Quiz – Double Trouble (solved)

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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

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Generated 3/7/2016.

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.

If you’re not familiar with ISO, it stands for isolated power and is simply slugging percentage minus batting average. Thus, if a player hit only singles, his ISO would be zero. Here are the players on the quiz teams.

Rk	Year	Tm	#Matching
1	2012	Minnesota Twins	2	Jamey Carroll / Ben Revere
2	1979	Cleveland Indians	2	Duane Kuiper / Rick Manning
3	1976	California Angels	2	Dave Chalk / Jerry Remy
4	1976	San Diego Padres	2	Tito Fuentes / Fred Kendall
5	1976	Texas Rangers	2	Juan Beniquez / Lenny Randle
6	1972	Montreal Expos	2	Tim Foli / Ron Hunt
7	1968	San Francisco Giants	2	Ron Hunt / Hal Lanier
8	1959	Philadelphia Phillies	2	Sparky Anderson / Richie Ashburn

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2016.

The appearance of Richie Ashburn on this list is proof that even defending batting champs can sometimes have a bad year (Ashburn saw his batting average slip 84 points and his slugging percentage drop 134 notches from 1958 to 1959).

I mentioned that Jim Davenport‘s recent passing had led me to this topic. Voomo Zanzibar remarked on Davenport’s 1968 season with only three extra-base hits in 307 PA. That translated into a microscopic .022 ISO, the lowest in the majors that season among those with 250 PA (not to be outdone, Davenport’s teammate Hal Lanier matched that .022 mark the next year in 537 PA). Davenport’s career .109 ISO ranks as the 12th lowest mark among single-franchise players with 1500 game careers. But he’s in good company, with a couple of Hall of Famers in 10th and 11th spots, and a couple more not too far away.

Rk	Player	ISO	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Tm
1	Clyde Milan	.068	1982	8317	1004	2100	240	105	17	.285	.353	.353	.706	WSH
2	Bill Russell	.075	2181	8021	796	1926	293	57	46	.263	.310	.338	.648	LAD
3	Jim Gantner	.077	1801	6787	726	1696	262	38	47	.274	.319	.351	.671	MIL
4	Phil Rizzuto	.082	1661	6719	877	1588	239	62	38	.273	.351	.355	.706	NYY
5	Ossie Bluege	.084	1867	7453	883	1751	276	67	43	.272	.352	.356	.707	WSH
6	Luke Appling	.088	2422	10254	1319	2749	440	102	45	.310	.399	.398	.798	CHW
7	Dave Concepcion	.090	2488	9641	993	2326	389	48	101	.267	.322	.357	.679	CIN
8	Jim Gilliam	.090	1956	8322	1163	1889	304	71	65	.265	.360	.355	.715	BRO-LAD
9	Stan Hack	.096	1938	8508	1239	2193	363	81	57	.301	.394	.397	.791	CHC
10	Bill Mazeroski	.107	2163	8379	769	2016	294	62	138	.260	.299	.367	.667	PIT
11	Pee Wee Reese	.108	2166	9470	1338	2170	330	80	126	.269	.366	.377	.743	BRO-LAD
12	Jim Davenport	.109	1502	4981	552	1142	177	37	77	.258	.318	.367	.684	SFG
13	Frankie Crosetti	.109	1683	7270	1006	1541	260	65	98	.245	.341	.354	.695	NYY
14	Pie Traynor	.115	1941	8297	1183	2416	371	164	58	.320	.362	.435	.797	PIT
15	Ed Kranepool	.116	1853	5997	536	1418	225	25	118	.261	.316	.377	.693	NYM
16	Tony Gwynn	.121	2440	10232	1383	3141	543	85	135	.338	.388	.459	.847	SDP
17	Frank White	.128	2324	8468	912	2006	407	58	160	.255	.293	.383	.675	KCR
18	Mickey Stanley	.129	1517	5477	641	1243	201	48	117	.248	.298	.377	.675	DET
19	Derek Jeter	.130	2747	12602	1923	3465	544	66	260	.310	.377	.440	.817	NYY
20	Alan Trammell	.130	2293	9376	1231	2365	412	55	185	.285	.352	.415	.767	DET

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2016.

