No starter batting above .255
Posted by Andy on October 4, 2010
I noticed that in the second game of the Saturday double-header between the Red Sox and Yankees, nobody in the starting lineup for the Red Sox was batting higher than .255:
| Batting | ||
|---|---|---|
| Eric Patterson 2B | .217 | .686 |
| Felipe Lopez 3B-SS | .233 | .656 |
| J.D. Drew DH | .255 | .789 |
| Lars Anderson 1B | .212 | .592 |
| Ryan Kalish CF | .252 | .715 |
| Daniel Nava LF | .247 | .720 |
| Josh Reddick RF | .197 | .538 |
| Yamaico Navarro SS | .143 | .317 |
| Kevin Cash C | .167 | .483 |
Those are actually their stats from after that game, taken from the box score. It seems to me that in a season with an overall batting average of .257, this is probably fairly rare. There's no easy way to search for this with the Play Index, so I just thought I'd check the highest BA among the starting nine for each team after the games of that same day:
Yankees: Robinson Cano, .320 Tigers: Casper Wells, .326 Orioles: Nick Markakis, .295 Indians: Shin-Soo Choo, .300 White Sox: Dayan Viciedo and Paul Konerko, .310 Rays: Carl Crawford, .308 Royals: Billy Butler .320 Blue Jays: John Buck, .281 Twins: Danny Valencia, .314 Athletics: Mark Ellis, .290 Mariners: Ichiro, .314 Angels: Torii Hunter, .282 Rangers: Josh Hamilton, .360 Phillies: Placido Polanco, .299 Braves: Omar Infante, .320 Brewers: Lorenzo Cain, .306 Reds: Ryan Hanigan, .300 Pirates: Jose Tabata. .302 Marlins: Jose Sosa .500 (technically this counts...or take Osvaldo Fernandez at .308 if you prefer) Cubs: Starlin Castro, .300 Astros: Chris Johnson, .309 Diamondbacks: Brandon Allen, .286 Dodgers: Andre Ethier, .289 Nationals: Mike Morse, .291 Mets: Raul Valdez, .400 or Angel Pagan, .291 Padres: Adrian Gonzalez, .298 Giants: Buster Posey, .306 Rockies: Jay Payton, .344 Cardinals: Matt Pagnozzi, .343
So, yeah, for at least this one day, the Rex Sox started a lineup with much lower batting averages.
Anybody have an idea of how common this is?
October 4th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I think it's pretty safe to say that after getting no-hit by Bob Feller on Opening Day, the 1940 White Sox started their second game with all .000 averages.
October 4th, 2010 at 11:40 am
"Good eye, Andy, good eye!"
Not sure if you're looking for (a) all starters' BA below the league average, or (b) all starters' BA at or below .255. If the latter, then I have 3 games for you:
The 1968 Yankees batted .214 as a team. Roy White hit .267, making him the only player on the team to bat over .245 -- whether regular, backup or pitcher. White missed just 3 games; in each, all 9 Yankee starters finished the game with a BA of .244 or lower, with a low game mark of .236 on Aug. 15, 1968.
-- On August 1, 1968, all 9 Yankees finished the game with a BA of .239 or lower. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196808010.shtml)
-- On August 15, 1968, all 9 Yankee starters finished the game with a BA of .236 or lower; PH Charlie Smith had a .268 mark. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK196808150.shtml)
-- On August 25, 1968, all 9 Yankees finished the game with a BA of .244 or lower. (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196808251.shtml)
However, the AL average that year was .230, so none of these qualifies by condition (a) above.
Incidentally, that .214-hitting Yankee squad finished 83-79. They were last in BA, 7th (out of 10) in OBP and 8th in slugging, yet somehow ranked 6th in scoring, with a RPG just a bit below the league average. Mantle led the team with 18 HRs; it was the only year in the live-ball era that the Yanks did not have a 20-HR man, except for 1981 (strike year) and 1945 ("sawdust ball").
October 4th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
John, I came across your '68 Yankees just now in the results of a PI query about teams with most wins in a season when leaving three or fewer runners on base. That Yankees team had 13 such wins, one of the highest single-season totals since 1920. (The streak-busting 2005 White Sox had the highest total, with 18.) I'd guess that low-LOB wins correspond loosely with offensive "efficiency," and a team with a .214 batting average needs all the efficiency it can get.
October 4th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Tell us about the sawdust ball. War scarcity led to that as a filling? Was it much different, just that one year? Like '43 "silver" penny?
Mantle had a 142 OPS for his last year. he created value even in his declining years. A bit surprised to see him rated below average for his career in every position he played-thought he was good enough in the outfield during the '50's to be better than that. And I see no record of him in the playoffs, just world series. What am I missing on his B-R page?
October 4th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Also, Mantle's category, Player Value--batters is messed up. The years are all out of order!
October 5th, 2010 at 6:32 am
When I was a kid in the late 60's-early 70's, every once in awhile we would inadvertently get a sawdust ball. They sucked. They would be oblong by the 2nd inning. by the 5th, sawdust would be leaking.
I wonder how many players have hit over .100 points higher than the league average like Hamilton did this year?