Guessing Lee Could Really Pick It In ’91

Posted by Steve Lombardi on April 16, 2010

I was just playing around with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder - asking it to show me seasons where a batter had H>=100, BB<=40, BA<=.250 and where SO > 1.0*H - and I got this list:

Rk		H	BB	BA	SO	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR 6	RBI	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Dave Kingman	113	28	.238	135	1976	27	NYM	NL	123	510	474	70	14	1	37	86	4	5	0	3	11	7	4	.286	.506	.793	*93/7
2	Tony Armas	125	29	.218	131	1983	29	BOS	AL	145	613	574	77	23	2	36	107	0	2	0	8	31	0	1	.254	.453	.707	*8D
3	Dave Kingman	116	34	.231	153	1975	26	NYM	NL	134	543	502	65	22	1	36	88	5	4	1	2	13	7	5	.284	.494	.778	*735/9
4	Dave Kingman	118	33	.210	126	1986	37	OAK	AL	144	604	561	70	19	0	35	94	3	3	0	7	16	3	3	.255	.431	.686	*D/3
5	Cory Snyder	136	31	.236	166	1987	24	CLE	AL	157	615	577	74	24	2	33	82	4	1	0	6	3	5	1	.273	.456	.729	*967
6	Mike Jacobs	118	36	.247	119	2008	27	FLA	NL	141	519	477	67	27	2	32	93	10	1	0	5	7	1	0	.299	.514	.812	*3/D
7	Jeromy Burnitz	111	35	.239	112	2003	34	TOT	NL	126	505	464	63	22	0	31	77	9	5	0	1	5	5	4	.299	.487	.786	*798
8	Tony Armas	125	33	.233	128	1982	28	OAK	AL	138	578	536	58	19	2	28	89	5	1	0	8	14	2	2	.275	.433	.708	*9/8D
9	Dick Stuart	126	39	.234	136	1965	32	PHI	NL	149	586	538	53	19	1	28	95	8	3	0	6	10	1	0	.287	.429	.716	*3/5
10	Jose Hernandez	135	39	.249	185	2001	31	MIL	NL	152	592	542	67	26	2	25	78	8	2	5	4	9	5	4	.300	.443	.743	*6/87
11	Bo Jackson	108	25	.246	146	1988	25	KCR	AL	124	468	439	63	16	4	25	68	6	1	1	2	6	27	6	.287	.472	.758	*79/8D
12	Jim Presley	142	38	.247	157	1987	25	SEA	AL	152	622	575	78	23	6	24	88	1	4	1	4	15	2	0	.296	.433	.729	*5/6
13	Pete Incaviglia	104	39	.249	153	1988	24	TEX	AL	116	467	418	59	19	3	22	54	3	7	0	3	6	6	4	.321	.467	.788	*7D
14	Russ Davis	106	32	.245	111	1999	29	SEA	AL	124	478	432	55	17	1	21	59	1	5	7	2	13	3	3	.304	.435	.739	*5/6
15	Pete Incaviglia	107	32	.236	136	1989	25	TEX	AL	133	495	453	48	27	4	21	81	0	6	0	4	12	5	7	.293	.453	.745	*78/D3
16	Alfonso Soriano	115	40	.241	118	2009	33	CHC	NL	117	522	477	64	25	1	20	55	6	3	0	2	7	9	2	.303	.423	.726	*7/45
17	Billy Cowan	120	18	.241	128	1964	25	CHC	NL	139	520	497	52	16	4	19	50	5	1	2	2	6	12	3	.268	.404	.673	*8
18	Cory Snyder	105	23	.215	134	1989	26	CLE	AL	132	518	489	49	17	0	18	59	1	2	0	4	11	6	5	.251	.360	.611	*9/6
19	Cito Gaston	118	24	.228	121	1971	27	SDP	NL	141	547	518	57	13	9	17	61	1	2	2	1	10	1	0	.264	.386	.650	*8/79
20	Byron Browne	102	40	.243	143	1966	23	CHC	NL	120	466	419	46	15	7	16	51	1	5	1	1	7	3	3	.316	.427	.743	*789
21	Miguel Olivo	107	14	.237	123	2007	28	FLA	NL	122	469	452	43	20	4	16	60	2	2	0	1	13	3	2	.262	.405	.667	*2
22	Charley Smith	122	17	.244	123	1965	27	NYM	NL	135	531	499	49	20	3	16	62	3	4	7	4	13	2	1	.273	.393	.666	*5/64
23	Dante Bichette	106	22	.238	107	1991	27	MIL	AL	134	475	445	53	18	3	15	59	4	1	1	6	9	14	8	.272	.393	.665	*9/85
24	Sammy Sosa	124	33	.233	150	1990	21	CHW	AL	153	579	532	72	26	10	15	70	4	6	2	6	10	32	16	.282	.404	.687	*9/8
25	Greg Gagne	109	27	.236	110	1988	26	MIN	AL	149	507	461	70	20	6	14	48	2	7	11	1	13	15	7	.288	.397	.685	*6/84
26	Cory Snyder	102	21	.233	118	1990	27	CLE	AL	123	468	438	46	27	3	14	55	3	2	1	6	11	1	4	.268	.404	.672	*9/6
27	George Foster	114	29	.241	120	1971	22	TOT	NL	140	514	473	50	23	4	13	58	3	7	1	4	20	7	7	.292	.389	.681	*87/9
28	Junior Felix	125	33	.246	128	1992	24	CAL	AL	139	558	509	63	22	5	9	72	5	2	5	9	9	8	8	.289	.361	.651	*8/D9
29	Dale Sveum	113	21	.242	122	1988	24	MIL	AL	129	495	467	41	14	4	9	51	0	1	3	3	6	1	0	.274	.347	.621	*6/4D
30	John Kennedy	111	29	.230	119	1964	23	WSA	AL	148	521	482	55	16	4	7	35	2	5	4	1	15	3	3	.280	.324	.604	*56/4
31	Michael Bourn	107	37	.229	111	2008	25	HOU	NL	138	514	467	57	10	4	5	29	0	2	7	1	3	41	10	.288	.300	.588	*8
32	Bobby Knoop	123	35	.249	128	1968	29	CAL	AL	152	536	494	48	20	4	3	39	6	3	2	2	13	3	2	.301	.324	.625	*4
Rk		H	BB	BA	SO	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
33	Manuel Lee	104	24	.234	107	1991	26	TOR	AL	138	485	445	41	18	3	0	29	0	2	10	4	11	7	2	.274	.288	.561	*6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/16/2010.