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Voomo Zanzibar

8 years ago

In Davenport’s 1968 season, he had ONE double in 307 PA…

… though that has nothing to do with this quiz
(even though it is called Double Trouble)

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

That observation is related to the quiz.

Davenport’s 1968 season is the last of 300 PA with XBH less than 1% of PAs. Dropping down to 250 PA finds Brett Butler (1982) and Julio Cruz (1986).

Goat Anderson (1907) is the only player below 1% in a qualifying season (modern definition), with 510 PA and 5 XBH.

CursedClevelander

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Going into the 19th century, you get Herman Pitz, who played for one season in 1890 in the American Association. 346 PA, 0 XBH, and 39 SB. I looked him up a few months ago when I was checking for the most SB in a season without a 2B, most SB without a 3B, and most SB without a HR. Of course, 1890 was a season with 3 major leagues, as it was the only season of the Player’s League. The AA was already the NL’s little brother, and the addition of the Player’s League meant that a lot of… Read more »

brp

8 years ago

2012 Twins and 1979 Indians both have 3 guys with 500+ ABs who never hit 10 HRs in a season at any point in their career (some still active for Twins; Span & Revere).

It seems to be something about multiple players on the roster with really low HR totals, which would explain the higher prevalence in earlier eras. Can’t pinpoint it beyond that.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to brp

One the right track re: multiple players and 500 PA.

But, it’s only about the seasons in question, not other seasons. And, not related to home runs (other than indirectly).

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

I ran the PI for 1946 to date for number of players on a team with 400+ PA and XBH less than .04*PA. All of of the teams on Doug’s list appeared but so did 57 others.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

That’s for teams with at least 2 such players.

Lawrence Azrin

8 years ago

All eight teams listed above had at least five regulars with a SLG % less than .400??

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Slugging is related, and more directly than home runs.

But, with regard to the number of players, bear in mind the title of the post.

Luis Gomez

8 years ago

Those teams had two players with more than 500 PA and 20 or less extra-base hits.

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Actually, one of the listed teams (the ’68 Giants) didn’t meet those criteria. And, two other teams not on the list (incl. a pennant winner) did.

But, you’re on the right track.

Luis Gomez

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Before I posted my comment above, I checked the first six teams only, and I thought I had it. If I had looked at all the teams, I would have said 21 extra-base hits.

After your reply, I considered SLG%. Except for the Twins, all those teams have two players with 500 PA and less than .315 SLG. The lowest SLG for 2012 Twins with 500 PA are .317 and .342, which I don´t think are very uncommon figures.

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

The metric in question is not SLG or XBH. But, another metric closely related to SLG.

bstar

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

I don’t have a P-I subscription right now, but I’d be willing to bet it’s ISO (isolated slugging percentage).

bstar

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, is it teams with two qualifiers with an ISO of 0.50 or less?

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

bstar: you win the bet.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Ron Hunt met the criteria for both the 1968 Giants and the 1972 Expos. Proof positive that HBP are not a component of ISO. (-;þ

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

Doug, I don’t have a P-I subscription. Does the P-I show the ’79 Indians as having two or three position players with sub-.050 ISOs? If it shows them with two, I’d argue that—by the narrowest of margins—it’s wrong.

bstar

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

I assume you’re talking about Tom Veryzer, who had 501 PA, one short of the 502 (162 G x 3.1 PA) needed to qualify for a rate stat leaderboard, but the Indians only played 161 games in ’79, so Veryzer really only needed 499 PA (161 G x 3.1 PA) to be a qualifier.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

