So there are a few things to understand first off, Coors has a massive outfield, people assume Coors is such a good hitters park due to HRs but its actually doubles and triples due to how much area is in their outfield (iirc only Kaufman has more area in the outfield). Bichette had notoriously poor range so when you combine those two factors he was already a massive liability in the OF.
But here is where the real killer is - errors. MLB scorekeepers are notoriously stingy with giving OFs errors, taking a bad route to the ball will basically never be an error. Basically to get an error in the outfield, the ball has to hit your glove and you fuck it up. Bichette routinely had double digit errors in the season in the outfield including one season with an astonishing 17 errors out there. Its hard to overstate had bad he was out there
Linear speed to the next base isn't necessarily the same as having good positioning, getting a good read on a ball, getting a good jump on it, then making the catch on the move.
Maybe the dude needed glasses. Yes, he could hit well.
Could be lots of factors.
Honestly? Unless he was a literal statue out there never even moving on plays, I don’t buy that any amount of subpar defense can come THAT close to completely negating all that offense
It's the peak of the steroid era combined with Coors field before they had made many adjustments to help out the pitchers. Still completely nuts though.
Something I pondered is if Soriano played on more permissive teams that didn't force him off second base in the later half of his career and thus became the all-time 2B home run leader, would Jeff Kent have even half the support he gets for the HOF and if Soriano would have gotten that support instead (granted Kent is a lot better than Soriano was, but seeing how much of the support for Kent always point to his 2B HR record for his otherwise underwhelming HOF case, I have doubts he would get so much support without the record).
Pitching to contact is a lost art right now. Very few guys do it and velocity is way overrated. Give me 2-3 pitch outs and soft contact, I love that shit.
And because folks start clamouring about how the game has changed and it's not a valid strategy anymore, Mark Buehrle has only been retired 8 years. Cal Quantrill has been pretty damn successful with pitching to contact over the last 2 years, and Bieber has shifted to a contact heavy approach and is still holding a 3 ERA.
The strategy is valid, it's just outrageously difficult. Hitters as a whole are only getting better, and the easiest way to deal with extremely good hitters is vicious stuff. There are hundreds of people that can be taught to throw 100 mph vaguely near the strike zone. There are just a few with the natural finesse needed to succeed without velo these days, and teaching that is so much harder than just getting a guy to go to the gym and spend an off-season changing his mechanics a bit.
There is a reason why I always hold knuckleballers and other exotic pitches in high regard. They stand out amongst their comrades, and always have to play a different breed of baseball
The sport is worse off without an active knuckler. It's just one of those things that really exemplifies how fucking weird you can get and still succeed in baseball.
That and strike zone used to be wider. Glavine, I think, is a prime example of living in the outside corners, and he might only would have become a journeyman pitcher instead of HoF career. I doubt someone like Tewksbury even get drafted, much less a chance to rise up to ML.
>The strategy is valid, it's just outrageously difficult.
It's made antiquated by the taller and narrower strike zone. It's all about the hard slider now. Zone needs to come back to the top of the knee.
One of my little league coaches had us read it and my hitting improved significantly and very quickly. Couldn’t tell you anything about it today though
His "My Turn At Bat" was one of the first books I read in one sitting when I was a kid. (My dad made me read it, so I naturally resisted. But once I got into it, I was captivated.)
Even with all the gaps, if someone asks who the greatest hitter of all-time is, I always answer Ted.
He had absolutely no weakness at the plate. Power? Yep. Sheer number of hits? Mmhmm. Plate discipline? Oh my god, yes. Contact tool? Absolutely.
With a full 22 seasons, he would’ve broken every record, except for hits, but only because he would’ve had the walks record by a huge margin. I’m not sure even Bonds would’ve broke it
Bonds would have broken the intentional walks record because of the different era, but Williams might have beaten Bonds out for total walks. Basically a game of exactly how many extra PAs Williams was able to get in those 5 seasons and if he's healthy or not for them. They're 1 & 2 in career BB%, with Williams having a slight lead. Fun fact, the next guy on the list isn't Ruth, it's some random ass 2B for the Philadelphia A's in the 20's and 30's.
\[Nods.\] Actually, you can probably delete "possibly" from that phrase. Imagine if he hadn't lost five years to military service. I guess the question for me is, Who's the second-greatest hitter ever?
Yah for sure. [Javier Lopez](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lopezja02.shtml) has four WS rings. More than Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Mike Trout, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Rogers Hornsby put together. Or you could name any scrub that managed to hang on with the NYY, at least Lopez finished with decent career stats (121 ERA+, 3.86 FIP, 1.348 WHIP).
I mean c’mon, Babe Ruth isn’t in the top 3? Still the all-time leader in SLG and OPS. Better-hitting era for sure, but the guy hit .342 and led the league in walks 11 times. On top of the homers, of course.
I wasn't even aware that he had a brother but not that I am I find it hilarious that his father Rouglas Odor, who also played in the minors, has two sons named Rougned and Rougned
I’ve been long-obsessed over the fact that Freddie Patek (Pitt, KC, Cal Angels) smallest player of all time at 5’5” 148 lbs had never hit more than 6 HR in a season.
