Those Bees are none other than youngsters Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts who, with help from Boston’s over-30 mainstays Hanley Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz, have propelled the high-flying Red Sox to the top of the AL East standings.
More on Boston’s hot start after the jump.
Jackie Bradley’s recently concluded 29 game hit streak is the second longest by a Red Sox player since 1913, eclipsed only by Nomar Garciaparra‘s 30 game run in 1997. It’s the 35th hit streak of 20+ games by a Boston player, 20% of which were compiled by just two players, Garciaparra with four and Wade Boggs with three. That franchise total of 35 hit streaks of 20+ games ranks in the top 5 on the franchise list since 1913.
- Pirates – 44 streaks
- Cardinals – 42
- Indians – 39
- Senators/Twins – 36
- Red Sox, Tigers, Browns/Orioles – 35
At the other end of the list are the Rays, the only franchise still without a player recording a 20 game hit streak.
Bradley’s 29 game streak is among the longest so early in the season, placing 6th on this list of hit streaks ending before June.
| Rk | Name | Strk Start | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rico Carty | 1970-04-08 | 1970-05-15 | 31 | 113 | 31 | 51 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 30 | 20 | .451 | .530 | .743 | 1.273 | ATL |
| 2 | Andre Ethier | 2011-04-02 | 2011-05-06 | 30 | 116 | 15 | 46 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 14 | .397 | .462 | .560 | 1.022 | LAD |
| 3 | Ryan Zimmerman | 2009-04-08 | 2009-05-12 | 30 | 131 | 26 | 50 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 26 | 11 | .382 | .427 | .649 | 1.075 | WSN |
| 4 | Luis Gonzalez | 1999-04-11 | 1999-05-18 | 30 | 115 | 25 | 46 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 25 | 16 | .400 | .466 | .696 | 1.162 | ARI |
| 5 | Ron LeFlore | 1976-04-17 | 1976-05-27 | 30 | 130 | 21 | 51 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 9 | .392 | .432 | .554 | .986 | DET |
| 6 | Jackie Bradley | 2016-04-24 | 2016-05-25 | 29 | 106 | 19 | 44 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 30 | 14 | .415 | .488 | .783 | 1.271 | BOS |
Bradley and Garciaparra are looking over their shoulders at Xander Boegarts, currently with a hit in 24 games and counting through the end of May. Boston is just the third team to have two players record a 20 game hit streak before June, after the 1943 Cardinals and 2012 Giants. It’s a small sample but a good harbinger for the Red Sox that both of those teams were pennant winners. Those two streaks by the 1943 Cardinals were among four for that team that were running concurrently (i.e. all streaks overlapped each other for at least one game).
| Rk | Name | Strk Start ▴ | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Whitey Kurowski | 1943-04-27 | 1943-05-23 | 22 | 90 | 16 | 32 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 5 | .356 | .389 | .478 | .867 | STL |
| 2 | Lou Klein | 1943-05-09 | 1943-05-30 | 21 | 89 | 17 | 27 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 8 | .303 | .361 | .539 | .900 | STL |
| 3 | Stan Musial | 1943-05-16 | 1943-06-05 | 22 | 83 | 18 | 32 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 19 | 15 | .386 | .485 | .614 | 1.099 | STL |
| 4 | Harry Walker | 1943-05-22 | 1943-06-15 | 22 | 80 | 18 | 36 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 9 | .450 | .506 | .638 | 1.143 | STL |
The 1936 Indians are the only other team to have four players with concurrent 20 game hit streaks when they had five such players that July.
