 677 117 238 53  2 31 113  53  11  35   1   1  10  17   0  0  .352  .394  .573  .967 *3/5D
    8 Don Mattingly        156   175 727 1985  24 NYY AL 159 652 107 211 48  3 35 145  56  13  41   2   2  15  15   2  2  .324  .371  .567  .938 *3
    9 Don Mattingly        156   175 662 1984  23 NYY AL 153 603  91 207 44  2 23 110  41   8  33   1   8   9  15   1  1  .343  .381  .537  .918 *37/98
   10 Nomar Garciaparra    155   165 599 2000  26 BOS AL 140 529 104 197 51  3 21  96  61  20  50   2   0   7   8   5  2  .372  .434  .599 1.033 *6/D
   11 Alan Trammell        155   175 668 1987  29 DET AL 151 597 109 205 34  3 28 105  60   8  47   3   2   6  11  21  2  .343  .402  .551  .953 *6
   12 Magglio Ordonez      153   170 653 2002  28 CHW AL 153 590 116 189 47  1 38 135  53   2  77   7   0   3  21   7  5  .320  .381  .597  .978 *9/D
   13 Nomar Garciaparra    153   165 595 1999  25 BOS AL 135 532 103 190 42  4 27 104  51   7  39   8   0   4  11  14  3  .357  .418  .603 1.021 *6
   14 Derek Jeter          153   175 739 1999  25 NYY AL 158 627 134 219 37  9 24 102  91   5 116  12   3   6  12  19  8  .349  .438  .552  .990 *6
   15 Matt Stairs          153   175 410 1997  29 OAK AL 133 352  62 105 19  0 27  73  50   1  60   3   1   4   6   3  2  .298  .386  .582  .968 97D/3
   16 Ben Oglivie          153   170 660 1980  31 MIL AL 156 592  94 180 26  2 41 118  54  19  71   5   0   9   5  11  9  .304  .362  .563  .925 *7/D98
   17 Robin Yount          152   170 690 1989  33 MIL AL 160 614 101 195 38  9 21 103  63   9  71   6   3   4   9  19  3  .318  .384  .511  .895 *8D
   18 Robin Yount          150   170 662 1983  27 MIL AL 149 578 102 178 42 10 17  80  72   6  58   3   1   8  11  12  5  .308  .383  .503  .886 *6/D
   19 Amos Otis            150   166 567 1978  31 KCR AL 141 486  74 145 30  7 22  96  66   7  54   4   1  10  10  32  8  .298  .380  .525  .905 *8/D
   20 Willie McGee         147   175 652 1985  26 STL NL 152 612 114 216 26 18 10  82  34   2  86   0   1   5   3  56 16  .353  .384  .503  .887 *8/7
   21 Rich Aurilia         146   170 689 2001  29 SFG NL 156 636 114 206 37  5 37  97  47   2  83   0   3   3  14   1  3  .324  .369  .572  .941 *6
   22 Julio Franco         146   165 659 1991  32 TEX AL 146 589 108 201 27  3 15  78  65   8  78   3   0   2  13  36  9  .341  .408  .474  .882 *4
   23 Don Mattingly        146   175 629 1987  26 NYY AL 141 569  93 186 38  2 30 115  51  13  38   1   0   8  16   1  4  .327  .378  .559  .937 *3/D
   24 Chase Utley          145   170 613 2007  28 PHI NL 132 530 104 176 48  5 22 103  50   1  89  25   1   7   7   9  1  .332  .410  .566  .976 *4/3
   25 Jose Cruz            145   175 685 1984  36 HOU NL 160 600  96 187 28 13 12  95  73  10  68   0   2  10   8  22  8  .312  .381  .462  .843 *7
   26 Sixto Lezcano        145   175 559 1982  28 SDP NL 138 470  73 136 26  6 16  84  78  10  69   2   2   7  11   2  1  .289  .388  .472  .860 *9

Mattingly fans, go crazy.

Interestingly, that fake list that was all over the internet yesterday morning mentioned one of the players who appears above. I don't want to say who, since it's not right to bring up that player's name AGAIN since he didn't ultimately appear in the Mitchell report. Doesn't mean any of these above guys are clean, of course.

Hey, check this out. I searched for all players, 1977-2007, listed at 175 lbs or less who got 400+ PAs in that year, and then sorted them by year (actually the PI Batting Season Finder did all this work for me):

So everybody supposedly starting taking steroids in 1993, and then in 1994 the number of players getting 400+ PAs while weighing 175 lbs or less suddenly drops off. Interesting. And then when MLB puts any sort of testing in place in 2003, suddenly the number of players weighing 175 lbs or less shoots up. Interesting.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am 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.