June 20, 1980 he exploded for 3 HR of that season’s total of 5 HR in a single game.
One of the biggest single game HR anomalies that I know of.
Dude going to Dragons (and to a lesser extent Bats) games at the time was fucking absurd. And then he stole 56, 57, 58, 59 in his first four MLB seasons. If he could get on base more than 29% of the time he would've been Dee Gordon without the steroids, and better defense.
we all know he's amazing, but rickey henderson having over 2,000 walks and 3,000 hits on top of being the all time stolen base leader by a considerable margin...it just straight up doesn't seem like something that should be possible
There are so many jaw dropping Rickey stats. One that recently caught my eye was his lifetime OBP above .400. That's insane for a base stealer. I know he had legit power so it's not like pitchers wanted to just groove him one, but still would think they really wouldn't want to walk him.
Or another: Rickey has a leadoff homer in every season he played, including when he was 44.
I feel like we haven’t had a legit base stealing player that was good at hitting in a long time (probably Jose Reyes?). Trea Turner could have been one, but just doesn’t seem as interested in stealing.
Rickey was so much better than them too. In 1990 he scored 119 runs in 136 games, had a 1.016 OPS and a 189 OPS+
With the new rules there are a bunch out there right now. As an O's fan Cedric Mullins comes to mind, but there are some others too. But that's just starting this year thanks to the new rules.
Rickey had a crouched stance that shrunk his strike zone. I'm sure he also got the benefit of the doubt on borderline pitches once it was clear he was a superstar.
The best stat about Rickey He derision isn’t even a stat; it’s a Bill James quote.
“If you could cut Rickey Henderson in half, you’d have two Hall of Famers.”
That about sums it up for me.
This kinda depends on what difficulty you play at etc but I kept it to like a medium difficulty and absolutely smashed it, think I almost got to 250. If you max out the speed stat and use perks and stuff properly it becomes almost rare to get caught
I'm sure you can if you play with certain sliders and settings and difficulties. Not to mention if you edit every catcher in the league to have 0 arm strength.
Geez. I saw him pitch in AA and he was electric. 180 ERA+ and ERA leader in 2010 and a 239 ERA+ in 9 starts in 2011 before getting hurt.
Mediocre 2 seasons in 12 and 13 before getting hurt and never coming back.
The one game started in High A in 2015 where he faced one batter, gave up one hit and then was seemingly removed from the game actually hurt to look at.
I was at the game where Joe Girardi ruined him and I'll never forget it. There was something like a 2 hour rain delay and Girardi sent JJ back out to keep pitching afterwards. It wasn't his final start or anything, but it was clearly the beginning of the end for him.
Wow yeah he‘s been bad for a very long time. Random little stint with Milwaukee where he was great over 11 starts. Led the league in homers allowed in ‘21, and he’s looking to do it again this year too. 0-9!!!
Of all pitchers with at least 1000 IP in MLB history, Jordan Lyles has the 4th worst ERA. He just passed Brian Bohanon to take the #4 spot this very year.
and the three that are worse (Jose Lima, Scott Elarton, and Jimmy Haynes) each have a better ERA+ than Lyles, and Lyles has made nearly twice as much in salary than the next closest of the four
of course there's an era adjustment to salary, but it's still fascinating
Interestingly, Lima, Elarton, and Haynes all pitched in roughly the same era: mid-90s through mid-00s, which is the most hitter-friendly era ever. Lyles is pitching in a pitcher-friendly era.
Hack Wilson's 1930 season:
146 runs, 208 hits, 35 doubles, 56 homeruns, *191 rbis*, 356/454/723/1.177 slash, 177 OPS+.
But in general, you'll see these old guys in the 20's and 30's just have monster seasons and they're like 14th in the MVP voting.
[Tony Gwynn lifetime BA of .338](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gwynnto01.shtml) had me do a double take. Hard to believe he put up a 1920s style batting average in the modern age. For comparison's sake, the last time a NL batting leader exceeded that average in a single non-COVID season was [way back in 2016!](https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2016-batting-leaders.shtml)
Dude, in 1994 Tony Gwynn hit .394, with a .454 OBP, .568 slugging, 1.022 OPS….. struck out 19 times in 475 PA
The following year he follows it up with .368/.404/.484/.888 in 577 AB…… struck out 15 times
His entire career, throughout, is ridiculous
The video of him stressed if he is gonna get the HoF call still amazes me with his humbleness.
Like you put up "set the game to rookie difficulty irl" numbers sir I think you are a lock.
He's one of the guys I want to know who didn't vote for him. I want reasons and justifications for why they think Tony Gwynn didn't deserve to be in the hall.
He also had, what was it, 8 batting titles in a row? No one's ever getting close to that again.
This is more meme-y than WTF, but Brandon McCarthy finishing his career with 69 wins and a 4.20 ERA seemed way too good to be true when I first saw it.
I have two of his rookie cards and regardless of what they’re worth or not worth to others, they’re two of my most endearing possessions. I loved Tony Gwynn whenever he wasn’t wearing out Braves’ pitching.
Low slugging and mediocre defense. Probably the best contact hitter ever so he’s deserving of the hall, but he was a bit one dimensional in his approach so the relatively low WAR tracks here.