| Rk | Name | Strk Start ▴ | Strk End | Games | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | Tm | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Earl Averill | 1936-07-04 | 1936-07-25 | 20 | 89 | 29 | 42 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 25 | 7 | .472 | .510 | .764 | 1.274 | CLE |
| 2 | Hal Trosky | 1936-07-05 | 1936-08-02 | 28 | 126 | 26 | 52 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 39 | 5 | .413 | .435 | .762 | 1.197 | CLE |
| 3 | Roy Weatherly | 1936-07-09 | 1936-07-28 | 20 | 86 | 20 | 39 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 3 | .453 | .472 | .698 | 1.170 | CLE |
| 4 | Joe Vosmik | 1936-07-11 | 1936-08-04 | 20 | 82 | 12 | 36 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 7 | .439 | .483 | .573 | 1.056 | CLE |
| 5 | Odell Hale | 1936-07-11 | 1936-07-30 | 21 | 99 | 26 | 42 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 2 | .424 | .436 | .727 | 1.163 | CLE |
Boegart’s streak has contributed to a total of 42 runs through Boston’s first 50 games to become just the fifth Boston shortstop since 1913 to exceed 40 runs over that stretch of the season, following Johnny Pesky (1946), Vern Stephens (1950), John Valentin (1995) and Nomar Garciaparra (2003). Boegarts’ 73 hits through Boston’s first 50 games are the most for a Red Sox shortstop since 1913 and rank among the ten highest totals by a shortstop for any team.
Joining Boegarts with 40 runs in 50 games is Mookie Betts, giving Boston two such players for the first time since 1951. Both Boegarts and Betts are aged 23, making them only the second pair of teammates so young with that start to a season, following Mark Koenig and Lou Gehrig who recorded 40+ runs in the Yankees’ first 50 games in both 1926 and 1927. Betts’s 3 home run game on Tuesday is just the 22nd by a leadoff hitter and the first for a Red Sox player batting first. Betts is the fifth youngest of those players, the youngest of whom, Tommy Brown, is also the first to accomplish this feat, in a losing cause for the Dodgers on 1950-09-18. Betts’s 40 RBI through Boston’s first 52 games are tied with Ian Kinsler in 2009 for the most by a hitter batting leadoff in any season since 1913.
Supporting the new Killer Bees are veterans Ramirez, Pedroia and Ortiz, giving Boston four regulars batting .300 as of this writing and seven hitting over .280. That team effort has resulted in the Red Sox scoring 103 more runs than last year over the first 50 games of the season. That’s the ninth highest such season-to-season scoring increase since 1913 and the second highest since 1955, eclipsed in the latter instance only by the 120 run improvement by the 2004 Tigers after their disastrous 119 loss season the year before.
It’s a good thing for Boston that they’ve scored so many runs as their starting pitching has yet to show its best form, with Steven Wright and Rick Porcello turning in better than expected performances, but David Price and the maddeningly inconsistent Clay Buchholz still searching for their grooves. Price has been ably supported by Boston’s offense, sporting a stellar 7-1 record (.875 W-L%) despite a rocky 5.11 ERA (87 ERA+). Other qualified pitchers may previously have had that imbalance between W-L% and ERA+ at this or other points of the season, but only Byron Houck posted a W-L% higher than 1% of his ERA+ for a full, qualified season, with a 14-6 record (.700 W-L%) and 67 ERA+ in 176 IP for the 1913 Athletics. Maybe another good harbinger for Boston as those A’s were world champions.
Did you mean to put a qualifier on JBJ’s 29 hitting streak being the 2nd longest since 1913? Dom DiMaggio had a 34 game streak in 1949, it was mentioned frequently (at least on the Red Sox broadcasts). Also, if you go back before 1913, you’ve got Tris Speaker, 30 games in 1912.
The Red Sox historic run-scoring pace so far makes their decision not to trade Boegarts, Betts and especially JBJ look very good so far. I don’t think they’ll keep up this pace the whole season, but level off to about 5.5 R/G, which would still lead the AL by A LOT (Mariners next now at 5.04 R/G). If so, their starting pitching needs to clearly improve to be a serious WS contender.
Yes, as stated, JBJ’s streak is the second longest by a Boston player since 1913 (and, thus, searchable in P-I).
DiMaggio’s “streak” was interrupted by a PR appearance, so hasn’t been counted here.
Dave,
I don’t think that a pinch running-only game appearance with no PA would end a hitting streak. After poking around some, I believe that a hitting streak is _officially_ ended only by an official at-bat or a sac fly in a game. One PA that is a walk or other non-AB event (or more than one PA, all of which are neither official ABs/sac fies) would NOT end the streak.
I’m far from an expert on this, so any clarification would help.
I’m actually more interested in how people here project JBJ’s offensive performance going forward; will he continue at an All-Star level, could he revert to his replacement-level 2014 :(, or will he regress a bit to a good-but-not-GREAT! level??
