Longest tenure with one team, active players
Posted by Andy on August 3, 2008
Wow I found a really easy way to do this search. Batting Season Finder, sum over career, active players only, franchises played for = 1.
Here are the longest tenured guys:
Cnt Player **DbYr** Tms From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+--------+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 John Smoltz 1988 1 1988 2008 21-41 720 1151 933 76 150 26 2 5 61 78 0 358 3 136 1 15 3 2 .161 .228 .209 .437 *1 ATL 2 Chipper Jones 1993 1 1993 2008 21-36 1984 8523 7215 1354 2234 441 35 404 1354 1211 130 1124 16 3 78 200 136 43 .310 .406 .548 .954 *57/6D9 ATL 3 Garret Anderson 1994 1 1994 2008 22-36 1967 8293 7812 1003 2313 479 34 268 1265 389 100 1094 6 12 74 174 77 46 .296 .327 .469 .796 *78D9 CAL-ANA-LAA 4 Derek Jeter 1995 1 1995 2008 21-34 1937 8881 7840 1440 2472 409 57 201 982 794 29 1345 136 70 41 187 270 72 .315 .386 .459 .845 *6/D NYY 5 Jorge Posada 1995 1 1995 2008 23-36 1483 5874 4982 762 1379 317 9 221 883 790 67 1177 63 1 38 150 16 18 .277 .380 .477 .857 *2/D3 NYY 6 Mariano Rivera 1995 1 1995 2008 25-38 831 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 *1 NYY 7 Todd Helton 1997 1 1997 2008 23-34 1659 7114 5960 1143 1957 471 31 310 1116 1041 170 808 49 3 61 145 36 26 .328 .428 .574 1.002 *3/79D COL 8 Jason Varitek 1997 1 1997 2008 25-36 1288 4887 4270 558 1126 262 13 156 642 510 49 986 51 19 37 115 25 17 .264 .347 .441 .788 *2/D BOS 9 Eric Chavez 1998 1 1998 2008 20-30 1279 5251 4642 720 1247 273 20 229 776 556 67 884 13 0 40 106 47 17 .269 .346 .484 .830 *5/D673 OAK 10 Roy Halladay 1998 1 1998 2008 21-31 270 39 37 2 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 16 0 2 0 1 0 0 .081 .081 .081 .162 *1 TOR 11 Kerry Wood 1998 1 1998 2008 21-31 258 403 345 23 59 6 0 7 32 11 0 113 0 46 1 1 0 0 .171 .196 .249 .445 *1 CHC 12 Rick Ankiel 1999 1 1999 2008 19-28 195 673 607 97 165 30 4 35 107 53 2 150 3 4 6 9 3 1 .272 .330 .507 .837 *8/197 STL 13 Lance Berkman 1999 1 1999 2008 23-32 1318 5579 4627 869 1406 315 23 281 931 849 111 913 58 1 44 96 69 34 .304 .415 .564 .979 7398/D HOU 14 Vernon Wells 1999 1 1999 2008 20-29 1034 4444 4077 601 1149 248 24 166 623 295 11 579 24 2 46 104 67 21 .282 .330 .477 .807 *8/9D TOR 15 Mark Buehrle 2000 1 2000 2008 21-29 281 43 36 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 20 0 6 0 0 0 0 .083 .108 .083 .191 *1 CHW 16 Pat Burrell 2000 1 2000 2008 23-31 1256 5185 4360 638 1133 245 13 245 807 759 47 1226 26 0 40 96 5 1 .260 .370 .491 .861 *7/3D PHI 17 Joe Crede 2000 1 2000 2008 22-30 791 2984 2743 348 708 142 3 125 421 169 5 401 36 8 28 63 4 12 .258 .307 .449 .756 *5/D6 CHW 18 Jimmy Rollins 2000 1 2000 2008 21-29 1199 5543 5057 819 1400 294 86 122 525 401 33 675 27 30 28 72 275 59 .277 .332 .441 .773 *6/4 PHI 19 Michael Young 2000 1 2000 2008 23-31 1166 5173 4759 713 1435 265 41 111 630 334 8 764 15 25 40 128 66 21 .302 .347 .444 .791 *64/D5 TEX 20 John Parrish 2000 1 2000 2007 22-29 154 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 *1 BAL
Heh, through a statistical oddity, John Parrish makes this list despite having only 1 PA in his career. Interesting that of the top 6 guys, 2 are Braves and 3 are Yankees. The full list is here.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 am
Seems to ignore some AL pitchers. Wakefield has been with the Sox since 1995. How did Halladay wind up with a plate appearance that far back?
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:03 am
This list is for guys with one team only in their entire career. Wakefield of course played for the Pirates. Guys not showing up here would include pitchers who have played in the AL and never had a PA.
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
i'm confused about that john parrish? it says he's played for three teams.....
August 3rd, 2008 at 11:25 am
I think the list picked up pitchers who only batted for one of their teams team. That would explain why John Parrish, Mike Koplove and Dontrelle Willis are on the list.
August 3rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Last summer I noticed that each of the 16 franchises that have been with us since 1901 has had a one-team player with a career of 18 years or more, except the Athletics. So far as I could tell, no one who played for the As only had a career longer than 13 years. Pete Suder and Eddie Rommel played 13 seasons each with the As, and none with any other team, and they are the record-holders.
Eric Chavez is now in his 11th season with the As. He has a shot at becoming the As-only record guy, but he has to last three more years & not go to any other team.
August 4th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
How about the 1995 Yankees debuting Jeter, Rivera, and Posada that season. I can't easily check it but has there ever been a better threesome that debuted at the same time?
August 4th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Schlom, Currently Psada Riviera and Jeter are in their 14th season or 42 combined years. I cant think of a threesome that has 42 years, .
Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammel debuted in the same game 9-9-77 and played 19 and 20 years for DET. Lance Parrish debuted the same week in 1977 and played 10 years for DET, although is career took him to other teams after that, That's 49 years, but it doesn't meet the "whole career on one team" test.
George Brett and Frank White debuted together and played 20 and 19 years for KC.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
schlom - If you're looking for a better threesome debuting, how about 3 HOFers:
1925 was the debut season for Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove & Jimmie Foxx, all of the Phili A's.
If you want the teams with 2 HOFers debuting here's the link. (Teams with non batting pitchers might be excluded.)
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/gmTb
August 15th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I realize this is an old post and not many will ever see this but a significant amount of players on this list have been with more than 1 organization. Including #1 John Smoltz who started in Detroit, also Sizemore and some others. These search parameters need some refining.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:20 am
gogowhitesox--we're talking tenure in the major leagues with one team. Smoltz never appeared in the big leagues with Detroit. Same goes for Sizemore.
Yes, this list done not include only player who were drafted by the organization they eventually played with. You'd have to eliminate a bunch of players. But it does indeed show what I actually said it shows.