Quiz – Modern Hitters (stumped)

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For 101 major league seasons (1901-2001), the players below were the only hitters to achieve a certain seasonal batting feat. In 2002, three more players achieved this distinction and, since 2002, 5 more players have done this a total of 7 times.

What is this batting feat peculiar to modern day hitters?

Rk	Player
1	Joe Medwick
2	Zoilo Versalles
3	Hal McRae

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/31/2013.

Hint: Versalles’ season is the one you’re thinking of.

Don’t know whether I stumped you or just no interest. Anyway, the solution is that these players and the others from the current century all have a low slugging percentage relative to extra-base hits. In particular, they are the only players since 1901 having a season with an extra-base hit total of over 160 times slugging percentage. The seasons are after the jump.

Rk	Player	Year	OPS+	XBH	SLG	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	OPS	Pos
1	Joe Medwick	1936	157	95	.577	24	STL	155	677	636	115	223	64	13	18	138	34	33	.351	.387	.964	*7
2	Zoilo Versalles	1965	115	76	.462	25	MIN	160	728	666	126	182	45	12	19	77	41	122	.273	.319	.781	*6
3	Hal McRae	1977	136	86	.515	31	KCR	162	720	641	104	191	54	11	21	92	59	43	.298	.366	.881	*D7/H
4	Garret Anderson	2002	127	88	.539	30	ANA	158	678	638	93	195	56	3	29	123	30	80	.306	.332	.871	*78D/H
5	Nomar Garciaparra	2002	127	85	.528	28	BOS	156	693	635	101	197	56	5	24	120	41	63	.310	.352	.880	*6/H
6	Alfonso Soriano	2002	129	92	.547	26	NYY	156	741	696	128	209	51	2	39	102	23	157	.300	.332	.880	*4/HD
7	Grady Sizemore	2006	133	92	.533	23	CLE	162	751	655	134	190	53	11	28	76	78	153	.290	.375	.907	*8/HD
8	Jimmy Rollins	2006	101	79	.478	27	PHI	158	758	689	127	191	45	9	25	83	57	80	.277	.334	.811	*6/H
9	Jimmy Rollins	2007	119	88	.531	28	PHI	162	778	716	139	212	38	20	30	94	49	85	.296	.344	.875	*6
10	Dan Uggla	2007	108	83	.479	27	FLA	159	728	632	113	155	49	3	31	88	68	167	.245	.326	.805	*4/HD
11	Chris Young	2008	91	71	.443	24	ARI	160	699	625	85	155	42	7	22	85	62	165	.248	.315	.758	*8/H
12	Brian Roberts	2009	110	73	.451	31	BAL	159	717	632	110	179	56	1	16	79	74	112	.283	.356	.807	*4/H
13	Jimmy Rollins	2009	87	69	.423	30	PHI	155	725	672	100	168	43	5	21	77	44	70	.250	.296	.719	*6/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/3/2013.

Why have so many of these seasons come recently? I don’t know for sure (I’m going to do some research on this), but my hunch is it has to do with being an impatient hitter (hello Jimmy Rollins), or one who strikes out a lot, or both (yes, we mean you, Alfonso). The impatient hitter pushes up his AB count (and pushes down his SLG percentage) while the hitter who strikes out a lot reduces balls in play (obviously) which reduces the chances for bad-hit singles (bloops, slow rollers, seeing-eye grounders, and the like). Any other thoughts?

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Joe

10 years ago

I can’t seem to stop Yount’s 1980 from showing up. It’s similar to Versalles year in so many ways. Still not sure which Medwick year it is either, 1933-37 are all intriguing with their extra base hits.

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Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Joe

Extra-base hits are part of the answer.

Yount’s season missed this list by a very small margin.

bstar

10 years ago

If Hal McRae and Joe Medwick are part of the answer, doubles have to be involved. Medwick I believe was the youngest to 500 doubles (or did Pujols break that record last year?) and McRae, for the period 1974-1983, hit more doubles (382) than anyone in baseball.

Zoilo was more of a triples guy.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

If I’m right, the 20th-century guys who came closest while missing Doug’s criteria were Earl Webb, Chuck Klein, Hank Greenberg, Juan Samuel and Nomar Garciaparra.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

This doesn’t appear to be part of the answer, but I find it interesting that Zoilo had a three year stretch of

XBH / RBI

54 / 54
63 / 64
76 / 77

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Running the PI for XBH greater than 75, HR less than 25 and OBP less than .370 yields a list of 16 players, including Versalles, Medwick and McRae.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Running HR equal to or less than 22 and R equal to or greater than 100 along with XBH equal to or greater than 75 and OBP equal to or less than .370 from 1901 to 2001 yields only McRae, Medwick and Versalles. Yount misses because he had 23 HR. However making that run for 2002-2013 yields no one. Also Doug likes to use round numbers, ending in 0 or 5, so the 22 HR limit would not count.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

PA or AB may have something to do with it. I’m giving up for the time being.

