Archive for the 'Season Finders' Category

Happy 2011 to all of our readers! Here's some 2011 trivia.

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Over the last 30 seasons, only 17 players have had at least two years in which they had and OPS+ of 100 or better while batting no higher than .230:

Andruw Jones and Carlos Pena both joined the club this past year. This list is comprised of a lot of familiar names of guys who were mashers but didn't get on base a lot otherwise.

A couple of surprising names stick out, though. Jerry Willard makes it by virtue of having very few plate appearances in the seasons in question, totaling just 20 times at the plate in 1991 and 1994. One home run each season put his OPS+ over 100.

Gary Roenicke is also a surprise, and in his case it's a bunch of walks that helped him make the list. His OBP was about 120-130 points higher than his BA in his 3 seasons that make this list, pushing his OPS+ over 100.

Nothing earth-breaking about this list - but, it's one of my favorite sorts. Non-pitchers who appeared in exactly one game, only, in their big league career - and who got only one PA in that game, and, who got a hit in their only major league plate appearance. Here's the list:

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Raise your hand if you knew more than one of the names on this list.

Earl Weaver believed that "On offense, your most precious possessions are your 27 outs."

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Here's a bit of trivia from the world's smallest sample size.

In 2010 Gustavo Chacin became the 5th player to go an entire season with a homer in every PA. Of course it he only had 1, but so did all the others.

Naturally, if you homer in every PA, you will have a high OPS+. Chacin's was #2 all time.

Since 1947, how many players age 30 or younger had 90+ hits in what turned out to be their final season?

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Following the recent passings of Bob Feller and Phil Cavarretta, Walt Dropo died on Friday at age 87.

Dropo won the 1950 AL Rookie of the Year award after posting a 133 OPS+ season with the Red Sox that resulted in 34 HR, 144 RBI, and a .322 batting average. Having appeared in the majors briefly in 1949, Dropo has one of the highest RBI totals for a player appearing in his first or second major-league season:

While Dropo never again had such a great season, he posted very good seasons in 1952 and 1955 before finishing with a string of 6 seasons with OPS+ in the 90s often as a part-time player. He finished with a career OPS+ of exactly 100 in more than 1,200 career games, giving him one of the longest careers for a player with an OPS+ right around 100.

Bob Feller has passed away at age 92.

He was pretty well before my time and I don't know too much about him or his career.

He missed 3 years for World War II--those were his Age 23, 24, and 25 seasons, as well as most of his Age 26 season. In his 5 full seasons surrounding this gap, he won at least 20 games every time. If you give him 75 extra wins for that missed time, his career win total would have been 341 (11th all-time.) If you give him 91 extra wins (accounting for the fact that he averaged 24+ wins over those 5 surrounding seasons) that would have given him 357 for his career (8th all-time.)

Another way to look at it:

Most wins up to Age 22 season:

Feller is way out in the lead for 2 reasons: 1) an early start and 2) being a great pitcher.

He's also tied for the 87th most wins (post-1901) from Age 27 on.

That means if he had been able to pitch those 3+ years, he probably would have amassed some of the greatest counting stats ever for a starting pitcher.

Please share your thoughts and memories of Rapid Robert below.

With the news that the Phillies are about to add Cliff Lee to their starting rotation in 2011, it made me wonder - has there ever been a team to have four starters in the same season where they each made at least 30 starts and posted an ERA+ of 130 or better that year?

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Going back as far as we have intentional walk stats, here are the only guys to have at least 30 IBBs in a season without reaching 100 total walks:

Cabrera and Gonzalez both joined the list this season, doubling its size.

It's interesting to think about how each guy got in this group:

- Mitchell walked only 65 times per 162 games in his career, so failing to reach 100 walks isn't surprising. In 1989 he exploded for 47 HR and 125 RBI, both massive career highs, and he got intentionally walked a lot to be avoided. He had double-digit IBBs only one other season in his career. Mitchell also didn't have a lot of protection hitting after him--it was Candy Maldonado and Ernie Riles for most of the season until the Giants brought up a youngster named Matt Williams.

- Vlad Guerrero would rather swing at the moon overhead than take a walk. He has just 58 walks per 162 games in his career. Unlike Mitchell, though, he has always received a lot of IBBs (he is the active leader). Guerrero has usually been the best hitter on his team, and in 2002 was followed by the likes of Troy O'Leary, Lee Stevens, and Orlando Cabrera--not exactly a daunting group.

- Adrian Gonzalez has averaged 78 BB per 162 games so far, but that includes 119 walks in 2009. He fell back to just 58 non-intentional walks this past season, and the Padres were not a good offensive team, finishing close to the bottom in runs per game. (Their stellar pitching staff led to them almost making the playoffs.) He was by far the most valuable offensive player on the Padres in 2010 so there's no surprise that he was intentionally walked a lot. Chances are pretty good that he won't get as many IBBs with the Red Sox in 2011 surrounded in the lineup by David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Carl Crawford, and others.

- Miguel Cabrera averages 73 walks per 162 games played and has never reached 100 walks in a season. He had a career high 89 in 2010. He gets intentionally walked a lot because he's a damn good hitter, plain and simple. He was also way, way ahead of all of his teammates in terms of offense value in 2010.

Here are the top 40 guys (ranked by total plate appearances) who had at least 20% of their career walks coming as intentional walks:

Thanks again to reader Joseph T.---this was another one of the little gems he emailed in as a suggestion.