Players who led their league in either HRs, RBIs, Hits or TBs who had no other top 10 finishes in that stat

This is the second post of a series. The first one covered AVG, OBP & SLG. Click here to read it. It all started when I noticed that Harold Baines led the AL in SLG in 1984 but had no other top 10 finishes in SLG (according to his BB Ref page). It made me wonder if this kind of thing was rare.

For HRs, I only went back as far as 1920. These are the only players I found who have lead their league in HRs but have no other top 10 finishes in HRs.

Player	Year	Lg.	HR	Next Best Rank	HR
Jorge Soler	2019	AL	48	56	8
Luke Voit	2020	AL	22	28	22
Salvador Perez	2021	AL	48	20	27

 

For Soler, his next best rank of 56th was in 2020, the Covid year. He hit 27 HRs in 2021, 13 in the AL and 14 in the NL. 27 would rank him 31st in the AL and 24th in the NL in 2021.

Voit's league leading year was also the Covid year. Since all of these guys are active, they still have a chance to some day be in the top 10 again.

RBIs are next. For the NL I start with 1900 and I only looked at the AL and NL. 

Player	Year	Lg.	RBI	Next Best Rank	RBI
Monte Irvin	1951	NL	121	14	97
Ken Harrelson	1968	AL	109	12	92
Kevin Mitchell	1989	NL	125	11	80
Chase Headley	2012	NL	115	51	64
Javier Baez	2018	NL	111	20	87
Salvador Perez	2021	AL	121	22	32

 

Salvador Perez next best rank in RBIs is from 2020, the Covid season. His next best outside of that is a 23rd with 80 RBIs. Since Baez and Perez are both still active they might get another top 10 finish in their careers.

Now for TBs.

Player	Year	Lg.	TB	Next Best Rank	TB
Charlie Hollocher	1918	NL	202	13	263
Pete Reiser	1941	NL	299	11	222
Johnny Lindell	1944	AL	297	29	196
Jacoby Ellsbury	2011	AL	364	27	246
Cody Bellinger	2019	NL	351	12	279

Bellinger is still active so he could get another top 10 finish.

Now for Hits.

Player	Year	Lg.	Hits	Next Best Rank	Hits
Doc Miller	1911	NL	192	27	138
Gavvy Cravath	1913	NL	179	14	149
Johnny Hodapp	1930	AL	225	26	145
Dick Wakefield	1943	AL	200	42	106
Darin Erstad	2000	AL	240	14	177
Rich Aurilia	2001	NL	206	41	157
Carlos Gonzalez	2010	NL	197	11	174
Matt Carpenter	2013	NL	199	20	162

Carpenter is still active but age 37 he is not getting alot of playing time. He has only 18 hits this year.

Has Yogi Berra’s baseball prowess has been overlooked?

There is a new documentary about Yogi’s life called “It Ain’t Over.” See Yogi Berra on the Field: The Case for Baseball Greatness by Lorne Manly of The New York Times. Excerpt:

"Jon Pessah, who wrote the 2020 biography “Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask” (and is not in the film), said the idea that Yogi’s baseball prowess has been overlooked “is 100 percent true.”"

But I wonder who did this overlooking? The article does not say.

Berra was voted to start the All-Star game by the fans each year from 1950-57. Then players, coaches, and managers picked the starters after 1957. He was selected to start 3 more times then. So the fans, players, coaches, and managers did not overlook him

Berra got 67.2% of the Hall of Fame vote in his first year of eligibility. Then 85.6% the next year (75% is needed to make it). So those sports writers seemed to understand how good he was.

For comparison's sake, look at Eddie Mathews, who played most of his career with the Braves and who mainly played in the same time period as Berra. Mathews hit over 500 career HRs and even now is still 23rd all time in career WAR for position players (Berra is tied for 126th, although catching makes it hard to have a long career and pile up big numbers). Mathews got only 32.3% of the Hall of Fame vote in his first year of eligibility and he did not get in until his 5th year with 79.4% of the vote, less than what Berra got.

While he was playing, he won 3 MVP awards (several players have done this with only Barry Bonds getting more than 3-he got 7). Berra also finished in the top 4 in the MVP voting in 4 other seasons. He ranks 17th all-time in MVP shares, a Bill James stat that adds up all the MVP votes a player got in his career. The writers who vote for the MVP award also clearly saw what a good player he was.

Eddie Mathews won no MVP awards, finished in the top 4 only twice and ranks just 150th in career MVP shares.