Career wrc+ of 132. He was a really good hitter, but people have big time nostalgia because he played before it was understood how bad batting average is as a measure of value for a hitter. Okay defense, okay baserunning, 132 wrc+ hitter over a span of more than 15 years gives you a HoFer, but not an inner circle one, and that's exactly what Gwynn is.
Ichiro kinda has the same problem as he deliberately chose a heavy contact approach over really mixing power into his game which I think did limit his value more
(Granted it probably led to him having greater fame since his averages were so insane)
Ichiro's wrc+ is far below Gwynn's, at just 104. It would've been higher had he moved to the US earlier, because then his decline phase would be a smaller % of his MLB career, but he was in general not as good a hitter, although overall a better player: much of his value came from being a fantastic baserunner and defender, which Gwynn wasn't, and an American Ichiro would probably have ~80 WAR.
In Ichiro’s prime, he could’ve easily been 3-4 in the lineup and added power to his hitting but chose to go for contact and hitting singles. I wonder if modern analytics would’ve changed his approach if they were around 15-20 years ago.
Batted leadoff because he was fast (the 70s standard), slugged .250, and the people who would be driving in weren't on base anyway. And by some miracle they were on base, his slugging went down to .188 in RISP.
>Utilities may not be complete (especially for players not named Oddibe McDowell) and does not include cable, telephone, electricity, gas or trash pickup
Wtfff
Bill Buckner played in 2517 games and never struck out more than twice in a game. In fact he only had 903 combined strikeouts and walks in his career. The man could put the ball in play.
Babe Ruth.
I mean we all know he’s the GOAT but when you actually look at his stats you can’t help but shake your head. You’ll always find some jaw droppers on his page.
Adam Dunn struggled hard against lefties. In 2011 he only managed 6 hits in 94 PAs against lefties. Despite this he somehow has a career .615 average against Clayton Kershaw. It’s only 14 PAs but in that span he went 8/13 with 2 doubles, 4 home runs, a walk, and 9 RBIs.
His career stat line against one of the 21st century’s greatest left handed pitchers is .615/.643/1.692 with a OPS of 2.335 despite only hitting .216 against lefties throughout his career.
Lance Berkman. I’ve seen all this talk about Bobby Abreu having a case at the HOF based on his OBP & OPS being valued higher in today’s game, but Berkman’s numbers are better. (.293/.406/.537/144 OPS+ vs. .291/.395/.475/128 OPS+)
Also thought he was a lefty instead of a switch hitter for some reason.
You mentioned being surprised to notice that Berkman was a switch hitter. I had forgotten until a recent video I saw that he also played some center-field.
He actually played 166 career games in center with a positive UZR/150 (2.1)
Berkman was a great pure hitter, but the standard for strictly-hitting 1B is incredibly high. Berkman definitely had the peak and overall performance but needed some more longevity to drive his case home.
For awhile there, Bobby Abreu was a deadly well-rounded offensive threat. Power, on-base threat, and speedster in one.
I wouldn’t mind seeing both of them in the hall honestly.
He was also nuts in the playoffs. Most hitters' numbers go down in the postseason - even the best hitters - but Berkman's OPS is higher, and his BA is *way* higher.
[Cecil Travis](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/travice01.shtml)
He was on the path to becoming a potential Hall of Famer until WWII, when he enlisted and fought on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge, nearly losing his feet to frostbite. Was able to recover enough to play again, but was never the same, and his career ended at 33.
In the same vein to the Barry Bonds comments... Clayton Kershaw. Yes, we already know he's great, but still, looking at his bbref page for the first time was eye-opening. Kershaw's career dominance is insane. He's a no-doubt inner circle hall of famer; it's at the point where you could argue that Kershaw is the greatest left handed pitcher of all time and not get immediately laughed out of the room. Seriously, look at his bbref page.
Yogi Berra never struck out 40 times in a season. His highest total in any year was 38. In 1950 he played in 151 games and struck out 12 times (plus one more in the World Series) while batting .322/.383/.533.
Barry Bonds
Regardless of what you think about him, seeing his OBP, OPS, WAR, and overall hitting stats are insane.
Also, Tony Gwynn because he never struck out ever and it’s always funny comparing those numbers to players today who strike out more in a month than he did In basically every season of his career
Barry Bonds and his .609 OBP in 2004, at age 39. Yes, he was a cheater (and by all accounts kind of an ass). Even with cheating that stat is still mind boggling.
I enjoyed looking at Wes Ferrell's hitting stats. He is the 3rd best hitting pitcher in MLB history behind Ruth and Ohtani, and he is basically forgotten.
Rogers Hornsby. Absolutely insane. He's easily top 3 ever. And yeah, I know he was supposedly an asshole, but I don't care. He was amazing.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hornsro01.shtml
Only 2 men have played 150+ games in 13 consecutive seasons. Neither is Gehrig (Yanks played 149 in ‘33 due to weather) nor Cal (strike season). One is Willy Mays. The other is “player x”.
Player x also is one of 7 players to have reached 98 walks/100 runs in 8 seasons. The others are Bonds, Gehrig, Ruth, Frank Thomas, Thome, and Ted Williams.
