Ichiro Suzuki

HHS reader JDV noted that Indians’ shortstop Francisco Lindor had recently played the 162nd game of his career and had recorded 198 hits over that first full season equivalent. That seemed like an interesting idea for a post, so I’ll look more at that question after the jump.

Lindor’s 198 hits ranks just outside the magic 200 level that these 51 players have reached since 1913.

The list is dominated by players from the high scoring 1920s and 1930s with only one (Tony Oliva) whose career began in the low run scoring environment of the mid 1960s. To adjust for run scoring environment, here are the lists for different time periods based on the debut season for each player.

[table id=287 /]

.

A few words about some of the lesser known names on the above lists:

• Ike Boone was an outfielder who makes this list for his time with the Red Sox. He slugged .487 with 128 OPS+ through age 28, then hardly played after that.
• Kiddo Davis was an outfielder with several NL clubs who didn’t play his rookie season until age 30. He batted .381 for the Giants in the 1933 and 1936 World Series.
• Roy Johnson was an outfielder with almost 5000 career PA, mostly for the Tigers and Red Sox. His 45 doubles as a 26 year-old rookie were a career high and led the AL in 1929.
• Smead Jolley was an outfielder who drove in 114 runs in his debut 1930 season, still the most for a White Sox rookie. The Hollywood Stars of the PCL traded for Jolley who batted .366 in two seasons in SoCal.
• Barney McCosky was an outfielder who compiled almost 5000 career PA, mainly with the Tigers and Athletics. He is one of 5 players (all were contemporaries of each other) with 120 runs scored in each of their first two seasons.
• Danny Litwhiler was an outfielder for several NL clubs. His 8th inning home run sealed a 2-0 Cardinal victory in the pivotal fifth game of a tied 1944 World Series.
• Juan Bonilla and Luis Salazar were infielders and Padre teammates on the early 1980s San Diego teams. Bonilla was released before the Padres’ 1984 NL championship season while Salazar, no longer a regular, was traded after that campaign.
• Terrence Long recorded 30 doubles, 80 RBI and 90 runs scored in two of his first three seasons to join HOFers Joe DiMaggio, Al Simmons and Earl Averill as the only center-fieders with that accomplishment.
• Mike Caruso was the regular White Sox shortstop in 1998 and 1999 at age 21-22. He played just 12 MLB games after the latter season.

Breaking out by position gives the next two lists, for infielders and outfielders. It’s not always easy to deduce a player’s position from P-I’s seasonal results, so please let me know if I’ve got anyone listed in the wrong position.

[table id=288 /]

.

A few more of the lesser known players.

• Ronny Paulino was the regular Pirate catcher in 2006 and 2007. His .310 BA in 400+ PA in 2006 is second only to Mike Piazza among expansion era rookie catchers.
• Toby Hall‘s 44 career home runs for the Rays are the franchise high for catchers.
• Ray Grimes (whose nickname was Bummer) played for the Cubs in the early 1920s. He and Benny Kauff (who played mostly in the FL) are the only players to slug over .500 with no more than 20 home runs in 1000+ PA over the first three seasons of a career.
• Ed Morgan maintained a .300 career BA for all but 6 games of his 3000+ PA career. Morgan, George Sisler and Todd Helton share the distinction of being the only first basemen to bat .350 with .200 ISO in 1000+ PA aged 26-27.
• Carl Lind led the AL in PA and AB in his 1928 rookie season, his only campaign as a regular. Lind’s 42 doubles that year are tied with Billy Herman for the most by a rookie second baseman.
• Hughie Critz posted a very creditable .974 career fielding percentage and 130 Rfield (the third highest pre-expansion total) in 1453 games at second base, but committed an error in each of just two games at shortstop.
• Brent Gates‘ 1993 debut season saw him record career highs in every traditional offensive category except triples and strikeouts.
• Fresco Thompson‘s four seasons with 30 doubles and 75 runs scored are tied with Juan Samuel and Chase Utley for the most by a Phillie second baseman.
• Tom Carey walked in only 4.1% of PA for his career, among the 10 lowest walk rates by a second baseman in a 1500 PA career.
• Pinky Whitney‘s 98 OPS+ for the 1930 Phillies is the lowest mark, by 10 points, in a 600 PA season batting .340.
• Pinky Higgins and Terry Pendleton are the only third basemen to twice start every game of a 7-game World Series for the losing team, both doing so for different teams in seasons six years apart.
• Danny O’Connell‘s 30 doubles in 1961 were ten more than any other Senators’ player in that franchise’s inaugural season.
• Jim Tabor was a teammate of Ted Williams in the latter’s .400 season in 1941. Tabor’s 539 PA that year were the fewest by a third baseman in a 100 RBI season until George Brett flirted with a .400 season in 1980.
• Pete Ward was the first AL third baseman to reach 20 home runs, 80 RBI and 125 OPS+ in two of his first three seasons; only Evan Longoria has since matched that accomplishment in the junior circuit.