The PI shows 2 ’79 Indians players as qualifiers with sub-.500 ISOs. Tom Veryzer, with 501 PA, does not show up. The Indians played 161 games that year but according to what I have read a player must have 3.1 times the number of scheduled games to qualify. But Fangraphs shows Veryzer as a qualifier.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

bstar and Richard, you’ve both spotted the issue. I’d bet that B-Ref’s “non-qualifiers for rate stats” are assessed using a leaguewide constant of 162 games rather than the actual number of games each team played. I’ll probably report this to them as a very tiny bug—gnat size or smaller.

e pluribus munu

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

I think Richard is correct, and that the qualifying stat pertains not to the number of games played but the number of games scheduled. At least, that’s how I read 9.22(a), and as I’ve always understood it.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

To Kahuna: If you are familiar with Fangraphs and Excel spreadsheet manipulation you can circumvent the PI and get your results.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

Richard and epm, you’re right about Rule 9.22(a). The language of the rule clearly ties rate-stat qualification to number of games scheduled. Sorry—I didn’t know what the flagnar I was talking about.

David P

8 years ago

That ’79 Indians team is remarkable in at least two ways:

1) Two players with 500+ PAs and 0 homeruns. Looks like the most recent team to do that was the `86 Cardinals (Ozzie and Vince Coleman). The `76 Angels did it as well. I’m sure there are others but it can’t be that common in the post-Ruth era.

2) They were led in WAR by a reliever! Sid Monge led all players, both pitchers and position players, with 5.6 WAR. That’s…WOW! Rare enough that a reliever leads his team in pitcher WAR, but to lead all players in WAR???!!!

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to David P

Since 1920 there have been 20 teams with 2 or more players with 500+ PA and 0 HR. The 1944 A’s and Senators had 3 such players. As mentioned the 1986 Cards were the last to do it.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Pet Kozma had 111 PA last year with no extra-base hits. Mark Grudzeilanek’s .273 BA in 2010 is the highest in a 100 PA season with no XBH. Others to post such a season include: Mike Gallego (1995), Otis Nixon (1984), Paul Casanova (1974), Pat Corrales (1972) and Frank Baumholtz (1956).

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to David P

1979 was the year Jim Kern had his big year as the Rangers’ closer (13-5, 1.57 ERA, 29 saves). The NBJHBA names Kern as the best pitcher in baseball that year. Yet according to B-Ref Kern’s 6.2 overall WAR did not lead his team—Buddy Bell had 6.9.

John Hiller led the Tigers in overall WAR in his huge 1973 and 1974 seasons. (Hiller posted 8.1 WAR in ’73!) I’m sure a number of other examples can be found, especially on clubs with poor offenses.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to David P

A few other relievers to lead their team in WAR.
– Dick Radatz – ’62 & ’64 Red Sox
– Dick Selma – ’70 Phillies
– Tom Murphy – ’74 Brewers
– Rich Gossage – ’75 White Sox
– Greg Minton – ’82 Giants

Brendan Bingham

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Interesting that after Gossage had his best year with the White Sox in ’75, they made him a starter in ’76, and he was mediocre. Beginning in ’77 with Pittsburgh, he never started again.

AlbaNate

8 years ago

Reply to David P

I remember Monge, but I forgot how good he was. That’s the 11th highest WAR season ever for a pure reliever. Gossage’s mind-blowing 8.2 in 75′ is the best ever.

no statistician but

8 years ago

The list of 20 players with low ISO includes 6 HOFers and one future HOFer (Jeter) plus two arguable HOFers, Hack and Trammell, and two more, Milan And Gilliam, who were very good in relatively short careers. Evidently there’s more to baseball than Isolated Power, even if Bill James has a fetish about it.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Admittedly, it’s 20 of only 65 one-franchise players with 1500+ career games since 1901 (incl. one active player, David Wright). 33 of the 65 are HOFers, four more are on the ballot, and two others (Jeter and Chipper) should be easy picks.