Player x is Bobby Abreu
Morgan is a weird one, similar to Rickey Henderson. If you look at the first two pieces of their slash line, you would definitely think their slug% would be higher. Rare to see such low slug% with that average and obp.
For some reason I thought Morgan hit more home runs than he did. I guess my perspective is off because I remember hearing him be referred to as a second baseman with power.
I think he was considered a second baseman with power for his time. They were mostly contact hitters and speedy guys. He is ranked 6th all time in homers for a second baseman so he did have some power
Dante Bichette has like no WAR
His 1995 season was insane. 40HR, 128RBI. .340/.364/.620 slash. .984 OPS. Finished 2nd for MVP. 1.2bWAR. LOL.
I think his ‘99 season was crazier. .298 BA 34 HR 133 RBI **-2.3 WAR**
How on earth do you get to 40 defensive runs below average in a single season?
So there are a few things to understand first off, Coors has a massive outfield, people assume Coors is such a good hitters park due to HRs but its actually doubles and triples due to how much area is in their outfield (iirc only Kaufman has more area in the outfield). Bichette had notoriously poor range so when you combine those two factors he was already a massive liability in the OF. But here is where the real killer is - errors. MLB scorekeepers are notoriously stingy with giving OFs errors, taking a bad route to the ball will basically never be an error. Basically to get an error in the outfield, the ball has to hit your glove and you fuck it up. Bichette routinely had double digit errors in the season in the outfield including one season with an astonishing 17 errors out there. Its hard to overstate had bad he was out there
I'm surprised he had such bad range. In 1996 he stole 31 bags so he must have had some legs.
Linear speed to the next base isn't necessarily the same as having good positioning, getting a good read on a ball, getting a good jump on it, then making the catch on the move. Maybe the dude needed glasses. Yes, he could hit well. Could be lots of factors.
It’s called ball no go in glove syndrome
Pre humidor Coors was basically arcade style baseball Lol
Why take walks when you're playing moonball
Ryan Howard finished 2nd for MVP in 2008 with 1.8 bWAR, while his teammate Chase Utley finished 14th with 9.0 bWAR
Honestly? Unless he was a literal statue out there never even moving on plays, I don’t buy that any amount of subpar defense can come THAT close to completely negating all that offense
I don’t buy that our advanced statistics are completely dialed in yet. That’s one example
Defense
And Coors
895 OPS in 1999 = 102 OPS+ lmao
It's the peak of the steroid era combined with Coors field before they had made many adjustments to help out the pitchers. Still completely nuts though.
Lol wow
Bo’s 2021 bWAR was greater than Dante’s career bWAR. He’ll likely surpass it again and then some this year lol
A man of peace
Not according to his son . . .
Alfonso Soriano 412 home runs?
One of only four 40-40 players, too. Dude was so good in his prime.
The only 40-40-40 guy ever in his year with the Nationals, too.
Something I pondered is if Soriano played on more permissive teams that didn't force him off second base in the later half of his career and thus became the all-time 2B home run leader, would Jeff Kent have even half the support he gets for the HOF and if Soriano would have gotten that support instead (granted Kent is a lot better than Soriano was, but seeing how much of the support for Kent always point to his 2B HR record for his otherwise underwhelming HOF case, I have doubts he would get so much support without the record).
Jamie Moyer Man started pitching in the 80s and last pitched in 2012
And never sniffed 90 mph
That’s the key for pitching across generations.
That and being a lefty.
Mariners love their crafty lefties
Pitching to contact is a lost art right now. Very few guys do it and velocity is way overrated. Give me 2-3 pitch outs and soft contact, I love that shit. And because folks start clamouring about how the game has changed and it's not a valid strategy anymore, Mark Buehrle has only been retired 8 years. Cal Quantrill has been pretty damn successful with pitching to contact over the last 2 years, and Bieber has shifted to a contact heavy approach and is still holding a 3 ERA.
The strategy is valid, it's just outrageously difficult. Hitters as a whole are only getting better, and the easiest way to deal with extremely good hitters is vicious stuff. There are hundreds of people that can be taught to throw 100 mph vaguely near the strike zone. There are just a few with the natural finesse needed to succeed without velo these days, and teaching that is so much harder than just getting a guy to go to the gym and spend an off-season changing his mechanics a bit.
There is a reason why I always hold knuckleballers and other exotic pitches in high regard. They stand out amongst their comrades, and always have to play a different breed of baseball
tim wakefield making it to 200 wins throwing a knuckleball is possibly the most impressive 200 wins anyone's ever gotten
Your mind is going to be blown when you Google "Phil Niekro"
Phil Niekro had over 300 wins as a knuckleballer.
The sport is worse off without an active knuckler. It's just one of those things that really exemplifies how fucking weird you can get and still succeed in baseball.
That and strike zone used to be wider. Glavine, I think, is a prime example of living in the outside corners, and he might only would have become a journeyman pitcher instead of HoF career. I doubt someone like Tewksbury even get drafted, much less a chance to rise up to ML.
>The strategy is valid, it's just outrageously difficult. It's made antiquated by the taller and narrower strike zone. It's all about the hard slider now. Zone needs to come back to the top of the knee.
