Quiz – Post-war Infielders (STUMPED)

41 Replies

The players in this quiz all played their entire careers since 1946, including seasons in which they played primarily in the infield. They are also the only players from this era with a particular season accomplishment.

What is this unusual seasonal feat? The HHS panel was stumped on this one. The solution is after the jump.

Player
Bob Meacham
Jose Uribe
Luis Gomez
Bobby Knoop
Bobby Wine
Gene Tenace
Mario Mendoza
Brendan Ryan
Willy Miranda
Ed Brinkman
Roy McMillan
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/12/2013.

Hint: it is not a mistake that one of these players is included in a list of infielders.

The players in the quiz are those with the most hitless games among games started, in any season since 1916. All of these players had a season with at least 75 such games, the earliest by Willy Miranda in 1956. Kudos to HHS reader Richard Chester for giving me the idea for this quiz, with his own similar quiz question posted last week (and solved by HHS reader ReliefMan).

Here’s the complete list of these seasons, including Gene Tenace’s 1974 campaign when he played a majority of his games at first base.

Rk Player Year #Matching PA AB H RBI BB SO OBP SH SF IBB HBP GDP
1 Bob Meacham 1985 84 Ind. Games 298 248 0 8 33 69 .123 13 2 0 2 4
2 Jose Uribe 1986 80 Ind. Games 244 200 0 0 41 45 .170 3 0 10 0 0
3 Luis Gomez 1978 79 Ind. Games 232 197 0 4 22 29 .100 12 1 1 0 5
4 Bobby Knoop 1964 78 Ind. Games 248 221 0 4 20 62 .093 2 2 4 3 10
5 Bobby Wine 1970 77 Ind. Games 247 219 0 4 19 55 .083 6 2 1 1 9
6 Gene Tenace 1974 77 Ind. Games 295 223 0 3 63 56 .238 1 1 4 7 8
7 Mario Mendoza 1979 77 Ind. Games 209 190 0 5 5 42 .030 9 4 0 1 8
8 Brendan Ryan 2012 76 Ind. Games 253 210 0 5 31 66 .144 3 4 0 5 1
9 Willy Miranda 1956 76 Ind. Games 247 215 0 4 29 39 .119 3 0 1 0 5
10 Ed Brinkman 1971 76 Ind. Games 266 233 0 6 27 30 .109 1 3 4 2 4
11 Roy McMillan 1961 75 Ind. Games 267 226 0 2 33 54 .134 5 1 2 2 7
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/13/2013.

Quite a difference in the walk totals, ranging from 5 for Mario Mendoza to 63 for Tenace.

41 thoughts on “Quiz – Post-war Infielders (STUMPED)”

  1. RJ

    A lot of zero power guys, although that could just be a product of their position. Is it something to with slugging percentage being less than on-base percentage? Even Gene Tenace had a season like that, .410 SLG to .415 OBP.

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    1. Doug Post author

      Good thought, but that’s not it.

      Incidentally, despite almost 300 HR, Rickey Henderson had 8 qualifying seasons with a higher OBP than SLG mark. Only Ozzie Smith (9) and Willie Randolph (10) had more such seasons since 1946.

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  2. Insert Name Here

    Wide variety of good and poor fielders here, but a seasonal batting feat would have to be quite unusual to include Mario Mendoza.

    Is it at all related to fielding abilities and/or low batting averages?

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    1. Brent

      Any batting “feat” would be unusual to include almost all these guys (excluding the great Gino Tenace). There battings skills, for the most part, are nonexistent.

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    2. Doug Post author

      Not related to fielding statistics.

      It is related, indirectly, to having a low batting average. But, I emphasize indirectly – batting average is not part of the quiz answer.

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      1. John Autin

        Some things that are indirectly related to low batting average:

        — Low extra-base-hits.
        — Low runs scored.
        — Low RBI.
        — Low OBP.

        But I can’t find how any of those touches Gene Tenace.

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        1. Insert Name Here

          What about low SLG high % of Hits being XBH? Tenace’s season would be 1972, but the PA threshold would have to be lowered to at most 250 PAs. I’ve been working on this theory but it’s difficult to narrow it down to just these guys.

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        2. Insert Name Here

          What about low SLG but high % of Hits being XBH? Tenace’s season would be 1972, but the PA threshold would have to be lowered to at most 250 PAs. I’ve been working on this theory but it’s difficult to narrow it down to just these guys.

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  3. John Autin

    3 listed players never qualified for the batting title (Gomez, Mendoza and Ryan). Mendoza’s high was 401 PAs, while Ryan’s high is 141 games. Just trying to figure out the threshold for the feat.

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    1. Brent

      Also given Doug’s clue at the end, I assume that it has to be a season where 50% or more of Tenace’s plate appearances are as a 1Bman, not a catcher. That narrows down the seasons that it could be for him.

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    2. Insert Name Here

      I’m going with 400 PAs for the threshold. Mendoza and Gómez each have one season that qualifies under that rule.

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    3. Doug Post author

      Another hint: all of the players accomplished this feat in a season in which they had 400+ PA. But, that is not a restriction – the feat could have been accomplished (but hasn’t) in a season with fewer PAs.

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      2. Insert Name Here

        Bix, it’s my understanding that HTML characters such as the greater than/less than symbols often scramble comments such as yours @17.

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      3. Doug Post author

        Nope.

