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.

Lightning in a Bottle

Players with 50 or more extra base hits, but fewer than 100 total hits, season:

Mark McGwire, Oak. AL 1995, 87 hits, 52 XBH (13 2B, 0 3B, 39 HR)
Bob Hamelin, K.C. AL 1994, 88 hits, 50 XBH (25 2B, 1 3B, 24 HR)
Barry Bonds, S.F. NL 1999, 93 hits, 56 XBH (20 2B, 2 3B, 34 HR)
Luke Scott, Hou. NL 2007, 94 hits, 51 XBH (28 2B, 5 3B, 18 HR)
Jose Valentin, Chi. AL 2004, 97 hits, 53 XBH (20 2B, 3 3B, 30 HR)
Rob Deer, Det. AL 1992, 97 hits, 53 XBH (20 2B, 1 3B, 32 HR)
Luis Gonzalez, Ari. NL 2004, 98 hits, 50 XBH (28 2B, 5 3B, 17 HR)
Ray Lankford, St.L.-S.D. NL 2001, 98 hits, 51 XBH (28 2B, 4 3B, 19 HR)

Tough Luck

Worst won-lost percentage for pitchers with league average or better ERA's (ERA championship qualifiers only): 

• .182 Frank Allen, Bro. NL 1913 (2.83, 4-18) 
• .190 Eddie Smith, Phi. AL 1937 (3.94, 4-17) 
• .206 Paul Derringer, St.L.-Cin. NL 1933 (3.30, 7-27) 
• .214 John Dopson, Mon. NL 1988 (3.04, 3-11) 
• .217 Rollie Naylor, Phi. AL 1919 (3.34, 5-18) 
• .235 Gene Schott, Cin. NL 1937 (2.97, 4-13) 
• .235 Ben Cantwell, Bos. NL 1929 (4.47, 4-13) 
• .238 John Buzhart, Phi. NL 1960 (3.86, 5-16) 
• .238 Dolph Luque, Cin. NL 1929 (4.50, 5-16) 
• .238 Ned Garvin, Bro. NL - N.Y. AL 1904 (1.72, 5-16)

George Scott's Baserunning

"I'll always remember a game Scott played in Kansas City in August of 1979. He was 35 years old at the time, fat and slow and had warning track power, but he hit a ground ball triple, and then a couple of innings later scored from second base on a fly ball to deep

center field."
-Bill James, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001) 452.

George Scott was a power-hitting first baseman who was more noted for his girth than his speed. Listed at 215 lbs. in the encyclopedias, he was probably considerably heavier by the end of his career which is what makes the above story so amazing. But is it accurate?

It's pretty easy to check. Scott was no longer playing regularly in 1979, the last year of his career, and he only played 12 games in August. Although he started the month as a member of the Kansas City Royals, he only played one game in Kansas City as a Royal, then two more after being released and picked up by the Yankees. Scott's only triple of the month (the 60th and last of his career) came on August 30 in Kansas City as a member of the Yankees, when he tripled and scored in the ninth. It's impossible to tell if it was a ground-ball triple or not, but Scott didn't reach base in any of his other plate appearances, so he wasn't scoring from second on any fly balls. Scott hit 4 triples in 1979, and scored after 3 of them, but didn't score a second run in any of those games.

Perhaps James' memory condensed events from two different games into one. However, Scott didn't score from second on a sac fly in any of the games he played in K.C. or any of the games he played in August. However, if the search is expanded to all Scott's games as a Royal, it turns out James was correct, though he got the month and location wrong. On June 20, against the A's in Oakland, Scott singled, went to second on a fly by Amos Otis, and scored on a fly to left by Darrell Porter. James was trying to demonstrate Scott's baseball savy with this anecdote and, despite the fact that he got some of the particulars wrong, he certainly proved his point.

Consistency

The record for most career home runs by a player who never hit 70 in a season is held by Hank Aaron. Of course, Aaron also had the most home runs by a player who never hit 60, and the most by a player who never hit 50, as he hit 755 without ever hitting more than 47 in a season. Other career highs by players who never reached season milestones:

Never hit 40 - Eddie Murray (1977-1997) - 504; career high of 33.

Never hit 30 - Al Kaline (1953-1974) - 399; career high of 29.

Never hit 20 - Ron Fairly (1958-1978) - 215; career high of 19.

Never hit 10 - Tony Taylor (1958-1976) - 75; career high of 9.

Now Pinch Hitting for Oakland...

