Trivia: Rare stat combo

In 2011, a player in the NL East had a two-piece statistical combination that had only been done twice before in MLB history.

  • Both stats are basic counting stats that you would have found on the back of a 1950s baseball card.
  • Both stats are of the “more is better” variety; the combination was a “good news, bad news” story.
  • One of the two previous players did it as a rookie; the other was a grizzled veteran.

Who did what?

(Note: The mystery has been solved — congrats to jsg — click “Read the rest…” for the answer.)

Answer:

Anibal Sanchez had 202 strikeouts and just 8 wins, tying Nolan Ryan (1987) and Bob Johnson (1970) for the fewest wins with 200+ Ks:

Rk Player Year SO W ERA+ WAR IP Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF L W-L% SV H R ER BB ERA
1 Anibal Sanchez 2011 202 8 106 3.4 196.1 27 FLA NL 32 32 3 2 0 9 .471 0 187 85 80 64 3.67
2 Nolan Ryan 1987 270 8 142 5.5 211.2 40 HOU NL 34 34 0 0 0 16 .333 0 154 75 65 87 2.76
3 Bob Johnson 1970 206 8 121 4.1 214.0 27 KCR AL 40 26 10 1 7 13 .381 4 178 82 73 82 3.07
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/19/2012.
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Bix
Bix
12 years ago

The Nationals’ Mike Morse had 36 doubles and 36 walks….

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
12 years ago

Does it perchance have something to do with Jose Reyes’ huge disparity between Runs (101) and RBI (44)? Like over 100 R, but less than 50 RBI?

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
12 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

Never mind, can’t be that. Apparently, that happens WAY more than I thought it did.

Hartvig
Hartvig
12 years ago
Reply to  Dr. Doom

See the 1899-1911 version of Roy Thomas- he had a career full of ’em

Ed
Ed
12 years ago

This is a position player?

Dr. Doom
Dr. Doom
12 years ago
Reply to  Ed

Drat! That was my thought, too. I had all the team pages for the NL East open, and was looking over them for like 20 minutes. Stupid pitchers. Always mucking stuff up.

jsg
jsg
12 years ago

K > 200, W < 9? Anibal Sanchez 2011, Nolan Ryan 1987, and some other guy.

Hartvig
Hartvig
12 years ago
Reply to  John Autin

I have no memory at all of the 70’s pitching version of Bob Johnson- in fact when I saw the name and year I wondered if the 60’s infielder had switched and became a pitcher.

Ted B
Ted B
12 years ago

Ryan Howard had 115+ RBI and 170+ Ks

nightfly
12 years ago

Wow, I had no idea that of those three that it would be RYAN without a SHO, or even a CG. It was his first season since he was 19 that he failed to get a CG… and he only threw 3 innings that year. This would only happen to him again when he was 46, in his final, 13-start season.

Latefortheparty
Latefortheparty
12 years ago

I saw a lot of Ryan between ’86 and ’88. The strikeouts tell the story: the guy was a monster.