Race to the Bottom

The record for the lowest batting average by a championship qualifier since the dead ball era is .179, shared by Rob Deer of the 1991 Tigers and Dan Uggla of the 2013 Braves. The two are in an exact tie; each player had 80 hits in 448 at-bats. In fact, their stat lines are remarkably similar:

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
Deer	134	448	64	80	14	2	25	64	89	175	.179	.314	.386
Uggla	136	448	60	80	10	3	22	55	77	171	.179	.309	.362

Even though these seasons look almost identical, Deer's was significantly better in context. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he earned 1.0 WAR for his, but Uggla was below replacement level, at -1.1 WAR.

Baseball's Hurricane

Who has come the closest to hitting .400 since Ted Williams became the last batting championship qualifier to do it, in 1941? Well, Tony Gwynn hit .394 in a strike-shortened season (1994), George Brett hit .390 in an injury-shortened season (1980), and Rod Carew hit .388 in a full season (1977), as did Williams himself (1957). These are the batting champion qualifiers who have had the highest averages since Williams' .406 in 1941.

However, there's another way to look at it. There have actually been several .400 hitters since 1941, of course; they just haven't had enough plate appearances to qualify for the championship. So, which .400 hitter since '41 came the closest to qualifying for a batting championship? No one has come really close, but here's a list of all the .400 hitters since '41 with at least 50 plate appearances:

1. Bob Hazle, Mil NL, 1957, 155 PA, .403
2. Ted Williams, Bos NL, 1953, 110 PA, .407
3. Todd Haney, Chi NL, 1995, 81 PA, .411
4. Mike Davis, Oak AL, 1982, 77 PA, .400
5. Phil Clark, Det AL, 1992, 61 PA, .407
6. Craig Wilson, Chi AL, 1998, 53 PA, .468
7. Fred Lynn, Bos AL, 1974, 51 PA, .419

Bob "Hurricane" Hazle was given his nickname in the minors when Hurricane Hazel hit the coast of South Carolina, the state of his birth. He had signed with the Cincinnati Reds out of Wofford College in 1950. In 1955, he played a few games with the Reds, hitting three singles in 31 at-bats. During spring training of 1956, he was traded to Milwaukee, and he spent that year with Wichita, the Braves' AAA team.

In late July of 1957, Bill Bruton, the Braves' centerfielder, was injured. Milwaukee moved Hank Aaron from right to center and called up the 26-year old Hazle to split time with veteran Andy Pafko in right. On July 29, Hazle pinch-hit for Dave Jolly. Facing Stu Miller of the Giants, he bunted to move Pafko from first to second. Two days later, he was in the starting lineup against Pittsburgh, a bad team. In the 6th, he doubled against Bob Purkey, scoring Wes Convington to put Milwaukee up 3-0. He finished the game 1-4. The next time he played, on August 4, he doubled and singled against Carl Erskine of Brooklyn.

On August 9, he homered against the Cardinals' Lindy McDaniel, then singled in his next three at bats to lift his average to .500, 8-16. The next day, he singled twice against Lindy's brother, Von, then doubled against Hoyt Wilhelm. The Braves crushed the Cardinals in both games, 13-2 and 9-0; Hazle went 7-11; he was hitting .550 for the season. After going hitless in the finale against the Cards, Hazle went 7-10 in a three-game sweep of his original team, the Reds. He was at .545 and the Braves had won all 11 games in which he had appeared. August 29, the one-month anniversary of Hazle's arrival in Milwaukee was an off day. The Hurricane was hitting .507 with a .571 OBP and an .836 slugging percentage.