What you might not know is that the A's of that era employed another quite-strange method of roster management, most notably in September of 1972 as they tried to hold off the White Sox for the division title...(Charlie) Finley and manager Dick Williams concoted a bizarre plan: the A's numerous second basemen, none of whom could hit, wouldn't be allowed to hit. Instead every time the second baseman came up, Williams would send up a pinch hitter...
-Rob Neyer, Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups (New York: Fireside Books, 2003) 170.

Late in the 1974 season, Dick Williams decided that he had no second basemen, but lots of pinch hitters, so he began rotating five second basemen, pinch hitting whenever one of them came to bat.
-Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001) 516.

Did the A's really do this? If so, did they do it in multiple seasons, or is either Neyer or his mentor James mistaken? If they did do it, was it effective?

On September 1, 1972, the A's were leading the AL West Division over the second-place White Sox by 1.5 games, having moved back into first place two days before after spending five days in second place. Oakland was getting almost nothing at the bat from its second basemen: Tim Cullen was hitting .250, Ted Kubiak was at .199, and Dick Green, who had played very little due to a back injury, was hitting .267. On August 30, they traded a minor leaguer to the Cardinals for Dal Maxvill, a defensive specialist whose lifetime average, at the time, was .220. This is the event that Neyer mentions as marking the beginning of the A's experiment.

An examination of the box score shows that Neyer's account is not strictly correct. From September 1 through September 28, A's second basemen came to the plate 59 times and were pinch hit for 44 times. However, during the period from September 17 to September 28, second basemen came to the plate 15 times and were pinch hit for 23 times, so it seems that if Williams was using this strategy, he may have been using it consistently for only a relatively short period, and he was never as strict about it as Neyer implies. There was only one game in which the second basemen had no plate appearances and were pinch hit for every time up. After the 28th, the strategy was abandoned as the division had already been clinched.

The strategy was generally effective. From the 1st to the 28th, the pinch hitters hit .237 with a .326 on-base percentage and they, and their pinch runners, scored 5 runs. The second basemen hit .214 with a .237 OBP and scored 4 runs. Ironically, during the 11 days in which the strategy was employed most strictly, the second basemen out-hit the pinch hitters .286 to .158. The A's did win; they went 17-9 from September 1 to September 28, including 7-3 from the 17th to the 28th, and gained 4.5 games in the standings.

How about 1974? James is wrong about at least one thing: Alvin Dark was the A's manager in '74, not Dick Williams. If Dark did use this strategy, he must have done it only for a very short time. During the entire month of September, A's second basemen (who almost always batted ninth) had 82 plate appearences to their pinch hitters' 21. However, from September 15 through September 20, second basemen came up to the plate 9 times, and were replaced by pinch hitters on 10 occasions, so it's possible Dark used this strategy for about a week. In any case, it didn't work. During the entire month, the pinch hitters for A's second basemen batted .053 (1 for 19) with 2 walks. Second basemen themselves batted .122 with 5 walks.

Obscure, But Not Forgotten

One of the favorite players of my childhood was Ivan DeJesus. DeJesus was a regular shotstop for both the Cubs and the Phillies for 8 years despite the fact that he was a weak hitter and not even particularly good with the glove (he gets a D+ in Bill James' defensive letter grades). However, his career has an unusual number of strange and interesting highlights and lowlights.

Signed out of Puerto Rico by the Dodgers in 1969, DeJesus reached the majors in 1974, playing a total of 88 games in '74, '75, and '76. In January 1977 he was included in a blockbuster trade, going to the Cubs along with Bill Buckner, in exchange for Rick Monday who had hit 32 home runs and scored 107 runs as the Cubs' leadoff hitter in '76.

Installed as the Cubs' regular shortstop in 1977, DeJesus became part of the team's "Latin Connection" with second baseman Manny Trillo. DeJesus hit .266 with 3 home runs and an adjusted OPS of 76 (meaning he was 76% as good as an average offensive player). Despite this, he scored 91 runs. The next year, DeJesus hiked his average to .278. He stole 41 bases, the most by a Cub since 1929. More importantly, despite the fact that the Cubs hit only 72 home runs, DeJesus scored 104 runs, leading the league. With an adjusted OPS of 90, he was one of the weakest offensive players ever to lead the league in runs scored.