Here are the results for the outfield positions.

[table id=289 /]

.

Some more tidbits on the lesser lights:

• Rip Radcliff‘s league-leading 200 hits for the Browns at age 34 in 1940 tie him with George Sisler and B.J. Surhoff as the oldest Browns or Orioles players to reach the 200 hit plateau.
• Red Worthington‘s two stolen bases over his first two seasons in 1931-32 were then the lowest total by a left-fielder in 200+ games over that part of his career; only five players have since matched or lowered that mark with Pat Burrell the most recent of those.
• Moose Solters is the first AL player to be traded during a 200 hit season. Quiz: which three NL players were traded during a 200 hit season to that year’s World Series champion?
• Alex Metzler and Carl Reynolds each recorded 10 triples and fewer than 30 doubles for the 1928 and 1929 White Sox, the only pair of AL outfield teammates with that accomplishment in consecutive live ball era seasons.
• Jimmy Welsh‘s 198 hits are the leading total by a Brave. Welsh was traded by Boston before the 1928 season to acquire Rogers Hornsby from the Giants. Rajah would play just that one year in Boston, teaming with shortstop Doc Farrell (another acquisition from New York who went bust with the Braves) to man the keystone positions that season. The next year, Boston dealt Farrell back to the Giants to reacquire Welsh.

Putting the previous sets of tables together yields the following table showing the leader in hits in the first 162 games of a career, for each position and time period.

[table id=291 /]

.

The only name in the above table that hasn’t previously appeared is that of Kent Hrbek whose relatively modest total of 173 hits is a surprise as the leading mark for first basemen in the 1961-85 period.

Breaking down these results based on debut age yields the following table.

[table id=292 /]

.

The uniformity in the above results would tend to suggest that major league teams are usually pretty astute in judging when a player is ready to make the jump to the big leagues (although one can always debate whether “older” players who make a splash in their majors debut could not have done so one or two years sooner). With only a couple of “busts” in the Under 21 (Dick Wakefield) and Age 21 (Mike Caruso; Jake Powell also qualifies as a bust but, despite his age 21 debut, his rookie season didn’t come until age 26) lists the Indians can be encouraged in contemplating Francisco Lindor‘s future development. Very young players who do well starting their major league careers often do have long, productive careers as they have more time to develop their talent to a higher level before their decline phase sets in (Bill James demonstrated this in one of his studies comparing groups of players with similar rookie seasons, one of 21 year-olds and the other of 22 year-olds; to his surprise James found that the younger group would go on to compile 50% more career value than the group just one year older when posting very similar rookie results).

To close, here is a table showing the Top 5 results for each franchise. The numbers shown here for some players may be slightly different than in previous tables that included all of each player’s first 162 games compared to just the subset of those games for one franchise as shown in this table.

[table id=290 /]

.

The Rangers have not fared well in this regard, still looking for their first player with even the relatively modest total of 170 hits over his first 162 games. Some other surprises:

• Ted Williams doesn’t even lead among outfielders on his own team
• No Frank Robinson in the Reds list
• Albert Pujols just misses the Cardinal list