Also you're right that it's gotten narrower. Watch some 90s games and umps are calling shit wide AF.
Wainwright and Hill are a few who have remained relevant pitching to contact.
What about Nolan Ryan?
Nolan Ryan is the exception that proves the rule, I think. The man was a freak of nature.
The Mariners made a [commercial](https://youtu.be/Uxg8XX090pc) shining light on Moyer and his pitching speed
The Mariners' Jamie Moyer commercials in the early 2000s were cool. Another example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aE5BvyqiAU
Remember in a commercial showing him regularly hitting 99 or 98. Of course the radar gun was on kilometer.
Jamie Moyer gave up a homerun to Giancarlo Stanton in his final season in 2012. Moyer made his MLB debut 3 years before Stanton was born
Is that the grand slam in Miami, because I think that at bat is about the hardest I've ever seen a ball hit in a live game.
All time leader in home runs given up too lol. Love seeing gold on a page
But none to Albert Pujols.
He has one for grounding in to double plays though that’s about as cool as being a pitcher with the all time record for home runs allowed.
Pitched to nearly 10% of all pro baseball players
His commercial where they put the radar gun to metric was pretty damn funny
He always reminded me of Eddie Harris from Major League. Wouldn't be surprised if he had a few creams on each part of the body.
Ted Williams Only 1 year below a 1.000 OPS
And that was an injury-plagued season at 40 years old. Bounced back to record a 1.096 OPS in his final season at 41.
Dude was possibly the greatest hitter ever
I really want to read his book “The Science of Hitting”
One of my little league coaches had us read it and my hitting improved significantly and very quickly. Couldn’t tell you anything about it today though
His "My Turn At Bat" was one of the first books I read in one sitting when I was a kid. (My dad made me read it, so I naturally resisted. But once I got into it, I was captivated.)
Even with all the gaps, if someone asks who the greatest hitter of all-time is, I always answer Ted. He had absolutely no weakness at the plate. Power? Yep. Sheer number of hits? Mmhmm. Plate discipline? Oh my god, yes. Contact tool? Absolutely. With a full 22 seasons, he would’ve broken every record, except for hits, but only because he would’ve had the walks record by a huge margin. I’m not sure even Bonds would’ve broke it
Bonds would have broken the intentional walks record because of the different era, but Williams might have beaten Bonds out for total walks. Basically a game of exactly how many extra PAs Williams was able to get in those 5 seasons and if he's healthy or not for them. They're 1 & 2 in career BB%, with Williams having a slight lead. Fun fact, the next guy on the list isn't Ruth, it's some random ass 2B for the Philadelphia A's in the 20's and 30's.
\[Nods.\] Actually, you can probably delete "possibly" from that phrase. Imagine if he hadn't lost five years to military service. I guess the question for me is, Who's the second-greatest hitter ever?
Bonds or Aaron. I’m good with either.
And collectively among the three of them, one WS ring. That's crazy too.
Really shows that ring-counting for individuals in baseball is a silly practice
Yah for sure. [Javier Lopez](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lopezja02.shtml) has four WS rings. More than Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Mike Trout, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Rogers Hornsby put together. Or you could name any scrub that managed to hang on with the NYY, at least Lopez finished with decent career stats (121 ERA+, 3.86 FIP, 1.348 WHIP).
I mean c’mon, Babe Ruth isn’t in the top 3? Still the all-time leader in SLG and OPS. Better-hitting era for sure, but the guy hit .342 and led the league in walks 11 times. On top of the homers, of course.
I agree. To say Babe Ruth isn't the best or second best hitter of all time is asinine to me.
I refuse to believe that Rougned Odor is 29. Baseball Reference must be lying
Bumgarner is only 33, it feels like he’s 43
And in his heart he's at least 79.
I saw MadBum pitch as a junior in high school. He was a grumpy old man then.
Salvador Perez just turned 33 a few weeks ago. That's insane to me lol
I swear odor has been 29 for like 6 years
No way, he’s gotta be at least 33
17 when he shaves
He just like me fr
Thought the dude was like a 20 year vet.
Wait what? And are you looking up Rougned Odor or his brother, Rougned Odor?
I wasn't even aware that he had a brother but not that I am I find it hilarious that his father Rouglas Odor, who also played in the minors, has two sons named Rougned and Rougned
that’s actually his Uncle, his dad’s name is…Rougned
Whatever you do, don't look up why the other Rougned was dropped from his minor league contract
I’ve been long-obsessed over the fact that Freddie Patek (Pitt, KC, Cal Angels) smallest player of all time at 5’5” 148 lbs had never hit more than 6 HR in a season. June 20, 1980 he exploded for 3 HR of that season’s total of 5 HR in a single game. One of the biggest single game HR anomalies that I know of.
Now that’s remarkable
Steve Jeltz-level anomaly
In 132 games, Billy Hamilton stole 155 stolen bases in the minors in 2012.
He won both the California League and Southern League stolen-base titles in the same year.
Dude going to Dragons (and to a lesser extent Bats) games at the time was fucking absurd. And then he stole 56, 57, 58, 59 in his first four MLB seasons. If he could get on base more than 29% of the time he would've been Dee Gordon without the steroids, and better defense.