        Lots of infielders have done that, led by Frankie Crosetti with 72 BB and a .299 OBP in 1940, and Dal Maxvill with 44 BB but only a .263 OBP in 1969.

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  5. RJ

    This is almost certainly not relevant, but Luis Gomez had 2 stolen bases and 8 caught stealings in 1978. Two and ten! He had 6 SB and 22 CS for his career.

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    2. Doug Post author

      And Gene Tenace had 2 SB with 9 CS.

      Most CS (since 1901), by SB count.
      0 – 10, Pete Runnels 1952
      1 – 13, Zeb Terry 1921
      2 – 13, Charlie Jamieson 1929
      3 – 20, Larry Gardner 1920
      4 – 16, Steve Yerkes 1912
      5 – 17, Will Clark 1987
      6 – 24, Tommy Griffith 1915
      7 – 19, Roy Hartzell 1915
      8 – 19, Babe Pinelli 1925
      9 – 20, Bob Fisher 1915

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    3. Insert Name Here

      Hmm… Based on past clues, particularly the clues that this is indirectly related to batting average and that they all did it in a 400-PA year, I’m thinking they each had a season of 100 hits or less but at least X of something else. Seasons included if this hunch is correct:

      Bob Meachem: 1984
      Jose Uribe: 1989
      Luis Gomez: 1978
      Bobby Knoop: 1969 and/or 1970
      Gene Tenace: 1978
      Mario Mendoza: 1979
      Bobby Wine: 1963, ’65, ’67, or ’69
      Brendan Ryan: 2010 or 2012
      Willy Miranda: 1965
      Ed Brinkman: 1965
      Roy McMillan: 1958, 1960, or 1964

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    1. Ed

      Voomo: oWAR is a combination of Rbat, Rbaser, Rdp, Rpos (position adjustment) and Rrep (replacement level). For Ryan last year, these numbers were Rbat (-18), Rbaser (0), Rdp (0), Rpos (+7), and Rrep (+18). Which totals to +7 and corresponds quite well to his oWAR of 0.7 (given the rule of thumb that 10 runs = 1 Win).

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    3. John Autin

      Voomo — oWAR contains the position adjustment and the replacement player adjustment. If it was a bad year for shortstops generally, and especially for those at the bottom of the offensive spectrum (which I’d assume affects the replacement player adjustment), then lousy raw stats can still register a positive when compared to a hypothetical replacement player.

      Here’s how I’d look at it (which might be wrong): Out of 30 regular shortstops last year, 5 had OPS+ of 66 or lower, with Dee Gordon worst at 56 and Ryan next at 60. If so many teams couldn’t find a better hitter at the position, you’d have to peg the replacement SS at a notch below that.

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      1. Ed

        John –

        “If it was a bad year for shortstops generally, and especially for those at the bottom of the offensive spectrum (which I’d assume affects the replacement player adjustment), then lousy raw stats can still register a positive when compared to a hypothetical replacement player.”

        This is not correct though a lot of people don’t realize that.

        For example, the replacement player adjustment doesn’t vary by position. It does however vary by league which is one of the reasons why Ryan has +18 and Will Venable who had the same number of PAs in the NL only has +15. (the AL is obviously considered the stronger league).

        Rbat is completely based on how everyone hit, not just the players at your position.

        The Position Adjustment doesn’t change very often and when it does, it changes, because the position is seen as having more or less defensive value than in the past.

        John’s statement would, I believe, be correct if we were talking about Rfield. But since the discussion is about oWAR then Rfield isn’t relevant.

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          2. John Autin

            Ed, of course not! I took it in the spirit of shared pursuit of knowledge, in which it was clearly intended. And I’m the first to admit that there are many layers of WAR that I don’t know about.

      2. Voomo Zanzibar

        I’m still frustrated that we never came to a consensus over whether Ryan’s infield “triple” should have been ruled

        1. single, fielder’s choice
        2. single, stolen bases
        3. double, FC
        4. triple

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  7. Luis Gomez

    @34John.
    Me too. I´m a little embarrassed to acknowledge this, but when I first started reading about WAR in the old BR blog, I thought it was a thing from the Jim Rome Show…

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  8. John Autin

    Doug, kudos for another excellent quiz!

    But I’m a little confused by the stipulation that they played primarily infield during the year in question.

    First is the matter of whether catcher falls under infield. In a P-I season or game search, “infield” does include catcher.

    Second, it is necessary to include catcher in the game search in order to get Tenace in these top 11. If catcher is excluded, Tenace doesn’t even fall within the top 300.

    So, the fact that Tenace mainly played 1B in 1974 seems like a red herring, and emphasizing that fact in the answer seems irrelevant.

    I’m not suggesting that red herrings are unfair; I’m just wondering if that was your intent.

    I never even got as far as running a *game* search, so I can’t say the “infield” angle threw me off.

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    1. Doug Post author

      It was a red herring (as was the post-war bit). I put no restrictions on position or seasons when running the query.

      I was trying to think of a name for the post, when I noticed that all except Tenace were infielders. Further checking revealed that Tenace’s season came when he played a majority of the time at first base, so with that fortuitous quirk I figured I had the title for the quiz.

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  9. MikeD

    All of these players were involved in spectacular base-running blunders where they were part of recording two outs at a single base.

    I’m sorry, but whenever I see Bobby Meacham’s name, I can only think about one play that occurred at game I attended.

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