PaulE

10 years ago

…….and they all played in the post-season?

Baltimorechop

10 years ago

I think 2002 guys are nomar Beltran and garret Anderson

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Baltimorechop

Baltimorechop, I think you have 2 of the 3 for 2002. I think Beltran 2002 missed the criteria by a tiny margin.

I think the answer is a ratio, but no one’s mentioned one component. (I think.)

(Doug, I hope I’ve not overstepped my bounds. But seeing you’ve not commented since Friday afternoon, I thought it would be OK for me to make small hints.)

Baltimorechop

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

So you think45 doubles is a minimum, so it’s soriano as the third. He has such a larger amount of hrs than the rest. Hmm

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Baltimorechop

Right answer on Soriano, wrong reason — too specific. Go back to Doug’s hint @2.

My answer involves just two stats, a minimum, and a ratio. I could be wrong, but it does fit everything Doug said.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John is correct.

Involves a ratio between two traditional metrics. No limits, minimums or other qualifying criteria (other than meeting the ratio test).

One metric is confirmed (see comment #2). The other metric hasn’t been mentioned yet in any of the comments.

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Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Baltimorechop

Two of those three (comment #8) are right.

10 years ago

I can’t speak for others but what threw me off is that Medwick, McRae, and Versalles didn’t draw many walks. Nor did Anderson, Garciaparra, or Soriano (outed in the comments). So I spent a lot of time hunting for something Walk/OBP related. Never dawned on me to look at slugging percentage.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Doug: When you mentioned ratio I thought only of a ratio of counting stats such as EBH/H. A ratio of a counting stat and a percentage stat is not something that’s ordinarily done. Now that I think about it, that sort of ratio has occurred in other quizzes by you and John.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Doug — I think there are two main reasons that 10 of these 13 seasons came since 2002: 1) We’re in a period of historically high ratio of XBH to total hits. The 13 seasons meeting your criteria had a combined average SLG/BA ratio of 1.75. I checked all the qualified seasons from 1901-2013 with such a ratio. Almost half came since 1993. 2) To amass a high ratio of XBH to SLG, it helps to bat leadoff. Seven of your 13 seasons were by full-time leadoff men — 3 by Rollins, plus Versalles, Soriano, Sizemore and Roberts. Chris Young… Read more »

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Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Thanks for checking out those stats, John.

I think I’ll dig a little further and follow up with a post on this.

no statistician but

10 years ago

Doug:

You asked for other thoughts.: Here’s one:

From 1938 to 1996, the tenth most doubles in the majors never rose above 40 in any year, and hit that level just a couple of times. From 1996 to 2012 the tenth most doubles in the majors never fell below 41, and hit that low mark only once. This year it dropped to . . . 40.

Could the new, cozier parks simply be favorable to 2-baggers as well as HRs, inflating XBH numbers?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Certainly there are more doubles. Have to check to see which parks seem most conducive to them.

A small part of the increase in doubles may be that balls that would have been triples in the older, bigger ballparks are doubles today because of smaller ballparks and/or more athletic outfielders.

no statistician but

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

I was thinking more of long fly ball outs versus balls hit off the wall, but since I never watch games any more, thanks to instant replay and commercials driving me bats, so to speak, I have no personal visual confirmation of this theory. Without checking, though, I doubt that the decline in 3Bs is equivalent to the rise in 2Bs.

John Nacca

10 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Either the parks, or the hitters going into a home run trot after a step and a half………

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

I assumed that a minimum XBH total was part of the answer. After Doug said that wasn’t the case, it took me a while to grasp that the ratio itself creates a de facto minimum of XBH. To have a 160 ratio of XBH/SLG *and* an unimpressive XBH total, you’d have to slug more poorly than anyone would be allowed to do and still bat enough to get that many XBH. — To get a 160 ratio with just one XBH, you’d slug .00625 — and since you’d have at least 2 total bases, that means at least 320 ABs.… Read more »

mosc

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Nice math JA, well done.

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

“Nobody’s allowed to bat 320 times in a season and get just two total bases.”

Not by a long shot. The most for a non-pitcher is one total base in 40 AB by Skeeter Shelton of the 1915 Yankees (Skeeter holds the record for the lowest non-zero career batting average among non-pitchers).

The most AB with zero total bases is 70 by Bob Buhl, for the Cubs and Braves in 1962; for a non-pitcher, the most is 37 AB by Eugenio Velez of the 2011 Dodgers.