Here’s a list of some of the all-time great sluggers, plus a few others in a different class. Your task is to identify the career accomplishment shared only by these retired players.
Congratulations to Elkboy! (and welcome to HHS). He knew that only these retired players recorded Isolated Power higher than Batting Average in a 3000 PA career. More after the jump.
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All of these pitchers played for a division champion. But, they also did something else to distinguish themselves from all other relief pitchers since divisional play began in 1969. What is this unusual pitching accomplishment?
The pitchers are:
Click MORE for links to these players’ Baseball-Reference pages.
The solution to the quiz is that these are the only relief pitchers on a division-winning team to face fewer than 3.75 batters per IP in a 50 IP season with zero starts. More on efficient relief seasons after the jump.
The 2012 Minnesota Twins have the unfortunate distinction of being the only club in more than 35 years with some unusual position players on its roster. What unenviable characteristic distinguishes these clubs from among all other post-war teams?
| Rk | Year | Tm |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2012 | Minnesota Twins |
| 2 | 1979 | Cleveland Indians |
| 3 | 1976 | California Angels |
| 4 | 1976 | San Diego Padres |
| 5 | 1976 | Texas Rangers |
| 6 | 1972 | Montreal Expos |
| 7 | 1968 | San Francisco Giants |
| 8 | 1959 | Philadelphia Phillies |
Hint #1: There were twelve such teams from 1920 to 1941, and seven more from 1942 to 1945. Seventeen of those 19 teams were Braves, Phillies, Athletics and Reds clubs.
Hint #2: The recent passing of 1960s Giant third baseman Jim Davenport led me to this topic (though he wasn’t one of the players that put the 1968 Giants on this list).
Congratulations to bstar! He correctly identified that only these post-war teams had two players qualify for the league batting championship with ISO of 0.05 or less. More after the jump.
The players in this quiz share the distinction of posting the only qualified seasons since 1961 with a certain batting accomplishment. What is it?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Brad Ausmus |
| 2 | Royce Clayton |
| 3 | Tony Pena |
| 4 | Ted Simmons |
| 5 | John Wathan |
| 6 | Marty Perez |
| 7 | John Bateman |
Hint #1: only one of these players posted such a season before age 30
Hint #2: no outfielder since 1871 has posted such a season
Congratulations to Richard Chester! He correctly identified that only these players have a qualified season since 1961 with times grounded into double plays exceeding 15% of their total bases. Ouch! More on these forgettable seasons after the jump.
2015 NL RoY Kris Bryant makes this list of modern batters who were not shy about taking their cuts. What is the unusual seasonal batting feat that only these players have achieved since 1901?
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Hernandez |
| 2 | Austin Jackson |
| 3 | Kris Bryant |
| 4 | Rick Monday |
| 5 | Mike Napoli |
| 6 | Mark Bellhorn |
| 7 | Jack Cust |
| 8 | Gary Pettis |
| 9 | Ben Grieve |
| 10 | Anthony Gose |
Our readers zeroed in on BABIP as part of the quiz answer, but didn’t get that only these players had a qualified season since 1901 with a .350 BABIP that was one-third higher than their overall batting average. Those seasons are after the jump.
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2015 NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta is one of the twelve pitchers below to record a certain single game pitching accomplishment in the past twenty seasons (since 1996). What is this unusual feat?
Hint #1: Roger Clemens is the only other Cy Young Award winner to accomplish this feat.
Hint #2: Since 1914, no pitcher has accomplished this feat on his birthday.
Looks like this one was a stumper. The key to the solution was observing that these twelve pitchers were born on only 6 dates, two pitchers per date. In fact, only these pitchers have started a game since 1996 in which the the two starters shared a common birth date (i.e. born same day and year). More after the jump.