Interesting Statistical Combinations

One of many things that makes baseball the most enjoyable sport is statistics. Players are considered great because of their statistical achievements. We are all familiar with the records for home runs in a season or career. Career strikeouts. Pitchers winning 20 games in a season. Batters hitting .300. All of these are interesting and enjoyable. Something like on-base percentage, however, is a little different since it combines other, seemingly unrelated, statistics. Just because a man has a high batting average does not mean he is going to walk a lot.

The purpose of this paper is to look at combinations of statistics rather than just individual statistics. We will not be doing any detailed analysis to speak of, just looking at the statistics because they are fun. Before we go any further, a big tip of the cap to Lee Sinins, creator of the Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia, without which this paper would not be possible. Some statistics are from baseball-reference.com.

HIGH BATTING AVERAGE, LOW WALKS

Since we mentioned on-base percentage above, we will start off with players with more than 600 at-bats in a season who hit .300 or higher but had less than 20 walks. The batting average would be considered good, but the lack of walks could make the player less valuable than someone batting .270 with a more discerning batting eye. Through the 2003 season, there have only been five players with such seasons. One did it twice.

 

Player	Year	Team	AB	H	BB	AVG	OBP
Hi Myers	1922	BKN	618	196	13	.317	.331
Woody Jensen	1935	PIT	627	203	15	.324	.344
Frank McCormick	1938	CIN	640	209	18	.327	.348
Don Mueller	1955	NYG	605	185	19	.306	.326
Garry Templeton	1977	STL	621	200	15	.322	.336
Garry Templeton	1979	STL	672	211	18	.314	.331

 

Interestingly, over half of these occurrences are before the 1970s and all of them are before the 1980s, when players have often become criticized for being free swingers lacking discipline. One thing that is no surprise; most of these seasons came when the player was very young or in his first year as a regular player.

LOTS OF EACH KIND OF EXTRA-BASE HIT

In all of baseball history, only five players have had at least 20 doubles, 20 triples, and 20 home runs in the same season. No player did it more than once. These are George Brett, Jim Bottomley, Wildfire Schulte, Jeff Heath, and the greatest all-around baseball player of all time, Willie Mays.

Player	Year	Team	Age	2B	3B	HR
Wildfire Schulte	1911	CHI(N)	28	30	21	21
Jim Bottomley	1928	STL(N)	28	42	20	31
Jeff Heath	1941	CLE	26	32	20	24
Willie Mays	1957	NYG	26	26	20	35
George Brett	1979	KC	26	42	20	23

 

Not surprisingly, all five were relatively young at the time. Also not surprisingly, Willie Mays had the most home runs of the five.

This achievement is somewhat notable because one might presume that a player who hit over 20 home runs would often have outfielders playing fairly deeply, minimizing the chances of hitting a triple.

Two other players, Ryne Sandberg and Buck Freeman, came close to joining this esteemed group, with Freeman having what is probably the oddest set of numbers of this group of players.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	2B	3B	HR
Ryne Sandberg	1984	CHI(N)	24	36	19	19
Buck Freeman	1899	WAS	27	19	25	25

 

A few other players have done things similar to what Freeman did. Here are the players with less than 20 doubles and home runs, but at least 20 triples.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	2B	3B	HR
Buck Ewing	1884	NYG	24	15	20	3
Dick Johnston	1887	Braves	24	13	20	5
Joe Visner	1890	Burghers	30	15	22	3
Jocko Fields	1890	Burghers	25	18	20	9
Bid McPhee	1890	Reds	30	16	22	3
Jake Virtue	1892	Spiders	27	15	20	2
Duff Cooley	1895	Cardinals	22	9	20	7
Geo. Van Haltren	1896	Giants	30	18	21	5
Harry Davis	1897	Pirates	23	10	28	2
Tommy Leach	1902	PIT	24	14	22	6
Sam Crawford	1902	CIN	22	18	22	3
Chief Wilson	1912	PIT	28	19	36	11
Vic Saier	1913	CHI(N)	22	15	21	14
Jake Daubert	1922	CIN	38	15	22	12
Dale Mitchell	1949	CLE	27	16	23	3

 

Special note should be taken that Visner and Fields were teammates. Also, note that Cooley did not have even 10 doubles or home runs. Davis had 40 extra-base hits and 70% of them were triples. Not surprisingly, none of these are recent, with Mitchell the only one occurring in the past 80 years.