Note Manny Lee down at the bottom of this list.

None of these 33 seasons found are outstanding - in a good way. But, at least some of these guys were homerun hitters - albeit of the all or nothing type.

However, Manny Lee in 1991 had no stick whatsoever. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Yet, he had a full-time position on a first place team - playing SS for the Jays that season. He must have had some glove for Toronto to carry that "bat"...

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 10:27 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.

5 Responses to “Guessing Lee Could Really Pick It In ’91”

Andy Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 11:27 am
He's the only guy to have 100+ strikeouts in a season with zero homers, at least among modern players.
Johnny Twisto Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 11:45 am
I always confused Manny Lee and Nelson Liriano back then. I'm disappointed they're not on each other's most similar player lists.
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Lee's fielding actually was not all that great in 1991: he made 19 errors and was involved in only 70 double plays, which ranked last among AL shortstops.

Lee played short in 1991 because during the previous off-season the Jays had traded their steady 1990 shortstop, Tony Fernández, along with Fred McGriff to the Padres for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. Alomar filled the gaping 1990 offensive hole at second base (112 games of Manny Lee and 49 games of, yep, Nelson Liriano). Lee played short for the 1992 world champion Jays, but by 1993 Toronto had reacquired Fernández and Lee was playing (badly) in Texas.

One other interesting note. Lee's main back-up on the 1991 Blue Jays was René Gonzales, who had played in Baltimore in 1990 spelling Craig Worthington at third and the Ripken brothers at second and short. While scanning Retrosheet's team defensive stats, I noticed the 1990 error total of Orioles shortstops and thought I'd found a typo. Three errors all season long??!! But Retrosheet was correct. Cal Ripken made three errors in 161 games, and his back-ups didn't make any in the twenty-some-odd innings that they played. I'd never realized that Ripken had had such a great season in the field in 1990.

(Ozzie Guillén won the AL Gold Glove at short in 1990.)
Kahuna Tuna Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Steve's list includes Billy Cowan and Byron Browne of the 1964 and 1966 Cubs, respectively. The young center fielder whom the Cubs tried in 1965, Don Landrum, narrowly missed making the list. He'd have needed just a couple more hits and a handful more strikeouts. The 1968 center fielder, Adolfo Phillips, missed the cut by only a few strikeouts too.
Viliam Says:
April 16th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
One of our readers recommended this blog post:...

Rk, H, BB, BA, SO, Year, Age, Tm, Lg, G, PA, AB, R, 2B, 3B, HR 6, RBI, IBB .... Rk, H, BB, BA, SO, Year, Age, Tm, Lg, G, PA, AB, R, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, IBB, HBP, SH, SF, GDP, SB, CS, OBP, SLG, OPS, Pos. 33, Manuel Lee, 104, 24 .234, 107 ......

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