With Curtis Granderson currently tied for the AL lead in HRs while leading in triples, I thought I would find all of the players who had led the league in both in the same year as well as the others who did it but not in the same year. Some guys led one league in HRs one year and another league in 3Bs another year, like Dick Allen. They are all below, linked to Baseball Reference. If I missed anybody, let me know. They are in no order except the guys who did it in the same year are listed first. There are alot of Hall of Famers here. There are 33 in all.
Harry Stovey (twice in the same year)
Tip O'Neill (once in the same year and lead in 2Bs, too)
Harry Lumley (once in the same year)
Jim Bottomley (once in the same year)
Tommy Leach (once in the same year)
Willie Mays (once in the same year)
Mickey Mantle (once in the same year)
Jim Rice (once in the same year)
Roger Connor
John Reilly
Bid McPhee
Oyster Burns
Sam Crawford
Harry Davis
Home Run Baker
Johnny Mize
Ty Cobb
Lou Gehrig
Rogers Hornsby
Buck Freeman
Dan Brouthers
Dick Allen
Ed Delahanty
Joe DiMaggio
Sam Thompson
Wally Pipp
Frank Schulte
Buck Ewing
Jim O'Rourke
Jimmy Sheckard
Joe Medwick
Ryne Sandberg
Walt Wilmot
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The record for most consecutive games versus over and under .500 teams
A guest post by Tom Ruane of SABR and Retrosheet
I thought it might be interesting to look at four groups:
1) under .400,
2) under .500,
3) over .500 and
4) over .600.
Here's what I found:
1) Starting on August 11, 1885, the Chicago White Stockings
played a record 23 straight games against opponents with
a winning percentage under .400. During the streak, they
played only Buffalo, Detroit and St. Louis. It ended when
they faced Boston (which entered the game with a
none-too-impressive winning percentage of .406). Chicago
went 20-2-1 during the streak.
The longest such streak since 1900 is nineteen and it was
done four times:
I thought it might be interesting to look at four groups:
1) under .400,
2) under .500,
3) over .500 and
4) over .600.
Here's what I found:
1) Starting on August 11, 1885, the Chicago White Stockings
played a record 23 straight games against opponents with
a winning percentage under .400. During the streak, they
played only Buffalo, Detroit and St. Louis. It ended when
they faced Boston (which entered the game with a
none-too-impressive winning percentage of .406). Chicago
went 20-2-1 during the streak.
The longest such streak since 1900 is nineteen and it was
done four times:
2) The Chicago White Sox played 51 straight games against
losing teams from May 27 to July 10, 1966. The streak ended
when they hosted the third-place Indians in the first game
following the All-Star break. Ironically, the Sox went only
22-28-1 while playing losing teams, and 45-32 afterwards.
No teams are close to their streak, the second longest
being a run of forty straight games by the San Francisco
Giants in 1986. It ran from July 3rd to August 17th and,
like the White Sox, the Giants had a losing mark (19-21)
while it lasted.
3) The top five teams with the most consecutive games
played against winning teams:
At the end of the streak by the 1916 Senators, the only
other team in the AL with a losing record was the 27-94
Philadelphia Athletics. And the three streaks from 1908 are
due to the practice of scheduling long road and home trips
between the eastern and western teams. In 1908, all of the
western teams had winning records.
4) The longest stretch of games against teams with a
winning percentage higher than .600 was 27 by the
Philadelphia Quakers in 1884. From May 20th to June 19th,
they went 6-21 against Boston, Providence and New York.
Entering the games of May 20th, those three teams had a
combined record of 37-5. Philadephia had been in fourth
place at the start but was in seventh place at the end of
the run.
The record since 1900 is 21, by the 1998 Tigers from
April 3rd (which was the first game of the second series
of the year) to 30th. Given how early in the season
it was, a few more wins here and there might have
short-circuited the streak, but Detroit went 5-16 in the
games.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Hitting Has Picked Up A Bit So Far In August
The table below shows the OPS and runs per game for each league by month for 2011.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Should Thurman Munson Be In The Hall Of Fame?
I'm looking at this because it was discussed at Baseball Think Factory. That discussion was inspired by a new website that is trying to get Munson in called VoteThurmanIn.com.
Munson is 14th in career WAR among catchers. Here is the top 22 from Baseball Reference (I went to 22 so I could include Campanella). It also shows their best three consecutive seasons (which I just eyeballed to find) and the number of times they finished in the top 5 and 10. These guys played at least 50% of their games at catcher.