He was now the team's regular right fielder, playing almost every day. On September 2, Hazle hit three doubles and a single against the Cubs; the Braves won by the football-ish score of 23-10. Hazle homered once and singed three times in 10 innings against Chicago on September 22. However, he couldn't sustain his August pace. From August 30 until his last game on September 29, he hit "only" .299. The Braves had gone 28-13 in Hazle's appearances. He finished at .403, 54-134. No player since has finished a season hitting .400 in over 100 at-bats (or, for that matter, 100 plate appearances). Hazle hit only .154 in the World Series against the Yankees, but did get two hits in the seventh game as the Braves won their first championship in Milwaukee and the franchise's first since 1914, when the team played in Boston.

Hazle went to 1958 spring training with the Braves, but was beaned twice and injured his ankle in exhibition games. In May, hitting only .179, he was sold to Detroit. He played in 43 games for the Tigers, hitting .241. He started 1960 in the minors and did not get the call back to the majors, though he hit .291. He retired in 1961. Despite a career that lasted only 110 major-league games, one incredible hot streak made Bob "Hurricane" Hazle a part of baseball lore.

 

Reds v. A's

In his book with Rob Neyer, "Baseball Dynasties" Eddie Epstein compares the two great teams of the early-to-mid seventies, the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland A's, concluding that the A's were the better team. Comparing the 1971-1975 A's to the 1975-1976 Reds, he writes that five straight division titles and three straight world championships was a more impressive accomplishment than two straight world championships. It makes no sense to claim that the A's were better while arbitrarily limiting the Reds' "dynasty" to two years. Epstein seems to forget that the Reds also won pennants in 1970 and 1972. It would be much more fair to compare the 1972-1976 Reds to those A's teams. Then we have five years for each team and we add an additional pennant (1972) and two additional division titles (1972-1973) to the Reds' resume. Plus, we have the 1972 A's - Reds World Series to consider.

There are several ways to make such a comparison.

Won-Lost Record
The A's records break down like this:

1971     101-60  .627

1972       93-62  .600

1973       94-68  .580

1974       90-72  .556

1975       98-64  .605

TOT.    476-326 .594

Over their five years, the Reds had the following records:

1972       95-59  .617

1973       99-63  .611

1974       98-64  .605

1975     108-54  .667

1976     102-60  .630

TOT     502-300 .626

By this measure, the Reds were 26 games better than the A's during their run and finished above .600 for five straight years, quite an accomplishment.
Advantage: Reds

Postseason Appearances/Championships
The A's finished in first place in all five seasons during their run. The Reds finished second in 1974, behind a Dodger team that won 102 games. Both teams won three pennants, while the A's also won three world championships to the Reds' two.
Advantage: A's

Head-to-Head
No interleague play during this era, of course, so the only time the two teams met in a competition that meant anything was during the 1972 World Series. The A's won in seven games. It was an extremely close series, with six one-run games (the Reds won game 6 by a score of 8-1). Reggie Jackson, injured during the ALCS, did not play in the series. The surprise hero was Gene Tenace, who, at this point in his career, had never been anything more than an obscure sub. He hit .348 with 4 home runs. A's pitchers held Joe Morgan to a .125 average and Pete Rose to .214.
Advantage: A's

Players
One mark of a great team is great players and the A's and Reds were two of the most star-studded teams of the early seventies. Of course there is no objective definition of "great," though we might use Hall of Fame membership as a benchmark. In that category, the Reds had Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez as frontline players, as well as Pete Rose, a Hall of Fame-quality player who is kept out  for reasons besides his on-field performance. The A's had Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Rollie Fingers. Both teams had outstanding talent behind their Hall-of-Famers: Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Ken Griffey for the Reds; Gene Tenace, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Joe Rudi, Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue for the A's.

Another possible objective measure is MVP and Cy Young Award seasons. Reds players won the NL MVP award every year during their run except 1974: Johnny Bench in '72, Pete Rose in '73, and Joe Morgan in '75 and '76. A's players won two MVP awards: Vida Blue in 1971 and Reggie Jackson in 1973. No Red even came close to winning a Cy Young during their five years. Blue in 1971 (of course) and Catfish Hunter in 1974 won Cy Young Awards for the A's.