LOTS OF RBI AND FEW RUNS

Sometimes players, typically leadoff hitters, may score a lot of runs but not knock in many. An example of this would be 21-year-old Lloyd Waner, scoring 133 runs while knocking in only 27 for the 1927 Pirates. Usually, if a player knocks in a lot of runs, then he is likely to score a lot of runs as well. Three players in baseball history have finished a season with more than 100 RBI and fewer than 60 runs scored.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	R	RBI
Gus Bell	1959	CIN	30	59	115
Vic Wertz	1960	BOS	35	45	103
Danny Tartabull	1996	CHI(A)	33	58	101

 

These would certainly be cases of players doing a lot but not getting a lot of help from teammates. Though I do not know it, I would suspect these batters probably batted sixth for teams with weak bottoms of the order.

LOTS OF RBI AND NO HOME RUNS

Most of the time the people with a lot of runs batted in also have a large number of home runs. Several players have managed to have a lot of RBI yet not many home runs. The kings of this category are Hughie Jennings and Lave Cross.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	HR	RBI
Hughie Jennings	1896	BAL	27	0	121
Lave Cross	1902	PHI(A)	36	0	108

 

Five other players managed to knock in over 100 runs while hitting only one home run.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	HR	RBI
Farmer Vaughn	1893	Reds	29	1	108
Jack Doyle	1896	Orioles	26	1	101
Cupid Childs	1896	Spiders	28	1	106
Kid Gleason	1897	Giants	30	1	106
Bill Sweeney	1912	BOS	26	1	100

 

Vaughn deserves special mention since he was the only one of these seven to bat under .300. He hit only .280 on 135 hits yet still managed over 100 RBI. At the other end of that spectrum was Jennings, who batted .401 in 1896. Another interesting note is that Jennings and Doyle were teammates.

LOTS OF HOME RUNS AND FEW RBI

Turning our previous category around, let us now consider players who hit a lot of home runs but had comparatively few runs batted in. The following are the only players to have hit 40 or more home runs while knocking in fewer than 100 runs.

A couple of comments should be made about this list.

It should immediately be noted that, if not for the strike that ended the season early in 1994, Griffey and Williams would probably not be on the list. No team played more than 117 games that season.

Notice also that 1973 was the only year that Davey Johnson hit even 20 home runs. Petrocelli never topped 30 again and bested 20 only two other times.

Also, notice that Johnson and Aaron were teammates. This may give some indication of why these players are on the list. If a team has a lot of players hitting home runs, there are less likely to be men on base for others who hit home runs. In 1973, Johnson and Aaron were joined by Darrell Evans in hitting 40 or more home runs. Evans, though on this list for 1985, knocked in 104 runs in 1973. Notice that, in most cases, these players were teammates of other sluggers, minimizing RBI chances.

LOTS OF HOME RUNS BUT FEW DOUBLES

It is not unusual that players who hit a lot of home runs will also have a lot of doubles. Todd Helton and Albert Belle are good examples of this. Five players turned the unusual trick of having 50 or more home runs but less than 20 doubles.

 

Player	Year	Team	Age	2B	HR
Jim Thome	2002	CLE	31	19	52
Willie Mays	1955	NYG	24	18	51
Roger Maris	1961	NYY	26	16	61
Mickey Mantle	1961	NYY	29	16	54
Ralph Kiner	1949	PIT	26	19	54

 

Notable is the presence of a pair of teammates. Mantle and Maris shared more than their home run race in 1961.

It would be expected that these players would possibly be a little older, but Thome is the only one who was even 30 when he accomplished the feat. Most surprising of all would have to be Willie Mays. In 1955, Mays had 24 stolen bases (just one behind the league leader) and 13 triples (tied for the league lead). He was very fast but for some reason had only 18 doubles.

Mantle is the only other player among these who was ever noted for his speed, but by 1961 he was beginning to have problems with his knees.

Let us turn now to a few pitching statistics.

LOTS OF LOSSES BUT LOW ERA

Typically, a pitcher with an ERA below 2.00 is not going to lose a lot of ball games. Surprisingly, 15 times there have been pitchers with ERAs below 2.00 who lost 20 or more games.