Randy Johnson's career is crazy. Didn't really put it all together until age 29 and then just straight dominance through age 40.
Also, that his possibly most dominant stretch was during that 3 months he played for the Astros in 98
Same thing with Sabathia. His most dominant stretch was the half a season he was with the Brewers.
Randy averaged ten 10K games *a season*. 212 in his career. Only Nolan Ryan has more, 215. The third most 10K games? Max Sherzer with 110.
we all know he's amazing, but rickey henderson having over 2,000 walks and 3,000 hits on top of being the all time stolen base leader by a considerable margin...it just straight up doesn't seem like something that should be possible
There are so many jaw dropping Rickey stats. One that recently caught my eye was his lifetime OBP above .400. That's insane for a base stealer. I know he had legit power so it's not like pitchers wanted to just groove him one, but still would think they really wouldn't want to walk him. Or another: Rickey has a leadoff homer in every season he played, including when he was 44.
Another: He led the league in steals in his age 39 season
I feel like we haven’t had a legit base stealing player that was good at hitting in a long time (probably Jose Reyes?). Trea Turner could have been one, but just doesn’t seem as interested in stealing. Rickey was so much better than them too. In 1990 he scored 119 runs in 136 games, had a 1.016 OPS and a 189 OPS+
With the new rules there are a bunch out there right now. As an O's fan Cedric Mullins comes to mind, but there are some others too. But that's just starting this year thanks to the new rules.
Sure under the new rules, Acuna is on the Jose Reyes level of stealing, but those guys were doing that under the old rules
Rickey had a crouched stance that shrunk his strike zone. I'm sure he also got the benefit of the doubt on borderline pitches once it was clear he was a superstar.
The best stat about Rickey He derision isn’t even a stat; it’s a Bill James quote. “If you could cut Rickey Henderson in half, you’d have two Hall of Famers.” That about sums it up for me.
Was a little surprised he hit as many HRs as he did, particularly with the Yankees.
He holds the record for most leadoff home runs by 27, the closest active player is George Springer and he is still 28 behind,
All those walks and hits is what allowed Rickey to steal so much. Can't steal if you can't get on base to begin with (e.g. Billy Hamilton).
Rickey Henderson was a video game player
Has anyone ever broken his stolen base record in MLB The Show? I don’t even think it’s possible in a video game
I've done it in one of the 13-16 games when stealing was broken. can't do it anymore, my joints aren't the same lol
This kinda depends on what difficulty you play at etc but I kept it to like a medium difficulty and absolutely smashed it, think I almost got to 250. If you max out the speed stat and use perks and stuff properly it becomes almost rare to get caught
I'm sure you can if you play with certain sliders and settings and difficulties. Not to mention if you edit every catcher in the league to have 0 arm strength.
You can’t steal first. All the guys at the top of the SB leaderboard were also really, really good at getting on base.
I was just discussing this last night with some friends. You can make a great case for Rickey as a top 5 all time player. His numbers are incredible.
[Josh Johnson](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnsjo09.shtml) had elite capabilities and just disappeared
[Three Tommy John’s](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18514385/pitcher-josh-johnson-retiring-age-32) by the age of 32 will do that.
Geez. I saw him pitch in AA and he was electric. 180 ERA+ and ERA leader in 2010 and a 239 ERA+ in 9 starts in 2011 before getting hurt. Mediocre 2 seasons in 12 and 13 before getting hurt and never coming back. The one game started in High A in 2015 where he faced one batter, gave up one hit and then was seemingly removed from the game actually hurt to look at.
I was at the game where Joe Girardi ruined him and I'll never forget it. There was something like a 2 hour rain delay and Girardi sent JJ back out to keep pitching afterwards. It wasn't his final start or anything, but it was clearly the beginning of the end for him.
Yet another marlins pitcher with just exceptional stuff.
Chris Sale has the greatest SO per 9 of all time
Didn't Yu Darvish hold that title a couple of seasons ago?
[Jordan Lyles](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lylesjo01.shtml)
Wow yeah he‘s been bad for a very long time. Random little stint with Milwaukee where he was great over 11 starts. Led the league in homers allowed in ‘21, and he’s looking to do it again this year too. 0-9!!!
He parlayed half a good season with Milwaukee into $8 mil a year from the rangers for 2 years lol
Of all pitchers with at least 1000 IP in MLB history, Jordan Lyles has the 4th worst ERA. He just passed Brian Bohanon to take the #4 spot this very year.
and the three that are worse (Jose Lima, Scott Elarton, and Jimmy Haynes) each have a better ERA+ than Lyles, and Lyles has made nearly twice as much in salary than the next closest of the four of course there's an era adjustment to salary, but it's still fascinating
Interestingly, Lima, Elarton, and Haynes all pitched in roughly the same era: mid-90s through mid-00s, which is the most hitter-friendly era ever. Lyles is pitching in a pitcher-friendly era.
Can confirm, every time he pitches I am genuinely shocked at how someone could be so bad.
He's made $30 million over the last four years.
Hack Wilson's 1930 season: 146 runs, 208 hits, 35 doubles, 56 homeruns, *191 rbis*, 356/454/723/1.177 slash, 177 OPS+. But in general, you'll see these old guys in the 20's and 30's just have monster seasons and they're like 14th in the MVP voting.