With the development of stats intended to measure a player's overall value, we can also use wins above replacement (WAR) as an objective measure of quality individuals seasons. Baseball-Reference.com states that, in their version of WAR, 5.0 or above represents an all-star quality season. Using that measure, we can make a list of such seasons for both teams during those years. Each team has 15 position player-seasons that rate at 5.0 or greater. The highest-rated season for the A's is Reggie Jackson's 1973, which rates at 7.8. The Reds have 8 individual seasons that match or exceed 7.8 WAR, including all five of Joe Morgan's seasons; Morgan's 1975, at 11.0 WAR is rated by Baseball-Reference as the 20th best season since 1901. However, the A's do have three pitcher-seasons that exceed 5.0 WAR, led by Vida Blue's incredible 1971 season at 9.0, while the Reds have none. So, in terms of great seasons, the Reds had better seasons and the A's had slightly more great seasons.
Advantage: Even

Dynasty Points
Bill James came up with a way of measuring dynasties, in terms of both quality and length, by awarding teams points for certain accomplishments (world championships, league championships, winning 100 games, etc.). By this method, the 1971-1975 A's earn 20 points. The Reds' dynasty, which James' method dates back to 1970, also earns 20 points. If we restrict the Reds' point total to the years from 1972 to 1976, the team earns 18 points.
Advantage: A's

There are many other ways to compare these teams, of course. We could compare them position-by-position, or use team statistics, such as runs scored or runs allowed to measure how dominant each team was in its league, but the law of diminishing returns would soon set in. My gut says the Reds were a better team. Their 1975-1976 teams probably had the greatest lineup, one through eight, in baseball history. The Reds were a good team from 1961 through 1981, with only a couple of mediocre seasons, but no truly bad ones. During that same period the A's lost over 100 games four times. The Reds reached higher heights and were good for more years, but if you compare their five best years, it's close, but the A's were the better team.

Worst Offensive Seasons

The book "Cubs by the Numbers" (Yellon, et al., New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009) says that Corey Patterson in 2005, "..had the worst offensive seasons for anyone who had more than 400 at bats since the pitchers' year of 1968."(116) Patterson was pretty bad in '05. He hit .215 with 118 strikeouts and only 23 walks. Plus, he did not compensate with power; he had only 31 extra base hits. His adjusted OPS was 54. I decided to investigate and see if this really was the worst offensive season between 1969 and 2005, using adjusted OPS as a measure. As it turns out, it wasn't even close. There were 42 player-seasons in that era that were worse. Here are the ten worst:

Rob Picciolo, 1977 A's - 31
Cristian Guzman, 1999 Twins - 38
Larry Bowa, 1973 Phillies - 39
Bob Boone, 1984 Angels - 40
Doug Flynn, 1982 Rangers and Expos - 41
Alfredo Griffin, 1990 Dodgers - 43
Neifi Perez, 2002 Royals - 44
Ivan DeJesus, 1981 Cubs - 44
Tim Johnson, 1973 Brewers - 44
Tommy Helms, 1970 Reds - 44

Picciolo hit .200 with 9 walks and 17 extra base hits in 446 plate appearances as Oakland's regular shortstop. The worst season from 2006 through 2010 was by Pedro Feliz, who had an adjusted OPS of 46 in 2010.

Getting More Out of Less

While watching the World Series this fall, I happened to look up Jimmy Rollins on Baseball-Reference.com and noticed that, despite the fact that his on-base percentage in 2009 was an awful .296, he nevertheless scored 100 runs (thank you, Ryan Howard). I decided to do a list of players in the modern era (post-1900) who scored 100 or more runs with sub-.300 on-base percentages.