 

Pitcher	Year	Team	Age	W	L	ERA
Jim Devlin	1876	Grays	27	30	35	1.56
Will White	1878	Red Stockings	23	30	21	1.79
Sam Weaver	1878	Cream Citys	22	12	31	1.95
Will White	1879	Red Stockings	24	43	31	1.99
Monte Ward	1880	Grays	20	39	24	1.74
Jim McCormick	1880	Blues	23	45	28	1.85
Tony Mullane	1882	Colonels	23	30	24	1.88
Guy Hecker	1884	Colonels	28	52	20	1.80
Pud Galvin	1884	Bisons	27	46	22	1.99
Silver King	1888	Cardinals	20	45	21	1.64
Harry Howell	1905	STL(A)	28	15	22	1.98
Kaiser Wilhelm	1908	BKN	34	16	22	1.87
Ed Walsh	1910	CHI(N)	29	18	20	1.27
Jim Scott	1913	CHI(N)	25	20	20	1.90
Walter Johnson	1916	WAS	28	25	20	1.90

 

Noteworthy is Will White’s repetition on the list. Notice also the presence of some fairly outstanding pitchers, particularly Pud Galvin, Ed Walsh, and Walter Johnson.

Certainly there is no surprise that these are all from a long time ago. Back in those days pitchers would start 50 or 60 games a season, not once every five or six days. This explains why a number of these pitchers won a substantial percentage of their games despite the 20+ losses. It is also back in the days when fielders’ gloves were poor or nonexistent. A pitcher might allow 10 or 12 runs with only one or two earned. Still, remark- able in all this is the 1.27 ERA that Ed Walsh had in 1910 and that he still finished below .500. Of course, it did not help that the White Sox had a team batting average of .211 that year.

LOTS OF WINS AND HIGH ERA

The obvious counterpart to the previous list is pitchers with 20 or more wins but ERAs over 5.00. A pitcher would have to be good to keep losing games yet keep being handed the ball. But when a pitcher’s ERA is over 5.00, he is not likely to stay in the rotation very long if the manager has any other choice. Neither is he likely to win a whole lot of games. Not surprisingly, there are not many on this list.

 

Pitcher	Year	Team	Age	W	L	ERA
Ray Kremer	1930	Pirates	37	20	12	5.02
Bobo Newsom	1938	Browns	30	20	16	5.07

 

Something unsurprising is that both pitchers were veterans, making their managers more likely to put up with the high ERA. Also, both earned some consideration since they did somehow manage to win more of their games than they lost. Kremer, remarkably, had a winning percentage of .625.

Also, keep in mind that 1930 was one of the years of incredible offensive production. That was the year of Hack Wilson’s 56 HRs and many other huge numbers. The Pirates had a team batting average of .303, helping to explain Kremer’s success.

In 1938, while the Browns did have a team batting average of .281, they finished with a record of 55-97. Apparently there weren’t a whole lot of options other than Newsom.

LOTS OF WINS AND SAVES

We will conclude with our only career statistic consideration. This one is basically in honor of Dennis Eckersley on the occasion of his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “Eck” is the only pitcher in history to have more than 150 wins and saves. However, if John Smoltz continues pitching out of the bullpen with the success he has had recently, he will join Eckersley in either 2004 or 2005. Fifteen players have had at least 100 of each.

Sparky Lyle finished his career with 238 saves and 99 wins, just missing being included on our list.

Each pitcher won 13 or more games at least once. All except for Fingers, Miller, Kline, and Gossage won 15 at least once. All except for Reed had at least 20 saves at least once. Marberry is the only other who didn’t record at least 27 at least once.

John Smoltz is the only one on the list with more than half of his appearances as a starter. Considering his age, it is possible that will stay that way. Another point about Smoltz is that, thus far, there are only three seasons in which he has recorded a save, and one of those he had only 10.

One thing that this chart illustrates is the differing role of “closers” over the years. Commenting on Eckersley’s Hall of Fame election, Rollie Fingers talked about the changes during his career. Closers used to pitch two or three innings in a game. Now they typically pitch one inning. Starters used to finish large percentages of their games; now their job is to get through six or seven innings effectively. That would explain the comparatively high number of wins compared to saves for Wilhelm, McDaniel, Fingers, and Marberry.

CONCLUSION

Obviously there are many more comparisons that could be considered. These are just a few of the ones.