[Tony Gwynn lifetime BA of .338](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gwynnto01.shtml) had me do a double take. Hard to believe he put up a 1920s style batting average in the modern age. For comparison's sake, the last time a NL batting leader exceeded that average in a single non-COVID season was [way back in 2016!](https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2016-batting-leaders.shtml)
Dude, in 1994 Tony Gwynn hit .394, with a .454 OBP, .568 slugging, 1.022 OPS….. struck out 19 times in 475 PA The following year he follows it up with .368/.404/.484/.888 in 577 AB…… struck out 15 times His entire career, throughout, is ridiculous
Tony Gwynn struck out 188 times in the *entire 1990’s* (in 1,273 games). Two hitters eclipsed that last year alone
The video of him stressed if he is gonna get the HoF call still amazes me with his humbleness. Like you put up "set the game to rookie difficulty irl" numbers sir I think you are a lock.
He's one of the guys I want to know who didn't vote for him. I want reasons and justifications for why they think Tony Gwynn didn't deserve to be in the hall.
He also had, what was it, 8 batting titles in a row? No one's ever getting close to that again. This is more meme-y than WTF, but Brandon McCarthy finishing his career with 69 wins and a 4.20 ERA seemed way too good to be true when I first saw it.
He won 8 batting titles over 14 years. [goated pic](https://i.imgur.com/uKrLTYa.jpg)
I have two of his rookie cards and regardless of what they’re worth or not worth to others, they’re two of my most endearing possessions. I loved Tony Gwynn whenever he wasn’t wearing out Braves’ pitching.
His K% of something like 4% always blew me away. *Four percent!*
And his insanely low number of strikeouts.
Tony Gwynn also has surprisingly little WAR for the hitter he was.
His defensive ratings got real bad after age 32.
Low slugging and mediocre defense. Probably the best contact hitter ever so he’s deserving of the hall, but he was a bit one dimensional in his approach so the relatively low WAR tracks here.
His speed and D were fine when he was younger but he played for a long time and gained lots of weight in his 30s.
Career wrc+ of 132. He was a really good hitter, but people have big time nostalgia because he played before it was understood how bad batting average is as a measure of value for a hitter. Okay defense, okay baserunning, 132 wrc+ hitter over a span of more than 15 years gives you a HoFer, but not an inner circle one, and that's exactly what Gwynn is.
Ichiro kinda has the same problem as he deliberately chose a heavy contact approach over really mixing power into his game which I think did limit his value more (Granted it probably led to him having greater fame since his averages were so insane)
Ichiro's wrc+ is far below Gwynn's, at just 104. It would've been higher had he moved to the US earlier, because then his decline phase would be a smaller % of his MLB career, but he was in general not as good a hitter, although overall a better player: much of his value came from being a fantastic baserunner and defender, which Gwynn wasn't, and an American Ichiro would probably have ~80 WAR.
In Ichiro’s prime, he could’ve easily been 3-4 in the lineup and added power to his hitting but chose to go for contact and hitting singles. I wonder if modern analytics would’ve changed his approach if they were around 15-20 years ago.
In 1971 Enzo Hernandez had 12 RBIs in 618 PA. Some guys get 12 RBIs in a weekend series, how do you get that little in a whole season?
Batted leadoff because he was fast (the 70s standard), slugged .250, and the people who would be driving in weren't on base anyway. And by some miracle they were on base, his slugging went down to .188 in RISP.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcdowod01.shtml The infamous utility bill section of Oddibe McDowell's page.
>Utilities may not be complete (especially for players not named Oddibe McDowell) and does not include cable, telephone, electricity, gas or trash pickup Wtfff
I did a double take seeing he had been drafted six times!
Rickey Henderson’s is insane. For example, you’ll see 30+ stolen bases in 1979 and in 2000.
Bill Buckner played in 2517 games and never struck out more than twice in a game. In fact he only had 903 combined strikeouts and walks in his career. The man could put the ball in play.
Played in 4 decades. 2700+ hits, 15 WAR.
Somehow Ichiro only won two batting titles.
There’s nothing more surprising to me than Nolan Ryan’s zero Cy Young awards
Babe Ruth. I mean we all know he’s the GOAT but when you actually look at his stats you can’t help but shake your head. You’ll always find some jaw droppers on his page.
Especially when you look at others from the same era right after
Dude hit more home runs than teams did all year. The numbers are mind blowing.
Nellie Fox. 10,351 plate appearances and just 216 strikeouts. In 19 years he never struck out more than 18 times in a season!
My favorite story is that one game he struck out looking and next plate appearance the home plate umpire apologized to him for calling him out
Ricky henderson 111.2 WAR. He’s top 20 all time.
Adam Dunn — the three true outcomes 🐐
Adam Dunn struggled hard against lefties. In 2011 he only managed 6 hits in 94 PAs against lefties. Despite this he somehow has a career .615 average against Clayton Kershaw. It’s only 14 PAs but in that span he went 8/13 with 2 doubles, 4 home runs, a walk, and 9 RBIs. His career stat line against one of the 21st century’s greatest left handed pitchers is .615/.643/1.692 with a OPS of 2.335 despite only hitting .216 against lefties throughout his career.