It turned out to be a very short list. Rollins was only the second player of the modern era to reach triple digits in runs while failing to record an OBP of .300. The first was Hughie Critz in 1930. Critz, a second baseman, started out that year with the Reds, but was traded to the Giants for Larry Benton on May 21. Installed as the Giants' regular second sacker, he finished the year with a .292 OBP, but scored 108 runs. It's not hard to figure out why. The Giants that year led the NL with a .319 batting average and had three players (Bill Terry, Mel Ott, and Fred Linstrom) with slugging averages at .575 or better. Critz may not have reached base much, but when he did, there was usually someone ready and able to drive him in.

This stat combination was a bit more common in the ninteenth century. Seven players accomplished it, including Steve Brady of the American Association's New York Metropolitans, who in 1884 scored 102 runs on a .283 OBP, the lowest in baseball history for a player with 100 or more runs. However, Critz and Rollins are still the only players to do it since the mound was moved from 50' away from home to 60'6" after the 1892 season.

Kardiac Kids, part II

On Sept. 11, I posted a list of the worst season ERA's by pitchers who saved 30 or more games. Brad Lidge of the Philadelphia Phillies now tops the list. While saving 31 games for the NL East champs, Lidge compiled a 7.21 ERA, beating the old record held by Shawn Chacon (who at least had the excuse of pitching in Coors Field). Incidentally, Lidge was 0-8 with 11 blown saves, after blowing no saves in 41 chances in 2008.

The revised list:

7.21 - Brad Lidge, 2009 Phi. NL, 31 saves
7.11 - Shawn Chacon, 2004 Col. NL, 35
5.79 - Mike Henneman, 1996 Tex. AL, 31
5.28 - Brad Lidge, 2006 Hou. NL, 32
5.28 - Todd Worrell, 1997 L.A. NL, 35
5.14 - Dave Veres, 1999 Col. NL, 31
5.07 - Joe Borowski, 2007 Cle. AL, 45
4.98 - Jose Mesa, 1999 Sea. AL, 33
4.98 - Jeff Montgomery, 1998 K.C. AL, 36
4.80 - Billy Koch, 2001 Tor. AL, 36

.440*

The most famous asterisk in baseball history is the one that accompanied Roger Maris' record 61 home runs in 1961. However, there are multiple batting average records that could have been accompanied by asterisks, making the question of who holds the record for highest batting average in a season a surprisingly difficult one to answer.

In 1887, outfielder Tip O'Neill of the St. Louis Browns of the American Association (a relatively short-lived major league) hit for an average that, at the time, was considered to be .492. This is by far the highest figure ever recognized as leading a major league. The catch was that during 1887, walks were counted as hits. Once the walks are removed from O'Neill's stats, his average drops to .435, still one of the highest ever recorded.

But not THE highest. In 1894, outfielder Hugh Duffy of the National League's Boston franchise hit for an average recognized as .438 at the time and since revised by historians to .440. This stands as the highest average since the mound was moved to 60' 6" from home plate. The catch in Duffy's case was that the switch in mound distance from 50' had taken place after the 1892 season, leading to an unprecedented domination of the sport by hitters for a couple of years until the pitchers managed to adjust. In 1894, the batting average for the National League as a whole was .309, with eight out of the league's twelve teams hitting better than .300, and five scoring more than a thousand runs, led by Boston's 1220.

In 1901 second baseman Nap Lajoie of the Philadelphia Athletics hit .426, the highest average in the twentieth century. However, Lajoie was playing in the American League during its inagural year as a self-declared major league and its highly doubtful that the quality of play in the league truly measured up to major league standards. In essence, Lajoie was playing mostly against minor-leaguers. Also, foul balls were not counted as strikes in the AL during this time.

Willie Keeler of the 1897 Baltimore Orioles and Rogers Hornsby of the 1924 Cardinals both hit .424. Keeler's average is actually slightly higher (.4238 to .4235), but he was playing in an era in which fouls were not counted as strikes. Like Duffy, Hornsby played in a big-hitting era, though an era not quite as historically out-of-whack as Duffy's. Trying to figure out the batting average "record" serves as a strong reminder of how much statistics depend on playing conditions.