DeJesus hit a career-high .283 in 1979 and scored 92 runs. In 1980, he stole a career-high 44 bases, but his average fell to .259. In a bizarre victory against the Cardinals in Chicago on April 22 (the final score was 16-12), DeJesus led off the bottom of the first with a home run. In the third he doubled and scored. He led off the fourth with a single, then hit an RBI triple in the fifth and hit another single in the 7th. Despite 13 home runs and a .359 slugging percentage at this point in his career, DeJesus now had a cycle and a 5-hit game on his resume.

In 1981, DeJesus had his worst season as a regular, but still managed to put his name in the trivia books. His final totals for that strike-ravaged season were 0 home runs, 13 RBI, and a .194 batting average. He finished last among NL batting championship qualifiers in all three categories, winning a "reverse" triple crown.

During the 1981 season, the Cubs were sold by the Wrigley family to the Tribune Co. Dallas Green, the ex-Phillies manager now running the Cubs' front office, was trying to revitalize the franchise and, unsurprisingly, considered DeJesus one of the expendable pieces. The Phillies were looking to replace thier aging shortstop, Larry Bowa, and believed that DeJesus could return to his 1978-1979 form. The two teams agreed to an exchange of shortstops, but to balance the eight-year difference in age between the two players, the Cubs demanded an additional player. When the trade was made on January 27, 1982, the Phillies threw in a minor-league shortstop whom nobody believed could play shortstop in the majors, but whom the Cubs intended to move to third base - Ryne Sandberg.

Reunited with his former "Latin Connection" partner, Manny Trillo, for a year, and then playing alongside the greatest second baseman in baseball history, Joe Morgan, DeJesus never really did regain the form of his best seasons, but was the Phillies' starting shortstop for three years. In 1983, with a team loaded with veteran stars on the downsides of their careers, the Phillies won a surprise NL pennant and DeJesus got a chance to play in a World Series. He hit .125 as the Phillies lost in 5 games.

His career quickly faded after that. After the 1984 season, he was included in a minor trade with the St. Louis Cardinals, who used him as a utility infielder in 1985. He got another chance to play in a World Series that fall, flying out as a pinch hitter in his only plate appearance. He played 7 games with the Yankees in '86, 9 games for the Giants in '87, and 7 games for the Tigers in '88. He played his final game in the majors on July 15, 1988.

Kardiac Kids

Highest ERA's for 30-save seasons:

7.11 - Shawn Chacon, 2004 Col. NL, 35 saves
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
4.72 - George Sherrill, Bal. AL, 31

Short But Sweet

Highest OPS (On-Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage) in careers consisting of between 50 and 100 plate appearances (current players exculded):

.985 - Frank Ernaga, Chi. NL (1957-1958)
.955 - Ted Tappe, Cin. - Chi. NL (1950-1951, 1955)
.921 - Tom Hughes, Det. AL (1930)
.900 - Art Watson, Bal. - Buf. FL (1914-1915)
.888 - Johnnie Tyler, Bos. NL (1934-1935)
.872 - Red Dorman, Cle. AL (1928)
.870 - Kevin Rhomberg, Cle. AL (1982)
.870 - Joe Hall, Chi. - Det. AL (1994-1995, 1997)
.852 - Randy Asadoor, S.D. NL (1986)
.851 - Babe Ganzel, Was. AL (1927-1928)
.851 - Dave Rowan, St.L. AL (1911)

Random Stats

Larry French, who pitched from 1929-1942, and Dennis Eckersley (1975-1998) had identical career won-lost records, 197-171. Doyle Alexander (1971-1989) had the same number of decisions, but was 3 games worse at 194-174.

Campy's Great Game

"There was a game in 1966 that symbolized what he meant to the organization. Nobody else in the lineup got a hit; nobody else, as I recall, even reached based, but Campy went 4-for-4, stole several bases, and scored 4 runs. The A's won the game, I think 4-2 or 4-3.

-Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001) 609.

There are an unusual number of interesting footnotes to Bert Campaneris' career. He once played all 9 positions in a game. He hit 22 home runs in 1970; his career high in homers otherwise was 8. In 1977, he had 40 sacrifice hits, still the highest total in a season since 1929. And then there was the game above, which has to rank as one of the greatest singlehanded victories in recent baseball history. But how accurate is James' reminisence?

Campaneris had three games in 1966 in which he had 4 hits. In two of them, he also scored 4 runs. One of these games came on June 6 against Cleveland. Since the A's won 11-4, this probably is not the game James remembers. The other one comes close to matching James' memory. It was a game against the White Sox in Chicago on August 16. Batting leadoff, Campaneris singled in the first, was sacrificed to second, stole third, then scored on an error while Danny Cater was stealing second. In the third, he tripled, then scored on a wild pitch. In the fifth, he singled and came all the way around to score on an error by the pitcher. In the eigth, he singled, stole second, then went to third and scored on consecutive passed balls. The final scored was 4-2.

