Quiz – Expansion Era Outfielders (solved)

The players in this quiz are the only outfielders with a particular season accomplishment since 1961. What is this unusual feat?

Hint #1: none of these players accomplished this feat more than once.

Congratulations to bstar! He correctly identified these players as the only outfielders since 1961 with both 25 WAR Batting Runs and 25 WAR Fielding Runs (using B-R WAR). In fact, these are the only outfielders since 1901 to meet both criteria.

The Brewers’ Carlos Gomez has a chance to join this group. He’s already at 27 WAR Fielding Runs and is sitting on 17 WAR Batting Runs, so he’ll need to get healthy and get really hot with the bat the rest of the way. Even if he doesn’t make this group, he stands an even better chance at joining even more exclusive company – becoming just the 8th player at any position with a season since 1901 of 8 WAR from fewer than 25 WAR batting runs (maybe I should have made that the quiz). The 25/25 seasons for our quiz players, and the exclusive group Gomez seems destined to join are after the jump.

First, here are the 25/25 seasons for our quiz players.

Rk Player OPS+ Rbat Rfield WAR/pos Year Age Tm G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Carl Yastrzemski 171 47 25 10.4 1968 28 BOS 157 664 90 162 32 2 23 74 .301 .426 .495 .922
2 Barry Bonds 170 46 28 9.7 1990 25 PIT 151 621 104 156 32 3 33 114 .301 .406 .565 .970
3 Ken Griffey 154 39 32 9.6 1996 26 SEA 140 638 125 165 26 2 49 140 .303 .392 .628 1.020
4 Dave Parker 145 39 25 7.4 1977 26 PIT 159 706 107 215 44 8 21 88 .338 .397 .531 .927
5 Lenny Dykstra 138 29 25 8.9 1990 27 PHI 149 691 106 192 35 3 9 60 .325 .418 .441 .859
6 Al Kaline 138 39 29 8.4 1961 26 DET 153 665 116 190 41 7 19 82 .324 .393 .515 .909
7 Darin Erstad 137 35 29 8.3 2000 26 ANA 157 747 121 240 39 6 25 100 .355 .409 .541 .951
8 Brian Jordan 134 27 25 7.0 1998 31 STL 150 617 100 178 34 7 25 91 .316 .368 .534 .902
9 Rickey Henderson 132 32 25 8.6 1989 30 TOT 150 674 113 148 26 3 12 57 .274 .411 .399 .810
10 Ichiro Suzuki 130 36 30 9.2 2004 30 SEA 161 762 101 262 24 5 8 60 .372 .414 .455 .869
11 Andruw Jones 126 30 25 8.1 2000 23 ATL 161 729 122 199 36 6 36 104 .303 .366 .541 .907
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/20/2013.

And, he are the players with 8 WAR and fewer than 25 WAR batting runs.

Rk Player OPS+ Rbat Rfield WAR/pos Year Age Tm G PA R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS Pos
1 Barry Bonds 126 16 37 8.0 1989 24 PIT 159 679 96 144 34 6 19 58 .248 .351 .426 .777 *7
2 Frankie Frisch 124 23 37 9.2 1927 28 STL 153 693 112 208 31 11 10 78 .337 .387 .472 .858 *4/6
3 Terry Turner 124 15 34 9.4 1906 25 CLE 147 643 85 170 27 7 2 62 .291 .338 .372 .709 *6
4 Brooks Robinson 117 12 33 8.4 1968 31 BAL 162 667 65 154 36 6 17 75 .253 .304 .416 .720 *5
5 Bobby Grich 116 17 29 8.3 1973 24 BAL 162 700 82 146 29 7 12 50 .251 .373 .387 .760 *4
6 Willie Wilson 113 19 24 8.5 1980 24 KCR 161 745 133 230 28 15 3 49 .326 .357 .421 .778 *78
7 Willie Davis 110 12 29 8.4 1964 24 LAD 157 652 91 180 23 7 12 77 .294 .316 .413 .729 *8
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/20/2013.
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bstar
10 years ago

Hmmmm, I smell defense.

Erstad, Jordan, Ichiro, Andruw, Yaz, Cobra, Kaline…they were all (at least for awhile) great outfielders. Even Dykstra had a +25 fielding runs year.

Wait…I think I’ve got this.

25 or more fielding runs and 25 or more batting runs yields the 11 players above.

bstar
10 years ago

Thnx, Doug! There are only 4 infielders to accomplish this feat, a season with 25 or more batting and fielding runs:

-Albert Pujols, 2007
-Scott Rolen, 2004
-Chase Utley, 2008
-Ben Zobrist, 2009 & 2011

Zobrist is the only MLB player to have accomplished this seasonal feat twice.

Insert Name Here
Insert Name Here
10 years ago
Reply to  bstar

Once again, Ben Zobrist emerges as the most underrated player of his time. Zobrist led the AL in WAR in both of those seasons (8.6 in 2009 and 8.8 in 2011). And yet the only time he was an All-Star before this season was when his own manager appointed him to the 2009 team, and IIRC everyone accused Maddon of favoritism not realizing how awesome Zobrist is…

bstar
10 years ago

Here’s a list of seasons with 25 or more fielding runs and fewer than minus 25 batting runs. player name, team season: Rbat / Rfield -Adam Everett, HOU 2006: -25 / +36 -Rey Sanchez, KCR/ATL 2001: -25 / +27 -Darin Erstad, ANA 1999: -25 / +30 -Mark Belanger, BAL 1968: -25 / +27 -Adam Everett, HOU 2005: -26 / +25 -Ozzie Guillen, CHW 1997: -26 / +28 -Woody Williams, CIN 1944: -26 / +26 -Rey Ordonez, NYM 1999: -30 / +33 -Tommy Thevenow, STL 1926: -32 / +28 -Clint Barmes, COL 2006: -38 / +26 So Adam Everett makes the… Read more »