Infielders with 25+ HR
Posted by Andy on September 17, 2008
Recently, the Florida Marlins became the first time in MLB history to have all 4 infielders hit at least 25 HR in the same season.
Here are the teams with at least 3 guys to do it:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 2008 NL Florida Marlins 4 Hanley Ramirez / Jorge Cantu / Dan Uggla / Mike Jacobs 2007 NL Florida Marlins 3 Dan Uggla / Miguel Cabrera / Hanley Ramirez 2007 NL Milwaukee Brewers 3 Prince Fielder / J.J. Hardy / Ryan Braun 2006 NL Philadelphia Phillies 3 Chase Utley / Ryan Howard / Jimmy Rollins 2005 NL Arizona Diamondbacks 3 Troy Glaus / Chad Tracy / Tony Clark 2005 AL Texas Rangers 3 Mark Teixeira / Hank Blalock / Alfonso Soriano 2004 AL Texas Rangers 3 Hank Blalock / Alfonso Soriano / Mark Teixeira 2003 AL Texas Rangers 3 Alex Rodriguez / Mark Teixeira / Hank Blalock 2002 AL New York Yankees 3 Alfonso Soriano / Jason Giambi / Robin Ventura 2001 AL Oakland Athletics 3 Miguel Tejada / Jason Giambi / Eric Chavez 2000 AL Oakland Athletics 3 Miguel Tejada / Eric Chavez / Jason Giambi 1979 NL Los Angeles Dodgers 3 Steve Garvey / Davey Lopes / Ron Cey 1950 AL Boston Red Sox 3 Vern Stephens / Bobby Doerr / Walt Dropo
And here are the teams to have all 4 guys hit at least 20 HRs:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 2008 NL Florida Marlins 4 Hanley Ramirez / Jorge Cantu / Dan Uggla / Mike Jacobs 2005 AL Texas Rangers 4 Mark Teixeira / Hank Blalock / Michael Young / Alfonso Soriano 2004 AL Chicago White Sox 4 Paul Konerko / Joe Crede / Juan Uribe / Jose Valentin 2004 AL Texas Rangers 4 Michael Young / Hank Blalock / Mark Teixeira / Alfonso Soriano 1996 AL Baltimore Orioles 4 Cal Ripken / Rafael Palmeiro / Roberto Alomar / B.J. Surhoff 1986 AL Detroit Tigers 4 Alan Trammell / Darrell Evans / Lou Whitaker / Darnell Coles 1940 AL Boston Red Sox 4 Bobby Doerr / Joe Cronin / Jimmie Foxx / Jim Tabor
September 17th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
correct me if i'm wrong, but not a single one of those teams got to the World Series.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Not many teams do...
September 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Michael Young was 1 home run short in 2005 and 3 in 2004. Otherwise the Rangers would have beat the Marlins to it.
Among the 20 home run teams. The '05 Rangers, '96 O's and '86 Tigers all went around the horn. Each also had a catcher with 20+ home runs.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
yes yes, not many teams do. but not a single team with 20+ HR or 25+ HR infields ever did. Which means reaching such an amazing accomplishment (which it definitely is amazing) makes your chances of getting to the World Series WORSE than if your team doesn't reach such an accomplishment.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
That is fact-twisting worthy of the current presidential campaign. Congrats, kingturtle. The fact that none of a small group of teams reached the Series does not mean that achieving this feat hurts your chances of getting there. Eyeballing it, I'd say the composite record of those teams is well over .500.
-Not a single player who hit 20 HR and stole 80 bases in a season won the MVP! Accomplishing that feat actually HURTS your chances of winning MVP!
-Not a single reliever with fewer than 50 blown saves is in the Hall of Fame! Blowing fewer games actually DECREASES your chances of election!
-Every team that blew a 3-0 lead in the playoffs had Mariano Rivera trying to close it out. Using Rivera and his 0.77 postseason ERA INCREASES the likelihood your team will suffer an epic collapse.
-I have gotten hurt before, but never when I've leaned out my 14th floor window. My chances of getting hurt must be diminished if I lean out the window.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Johnny, you beat me to reading kingturtle's comment, otherwise I would have been the one posting how inaccurate of a claim that is. You have hypothesized upon the statisticians worst nightmare king, that "correlation is causation", which is distinctly untrue. Just because these teams haven't made the playoffs does not mean that it is a result of this statistic...
September 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
my point is this...it is a great achievement...but what good did the achievement do?
September 17th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
4 out of the 17 teams made the playoffs. That's a nice percentage.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
If it wasn't for Jacobs being injured for a large part of 2007, it could have happened last season. And, if it wasn't for Willingham's injury earlier this year, the Marlins could have been the first team with 5 25+ HR guys.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
rabbethan there have been 7 teams that have had 5 25+ homer guys and 1 with 6.
Andy's list was only infielders.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Sorry, my link was deleted.
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/zEjE
September 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Raphy: Ah, I thought that seemed strangely low. Thanks for the correction.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
As much as I enjoyed Johnny's rebuttal (and I DID laugh out loud when I read it) he sort of missed the point. The real counterargument to kingturtle's point is that the sample size is far too small to make any judgments from. In particular, having all your infielders hit a certain number of homers isn't clearly linked to team success. At least, if we looked up a stat like how many pitching staffs with 2 20-game winners got their teams to the World Series, then that stat should be correlated with significant success.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am
In the end, the only true key to success is winning more games than your opponent.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
by the way, that's quite an accomplishment by the 1940 Boston Red Sox.