Quiz – Triple Triumvirate (solved) |

This season marks only the fifth time in major league history that three active players have had three or more seasons with a particular batting accomplishment. The players involved on those occasions are shown below. What is this unusual batting feat?

Rk	1935	1938-39	1960	2002-07	2014
1	Babe Ruth	Lou Gehrig	Mickey Mantle	Barry Bonds	Jose Bautista
2	Lou Gehrig	Jimmie Foxx	Ted Williams	Frank Thomas	Albert Pujols
3	Jimmie Foxx	Mel Ott	Eddie Mathews	Jason Giambi	Jason Giambi

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/2/2014.

Congratulations to Richard Chester! With some help from others, he correctly identified that only in the years indicated were there three active players who had then compiled 3 seasons of 6 WAR, 35 home runs and 100 walks. Three such seasons is quite rare, with only two players achieving that feat in addition to those above. At no time have more than 3 active players concurrently achieved that distinction. More after the jump.

Jose Bautista is the newest player with three 6/35/100 seasons, joining this group.

Rk	Name	Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Babe Ruth	10	1920	1932	25-37	Ind. Seasons
2	Barry Bonds	9	1993	2004	28-39	Ind. Seasons
3	Mike Schmidt	7	1974	1983	24-33	Ind. Seasons
4	Lou Gehrig	7	1927	1937	24-34	Ind. Seasons
5	Mickey Mantle	5	1955	1961	23-29	Ind. Seasons
6	Ted Williams	5	1941	1957	22-38	Ind. Seasons
7	Frank Thomas	4	1993	2000	25-32	Ind. Seasons
8	Jimmie Foxx	4	1932	1938	24-30	Ind. Seasons
9	Jose Bautista	3	2010	2014	29-33	Ind. Seasons
10	Albert Pujols	3	2008	2010	28-30	Ind. Seasons
11	Jason Giambi	3	2000	2002	29-31	Ind. Seasons
12	Eddie Mathews	3	1954	1960	22-28	Ind. Seasons
13	Ralph Kiner	3	1948	1951	25-28	Ind. Seasons
14	Mel Ott	3	1929	1938	20-29	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2014.

Among retired players, only Barry Bonds has yet to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. No other active players seem destined to join this group soon, with only these players having even one such season.

Rk	Name	Yrs	From	To	Age
1	Adrian Gonzalez	1	2009	2009	27-27	Ind. Seasons
2	Prince Fielder	1	2009	2009	25-25	Ind. Seasons
3	Carlos Pena	1	2007	2007	29-29	Ind. Seasons
4	David Ortiz	1	2007	2007	31-31	Ind. Seasons
5	Alex Rodriguez	1	2000	2000	24-24	Ind. Seasons

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/3/2014.

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brp

10 years ago

Based on Joey Bats presumably joining the list this year – I’m going to guess 30 HR, 100 RBI, and 100 BB.

Author

Doug

Reply to brp

One of those is right.

Richard Chester

How about 35+ HR, 100+ BB and 160+ OPS+.

Reply to Richard Chester

Two of the three are right.

Editor

John Autin

Reply to Doug

Richard’s 160+ OPS+ doesn’t fit Bautista, listed at 159 this year.

Since Richard had two parts right, it must be 35+ HRs and 100+ BB. And any OPS+ figure that fits Bautista would also put Jim Thome as part of the Bonds/Thomas/Giambi group. So the third marker is not OPS+.

Or so I think.

6.5 Offensive WAR, 35+ HRs and 100+ BB works. The only players with 3 such years are Doug’s 12, plus Killebrew and Schmidt — and those two never had two others active in that club.

But Doug might have something else in mind.

BTW, here’s a link to the individual years of 35 HRs and 100 walks by Doug’s 12 players:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=DpZlf

Reply to John Autin

This is really close.

Looks like WAR = 6.0 works.

BryanM

I’m trying 35+ Hr 100+ RBI. 100+ BB

Reply to BryanM

Mantle had only 2 100+ RBI seasons during his common years with Williams.

RBI are not involved.

Should have said 100 + runs scored . Matthews combined that with 100+ BB and 35+ hr for the 3 rd time in 1959. , while Ted was still active

How about 35+ HR, 100+ BB and fewer than 200 hits.

That won’t work. Now I’ll try 35+ HR, 100+ BB and less than 120 SO.

Richard, I think you can forget Ks — anything that fits Bautista would also put Palmeiro in a group with Bonds and Thomas.

Strikeouts and hits are not involved.

Steve

35+ HRs 100 BB 100 RS 20 doubles

Richard has it.

35 home runs, 100 walks, 6 WAR.

I wouldn’t have guessed there are so few players with 3 such seasons.

Lawrence Azrin

@18/Doug;

Maybe there are relatively few because most of the 35 HR/100 BB guys would be either first basemen or corner outfielders, and they would take a hit with WAR for the positional adjustment?

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

True enough.

More generally, though, this points up that few sluggers have the patience to accept a lot of walks for fear of cutting into their power numbers.

In reality, patience probably helps sluggers in that they will likely get better pitches to hit when ahead in the count, as pitchers will know those hitters are less likely to chase pitches out of the zone.

Doug: As of the end of the 1934 season Ruth had 10 such seasons, Gehrig had 5 and Foxx had 2. But by the time Foxx reached those totals in 1935 Ruth was already retired. So does 1935 count as a year with 3 active players?

I appreciate your argument.

But, for simplicity, I was calling it 3 active players if:
– all were active in that season
– all had achieved those 3 such seasons during that season or before

HowardR

Good grief…why would a contending team waste a roster spot on a 43 year old who could never run or field and was horrible at the plate when he was 42?

David P

Reply to HowardR

HowardR – I assume you’re referring to Giambi? Long story short, Francona has a HUGE man crush on Giambi. He considers him like having another coach. Why he didn’t make him a coach rather than keeping him on the roster, I have no idea (though at least he was on the DL most of the year so he was on the 40 man roster, but not the 25).

Reply to David P

Also, Giambi had two, huge pinch-hit walk-off home runs last year, including one in the last week of the season that turned a loss into a win, as Cleveland won their last 10 and last 20 of 25 to squeak into the playoffs. Superstitious managers remember those heroics.

Incidentally, Giambi is the oldest player with a pinch-WOHR, surpassing previous record-holder Hank Aaron with the first shot, and extending his own record with the second.

Doug: After scanning Aaron’s HR log I could not find any pinch-WOHR.

You’re right, Richard. My mistake. It wasn’t Aaron, but Tony Perez who was previously the oldest with a pinch-WOHR. Player Age ▾ Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB HR RBI Pos Summary Pitcher Batter Play Description Jason Giambi 42.259 2013-09-24 CLE CHW W 5-4 1 1 1 2 PH Addison Reed Jason Giambi Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep RF); Brantley Scores Jason Giambi 42.202 2013-07-29 CLE CHW W 3-2 1 1 1 1 PH DH Ramon Troncoso Jason Giambi Home Run (Fly Ball to Deep CF) Tony Perez 42.110 1984-09-01 CIN PIT W 7-5 1 1 1 2 PH Don Robinson… Read more »