This game doesn't match James' memory in every respect. Besides Campy's 4 hits, the A's got two singles and a walk, but they had nothing to do with the scoring. Obviously Campaneris got some help from the Sox, but he was creating some major havoc on the basepaths. It's probably not too inaccurate to say he won this game singlehandedly, a pretty rare occurance (at least for a non-pitcher) in Major League Baseball.

Laboring in Vain

Fewest Wins in 200 or more innings pitched, 1901-2008

1-Jack Nabors, Phi. AL 1916
2-Joe Harris, Bos. AL 1906
3-Jerry Koosman, NY NL 1978
3-Don Larsen, Bal. AL 1954
3-Kaiser Wilhelm, Bos. NL 1905
4-Ryan Franklin, Sea. AL 2004
4-Tanyon Sturtze, TB AL 2002
4-Ben Cantwell, Bos. NL 1935
4-George Smith, Phi. NL 1921
4-Jim Pastorius, Bro. NL 1908

Lowest Averages

Worst Career Batting Averages by Position, 1920-2008 (1000 G. minimum)

C – Buck Martinez (1969-1986) .225
1B – Mike Jorgensen (1968-1985) .243
2B – Bobby Knoop (1964-1972) .236
SS – Bobby Wine (1960-1972) .215
3B – Aurelio Rodriguez (1967-1983) .237
RF – Tom Brunansky (1981-1994) .245
CF – Gary Pettis (1982-1992) .236
LF – Greg Vaughn (1989-2000) .242

The Flukiest Record of Them All

Most baseball fans can trace the evolution of the season home run record back from Barry Bonds to Mark McGwire to Roger Maris and to Babe Ruth, who broke the record in 1919 and the exceeded his own record three more times before retiring. But whose record did Ruth break?

In 1884, the National League was beginning its ninth season. The major league season record for home runs was 14, set in the American Association, a marginal major league. The NL record was 10. When the season was over, the Chicago White Stockings (the team now knows as the Cubs) had finished 5th in an eight-team league. But five of their players had exceeded the old NL record for home runs; four of them topping 20 roundtrippers apiece, led by third baseman Ed Williamson's 27. Williamson held the record until Ruth connected for 29 in 1919.

How did Williamson and the White Stockings' other sluggers do it? Had they discovered steriods a century before anyone else? No, their secret lay in the park in which the White Stockings played, Lakefront Park. Left field in the park was just 186 feet from home and right field was 190 feet away. In every other season played there, ground rules had stated that balls hit over the fence were doubles. Before the '84 seasons, the club decided that they would be home runs, with the result that the White Stockings hit 142 homes runs that year, the most by a team until Ruth's 1927 Yankees hit 158. Williamson hit 25 of his 27 homers in Chicago, but never got a chance to repeat his feat, as the team moved into a new park with more normal dimensions in 1885. Williamson never hit more than 9 home runs in any other season of his career, before or after 1884. Standing for one year longer than Ruth's record of 60, Williamson's season home run record stands as one of the biggest flukes in baseball history.

Jimmy Claxton - Pioneer

One of the most interesting footnotes in baseball history is Jimmy Claxton. Claxton pitched briefly for the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in 1916. What is significant about Claxton is not his playing career, but his race; he was the first player of African-American ancestry to play for a predominately white professional team in the 20th Century. Claxton may have been as little as one-sixth African-American and was able to pass himself off as a Native American (which also may have been in his background).

Sources disagree on how much Claxton actually pitched. According to the Baseball-Reference.com's minor league encyclopedia (which spells his last name "Klaxton"), he got into two games, starting one, and pitching a total of 2.1 innings with no decisions and a 7.71 ERA. According to James A. Riley's "Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues" Claxton pitched in five games, starting three and finishing with a record of 0-1. Both sources agree that he was released after about a month with the team, probably because team brass learned of his true racial identity. According to Riley, Claxton subsequently pitched for African-American teams for many years.

Another first for Claxton: at the time he played for Oakland, a company named Zeanuts produced baseball cards of PCL players. Despite Claxton's brief time with the Oaks, he was included on one of the company's cards, becoming the first black player ever to be featured on a baseball card.