Cody Ross and most homers in first 6 career post-season games
Posted by Andy on October 18, 2010
Cody Ross homered again yesterday, giving him 3 games with a homer in his first 6 career playoff games. He joins a fairly small club:
| Rk | Player | #Matching | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ken Griffey | 4 | Ind. Games | 23 | 20 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 3 | .450 | .478 | 1.200 | 1.678 |
| 2 | Juan Gonzalez | 4 | Ind. Games | 19 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | .438 | .526 | 1.375 | 1.901 |
| 3 | Nomar Garciaparra | 4 | Ind. Games | 17 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 1 | .357 | .412 | 1.286 | 1.697 |
| 4 | Vinny Castilla | 4 | Ind. Games | 16 | 16 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 2 | .563 | .563 | 1.375 | 1.938 |
| 5 | Jose Canseco | 4 | Ind. Games | 17 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 2 | .375 | .412 | 1.188 | 1.599 |
| 6 | Carlos Beltran | 4 | Ind. Games | 19 | 18 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 0 | 1 | .611 | .632 | 1.500 | 2.132 |
| 7 | Todd Walker | 3 | Ind. Games | 14 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 | 1.357 | 1.857 |
| 8 | B.J. Upton | 3 | Ind. Games | 16 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | .385 | .438 | 1.308 | 1.745 |
| 9 | Al Simmons | 3 | Ind. Games | 14 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 | .417 | .500 | 1.167 | 1.667 |
| 10 | Cody Ross | 3 | Ind. Games | 11 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | .556 | .636 | 1.889 | 2.525 |
| 11 | Rafael Palmeiro | 3 | Ind. Games | 16 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | .385 | .500 | 1.077 | 1.577 |
| 12 | Jeffrey Leonard | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .545 | .583 | 1.364 | 1.947 |
| 13 | Ian Kinsler | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | .545 | .583 | 1.364 | 1.947 |
| 14 | Matt Holliday | 3 | Ind. Games | 13 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | .385 | .385 | 1.077 | 1.462 |
| 15 | Joe Harris | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .455 | .500 | 1.273 | 1.773 |
| 16 | Curtis Granderson | 3 | Ind. Games | 13 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | .462 | .462 | 1.154 | 1.615 |
| 17 | Goose Goslin | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 3 | .583 | .583 | 1.333 | 1.917 |
| 18 | Frank Demaree | 3 | Ind. Games | 13 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | .364 | .462 | 1.182 | 1.643 |
| 19 | Nelson Cruz | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | .250 | .250 | 1.000 | 1.250 |
| 20 | Donn Clendenon | 3 | Ind. Games | 12 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | .300 | .417 | 1.200 | 1.617 |
| 21 | Jason Bay | 3 | Ind. Games | 15 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 3 | .571 | .600 | 1.357 | 1.957 |
| 22 | Brady Anderson | 3 | Ind. Games | 16 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | .429 | .438 | 1.143 | 1.580 |
| 23 | Tommie Agee | 3 | Ind. Games | 15 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | .500 | .600 | 1.333 | 1.933 |
| 24 | Hank Aaron | 3 | Ind. Games | 13 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 3 | .417 | .462 | 1.167 | 1.628 |
Griffey, Gonzalez, and Beltran have the most total homers (5) in the first 6 playoff games. At first I suspected that Beltran's 11 RBI are also the record, but it turns out that Garciaparra had 12 RBI in his first 6 games.
October 18th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Worth noting that Ross has had much less plate appearances than most of the list.
That and he will next face a Lefty SP, and his career splits show a much higher slugging percentage against lefties.
That said, I am a Phillies fan, and I don't think he should see a strike the rest of the series.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
My favorite name on the list above is Goose Goslin. He homered in 6 of his first 13 postseason games for Washington in the 1924-25 World Series, and 7 of his first 16 (the last coming in the 1934 WS with Detroit).
Goslin, a Hall of Famer, was a slugging LF whose HR capacity was masked for years by Griffith Stadium, where it was almost impossible to hit the ball over the fence. In 1924, Goslin hit 12 of the 22 regular-season HRs amassed by the WS champion Senators, including their *only* HR at home. In 1926, all 17 of his HRs came on the road. During his full years in Washington, Goslin hit 24 HRs at home, 84 away. Traded to the Browns in June 1930, Goslin erupted with 30 HRs and 100 RBI in the last 101 games of the season.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
John's comments are causing me to seriously doubt B-R's neutralization methods, as Goslin's neutralized batting record has him with 238 HR, actually 10 FEWER than his real total of 248 (!!). I would think that if he played in an average power park, he'd have more HR than he actually got...weird.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Quite a spread between Beltran's 611/632/1500 and Cruz' 250/250/1000.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
#3/Andy Says: "John's comments are causing me to seriously doubt B-R's neutralization methods, as Goslin's neutralized batting record has him with 238 HR, actually 10 FEWER than his real total of 248 (!!). I would think that if he played in an average power park, he'd have more HR than he actually got...weird."
Andy, I believe the "neutralized" stats on B-R adjust for league run-scoring levels, not for the specific park factors for individual stats (such as home runs). Even though Griffith Stadium was death for home runs when Goslin played for the Senators, his HR's actually get knocked down a bit because of the high offensive levels of the 20s/30s.
A crude but more practical method of determining Goose's "neutralized" HR's, may be to simply double his road totals for the years he played for the Senators. Without going through every single year of his carrer, he's probably more of a 325 career-HR batter, than his actual total.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Today's Giants may end up on these lists.
October 19th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
I read some great stat not long ago that in 193X, the entire American League only hit about 3 HR in Griffith Stadium, which Josh Gibson matched by himself while playing for the Homestead Grays.
October 19th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
OK, in 1945 (balata ball era), only 7 home runs were hit in Griffith in AL games. Did the Negro Leagues also use a softer ball during the war? I don't know. Anyway, obviously the numbers are sketchy for Gibson, especially depending which games one wants to include (NgL teams played a lot of non-league games). In the B-R bullpen, the seasonal stats show Gibson with 2 HR that year in 17 games, while the narrative section says he led the league with 11 HR. How many did he hit in Griffith? No idea, especially since the Grays primarily played in Pittsburgh, but probably fewer than 7.