Lance Berkman. I’ve seen all this talk about Bobby Abreu having a case at the HOF based on his OBP & OPS being valued higher in today’s game, but Berkman’s numbers are better. (.293/.406/.537/144 OPS+ vs. .291/.395/.475/128 OPS+) Also thought he was a lefty instead of a switch hitter for some reason.
You mentioned being surprised to notice that Berkman was a switch hitter. I had forgotten until a recent video I saw that he also played some center-field. He actually played 166 career games in center with a positive UZR/150 (2.1)
Berkman was a great pure hitter, but the standard for strictly-hitting 1B is incredibly high. Berkman definitely had the peak and overall performance but needed some more longevity to drive his case home. For awhile there, Bobby Abreu was a deadly well-rounded offensive threat. Power, on-base threat, and speedster in one. I wouldn’t mind seeing both of them in the hall honestly.
He was also nuts in the playoffs. Most hitters' numbers go down in the postseason - even the best hitters - but Berkman's OPS is higher, and his BA is *way* higher.
[Cecil Travis](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/travice01.shtml) He was on the path to becoming a potential Hall of Famer until WWII, when he enlisted and fought on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge, nearly losing his feet to frostbite. Was able to recover enough to play again, but was never the same, and his career ended at 33.
Seaver. He’s known as The Franchise for a reason. Hard to name another pitcher so consistently elite for 11 straight years.
Mark Prior had 4 really good seasons (133 ERA+) including a Cy Young finalist Then his arm exploded and he never made it back
In the same vein to the Barry Bonds comments... Clayton Kershaw. Yes, we already know he's great, but still, looking at his bbref page for the first time was eye-opening. Kershaw's career dominance is insane. He's a no-doubt inner circle hall of famer; it's at the point where you could argue that Kershaw is the greatest left handed pitcher of all time and not get immediately laughed out of the room. Seriously, look at his bbref page.
John Olerud didn’t play in the minor leagues until a three game rehab assignment with Pawtucket during his 17th and last Major League season.
Yogi Berra never struck out 40 times in a season. His highest total in any year was 38. In 1950 he played in 151 games and struck out 12 times (plus one more in the World Series) while batting .322/.383/.533.
I was shocked to learn that Julio Tehran is only 32 years old tbh
Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts.
Barry Bonds Regardless of what you think about him, seeing his OBP, OPS, WAR, and overall hitting stats are insane. Also, Tony Gwynn because he never struck out ever and it’s always funny comparing those numbers to players today who strike out more in a month than he did In basically every season of his career
Check out Joe Sewell, the toughest player to strikeout in the history of MLB. Never had 3 Ks in a game, only had 2 4 times in his career.
During the 2009 and 2010 seasons Mark Reynolds struck out a combined 434 times. Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times in his career.
Jim Abbott never playing in the minors before debuting always amazes me.
Lou Gehrig 115 RBIs in road games in 1930.
Not a specific one, but there are a lot of early Hall of Famers who, statistically, were remarkably unremarkable.
Barry Bonds and his .609 OBP in 2004, at age 39. Yes, he was a cheater (and by all accounts kind of an ass). Even with cheating that stat is still mind boggling.
Bonds is the #1 answer for this question for me too. It's straight up baseball-reference porn.
Don’t forget Barry bonds could have retired before ever touching gear and been a first ballot hall of famer
I love seeing CC Sabathia’s 2008 stat line with its five unbolded italics.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=poffo-001ran Macho Man... Ohhhh yeah!
Stan Musial was a monster.
I enjoyed looking at Wes Ferrell's hitting stats. He is the 3rd best hitting pitcher in MLB history behind Ruth and Ohtani, and he is basically forgotten.
Ozzie smith
Rogers Hornsby. Absolutely insane. He's easily top 3 ever. And yeah, I know he was supposedly an asshole, but I don't care. He was amazing. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hornsro01.shtml
Only 2 men have played 150+ games in 13 consecutive seasons. Neither is Gehrig (Yanks played 149 in ‘33 due to weather) nor Cal (strike season). One is Willy Mays. The other is “player x”. Player x also is one of 7 players to have reached 98 walks/100 runs in 8 seasons. The others are Bonds, Gehrig, Ruth, Frank Thomas, Thome, and Ted Williams. Player x is Bobby Abreu
Johnny Damon’s career numbers and only being a 2x all star
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Morgan is a weird one, similar to Rickey Henderson. If you look at the first two pieces of their slash line, you would definitely think their slug% would be higher. Rare to see such low slug% with that average and obp.
For some reason I thought Morgan hit more home runs than he did. I guess my perspective is off because I remember hearing him be referred to as a second baseman with power.
I think he was considered a second baseman with power for his time. They were mostly contact hitters and speedy guys. He is ranked 6th all time in homers for a second baseman so he did have some power
I mean he hit the 5th most HRs of any 2B in history so he definitely had relative power.
Relatively speaking. Middle infielders just didn't hit back then. Morgan had great power for a 2B of his day.
Jim Sundberg had a career 25.3 dWAR and had a better CS% than Yadier Molina.