I don’t know if there is an official definition of a streak but, for this piece, I counted every game appearance, with or without an AB (or SF).
Bradley seems to picking up where he left off last year. His last 53 games of 2015, he slashed .291/.369/.593 which just about anybody would take in a heartbeat. His career slash prior to that finish was only .188/.265/.269 in 589 PA, so it seems like it just started to click for him starting last August and he’s been rolling ever since. Certainly there will be ups and downs, but hard to see someone his age who’s been that hot for 100+ games suddenly reverting to below replacement level (though it’s probably happened at least once before). I’ll try to find some comps for him and see what turns up.
From the official rules at http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/official_rules.jsp (the anglo PDF) :
9.23 Guidelines for Cumulative Performance Records
(a) Consecutive Hitting Streaks
A consecutive hitting streak shall not be terminated if a batter’s plate appearance results in a base on balls, hit batsman, defensive interference or obstruction or a sacrifice bunt. A sacrifice fly shall terminate the streak.
(b) Consecutive-Game Hitting Streaks
A consecutive-game hitting streak shall not be terminated if all of a batter’s plate appearances (one or more) in a game result in a base on balls, hit batsman, defensive interference or obstruction or a sacrifice bunt. The streak shall terminate if the player has a sacrifice fly and no hit.
A player’s individual consecutive-game hitting streak shall be determined by the consecutive games in which such player appears and is not determined by his club’s games.
(c) Consecutive-Game Playing Streak
A consecutive-game playing streak shall be extended if a player plays one half-inning on defense or if the player completes a time at bat by reaching base or being put out. A pinch-
running appearance only shall not extend the streak. If a player is ejected from a game by an umpire before such player can comply with the requirements of this Rule 9.23(c) (Rule 10.23(c)), such player’s streak shall continue.
(d) Suspended Games
For the purpose of this Rule 9.23 (Rule 10.23), all performances in the completion of a suspended game shall be considered as occurring on the original date of the game.
139
Thanks obs,
Baseball really does have rules for just about everything.
Well, I looked at some comps.
First thing is that Bradley’s 53 OPS+ over his first two seasons is the lowest of 55 outfielders since 1901 with OPS+ of 80 or less in 500-750 PA over that part of his career. You’ve got to go to OPS+ of 68 or 69 before finding any recognizable names (Brady Anderson, Ben Revere, Bobby del Greco, Eric Yelding, Peter Bergeron) in that group. At the upper end of the group (75-80 OPS+) are names like Al Kaline, CoCo Crisp, Randy Winn, Gregor Blanco, Jo-Jo White, Jay Johnstone and John Cangelosi.
Of the 55, only 34 recorded 400 PA over seasons 3 and 4, with a median OPS+ of 89. At this point, Bradley’s 140 OPS+ for last season and this ranks second only to Al Kaline’s 150 result. The rest of the top 10 looks like:
Generated 6/3/2016.
So, best case is another Kaline (unlikely, but you never know). But, even if he’s only a Coco Crisp (or even former Boston CF’er Gary Geiger), he’ll still be a useful player.
Currently, Bryce Harper has this slash line:
.238 / .409 / .518 / .927
That’s a .927 OPS with a .238 BA
Most likely that average will go up, but if not, that’s an historic line…
I ran a search for:
min 350 PA
less than .240 BA
highest OPS
.906 … Mickey Tettleton
.898 … Adam Dunn
.893 … Carlos Pena (led league in HR)
.859 … Mark McGwire
.858 … (the law offices of) Morgan Ensberg
.855 … Adam Dunn
.851 … Jack Cust (led league in SO and BB)
.848 … Mickey Tettleton
I just got curious about the other end of the spectrum.
Lowest OPS
.340 BA:
.773 … Glenn Beckert
.776 … George Cutshaw
.793 … Matty Alou
.799 … Willie Keeler
.802 … Patsy Dougherty
.806 … Lloyd Waner
.807 … Don Mueller
.807 … Miguel Dilone
Harper’s ratio of OBP to BA is close to the top 10 in qualified seasons since 1901. Highest is Jimmy Sheckard with a .368 OBP and .194 BA in 1913 for a 1.90 ratio. Highest in the live ball era (and highest in a modern definition qualifying season) is 1.82 for Jim Wynn in 1976 (.377/.207).