Now Munson is only 240th among position players in career WAR. That probably is not enough for the Hall. But catchers don't have the longevity of other players, so being in the top 15 is impressive. If he had not died at age 32 in 1979, he might have made the top 10. He was on a pace to get about 3.6 WAR in 1979. He also had over 3 the previous year.
His best 3 straight years is not near the elite like Bench, Carter, Piazza or Mauer (does he have the record for best 3 straight by a catcher?-although some games at DH may have helped). But Munson's best 3 straight years beat Lombardi, Bresnahan and Hartnett. He also has more top 10 finishes than Lombardi and Hartnett.
Tenace is ahead of him in career WAR but only about 58% of Tenace's innings were at catcher (Munson is about 97%).
Munson also is 144th in MVP shares (at 1.50). That is good considering that catchers don't do that great in the voting. See my post called MVP Awards And Award Shares By Position. So his contemporary observers liked him. He also won three Gold Gloves.
Fangraphs has him at 21st in career WAR among catchers. But some of the guys ahead of him played less than half their games at catcher: King Kelly, Joe Torre, Brian Downing, Buck Ewing. Tenace and Bresnahan are both ahead of him, too. Bresnahan played about 70% of his games at catcher (this all points out something problematic with the position regarding the Hall of Fame-many guys who played there got moved to other positions). And again, don't forget that Munson died young. He could have moved up in the rankings.
Just what I have done so far is probably not enough. But I think we should be looking at him as a serious candidate.
Munson is 14th in career WAR among catchers. Here is the top 22 from Baseball Reference (I went to 22 so I could include Campanella). It also shows their best three consecutive seasons (which I just eyeballed to find) and the number of times they finished in the top 5 and 10. These guys played at least 50% of their games at catcher.
Now Munson is only 240th among position players in career WAR. That probably is not enough for the Hall. But catchers don't have the longevity of other players, so being in the top 15 is impressive. If he had not died at age 32 in 1979, he might have made the top 10. He was on a pace to get about 3.6 WAR in 1979. He also had over 3 the previous year.
His best 3 straight years is not near the elite like Bench, Carter, Piazza or Mauer (does he have the record for best 3 straight by a catcher?-although some games at DH may have helped). But Munson's best 3 straight years beat Lombardi, Bresnahan and Hartnett. He also has more top 10 finishes than Lombardi and Hartnett.
Tenace is ahead of him in career WAR but only about 58% of Tenace's innings were at catcher (Munson is about 97%).
Munson also is 144th in MVP shares (at 1.50). That is good considering that catchers don't do that great in the voting. See my post called MVP Awards And Award Shares By Position. So his contemporary observers liked him. He also won three Gold Gloves.
Fangraphs has him at 21st in career WAR among catchers. But some of the guys ahead of him played less than half their games at catcher: King Kelly, Joe Torre, Brian Downing, Buck Ewing. Tenace and Bresnahan are both ahead of him, too. Bresnahan played about 70% of his games at catcher (this all points out something problematic with the position regarding the Hall of Fame-many guys who played there got moved to other positions). And again, don't forget that Munson died young. He could have moved up in the rankings.
Just what I have done so far is probably not enough. But I think we should be looking at him as a serious candidate.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
July Hitting Picked Up A Bit In The AL, Still Sluggish In the NL
He are the monthly OPS figures for the AL starting in April:
April .713
May .720
June .719
July .731
For the whole season, it is .721. But just last year, for the whole season, it was .734. July should be one of the strongest months. From 1994-2009, the AL had an OPS of at least .750 every year with a high of .795 in 1996.
He are the monthly OPS figures for the NL starting in April:
April .709
May .702
June .699
July .709
For the whole season, it is .705. In 2009, for the whole season, it was .739. From 1994-2008, the NL had an OPS of at least .740 every year with a high of .773 in 1999.
April .713
May .720
June .719
July .731
For the whole season, it is .721. But just last year, for the whole season, it was .734. July should be one of the strongest months. From 1994-2009, the AL had an OPS of at least .750 every year with a high of .795 in 1996.
He are the monthly OPS figures for the NL starting in April:
April .709
May .702
June .699
July .709
For the whole season, it is .705. In 2009, for the whole season, it was .739. From 1994-2008, the NL had an OPS of at least .740 every year with a high of .773 in 1999.