Quiz – Post-war Infielders (STUMPED)

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

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11 years ago

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.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

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.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

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?

Brent

11 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

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.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

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.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

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.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

Sorry, didn’t see Doug’s @10 when I posted this.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Not related to SLG, or having a high (or low) percentage of XBH.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

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.

Brent

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Could all of the players be identified in a single P-I search?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yes.

Bix

11 years ago

OBP 40?

Bix

11 years ago

Reply to Bix

Don’t know why it looks like that. Should be OBP less than .300 while having at least 40 walks.

Bix

11 years ago

Reply to Bix

Never mind. Only works for about half of them.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Bix

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

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Bix

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.

11 years ago

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.

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

Sorry, that should be 10 CS in 1978.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

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

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

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

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

This wasn’t intended as a reply to anyone’s comment. Oops

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

Hey! That´s something WE have in common! 🙂

11 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

And I thought it was only the ‘never hit a homer in the majors’ thing. 🙂

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Why did Brendan Ryan have a positive oWar last year with this line? :

.194 .277 .278 .555

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

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).

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

His 27 Rfield was second best in the Majors.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

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… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

Ed, thanks for the correction on oWAR.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John – I hope my correction didn’t sound harsh. It wasn’t intended to be.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to 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.

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

@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…

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

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… Read more »

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

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.

MikeD

11 years ago

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.