Don Mincher 1938-2012

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Don Mincher died a few days ago. He’s among a handful of players whose names instantly bring Jim Bouton‘s Ball Four to mind. Here’s a look at some of Mincher’s career achievements.

Mincher was by far the best regular on offense for the 1969 Seattle Pilots. Only 6 guys appeared in at least 100 games for the Pilots (imagine that!) and the next highest OPS+ to Mincher’s 132 was Wayne Comer at 109.

Mincher was no stranger to excellent performance with the bat. In 1967, among first-basemen with at least 400 plate appearances, he slotted 4th overall in OPS+, right between Willie McCovey and Mickey Mantle.

In fact, the meat of Mincher’s career was great, with a 10 year run from 1962 to 1971 playing almost exclusively at first base, working to a 130 OPS+ over 4203 PAs.

Among the 13 players to play at least half their games at 1B over that period (and with 4000 PAs overall), Mincher had the 5th-best OPS+, just behind Orlando Cepeda:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Age	HR	RBI	Pos	Tm
1	Willie McCovey	164	5360	24-33	326	916	*37/9	SFG
2	Boog Powell	137	5493	20-29	259	882	*37/9	BAL
3	Norm Cash	134	5582	27-36	266	779	*3/9	DET
4	Orlando Cepeda	134	5336	24-33	232	813	*3/79	SFG-TOT-STL-ATL
5	Don Mincher	130	4203	24-33	187	583	*3/97	MIN-CAL-SEP-OAK-TOT
6	Bill White	121	4246	28-35	131	566	*3/97	STL-PHI
7	Donn Clendenon	118	4918	26-35	155	671	*3/7985	PIT-TOT-NYM
8	Ron Fairly	116	5135	23-32	113	630	*39/87	LAD-TOT-MON
9	Deron Johnson	112	4402	23-32	176	644	*357/9	KCA-CIN-ATL-PHI
10	Wes Parker	111	4333	24-31	60	411	*3/987	LAD
11	Ernie Banks	106	5189	31-40	214	778	*3/5	CHC
12	Joe Pepitone	106	5108	21-30	208	681	*38/97	NYY-TOT-CHC
13	Danny Cater	103	4059	24-31	52	434	*375/948	PHI-CHW-TOT-KCA-OAK-NYY

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2012.

To give you an idea of some career comps for Mincher, there are presently 4 players with 4,500-5,000 career plate appearances with an OPS+ between 125 and 130: Mincher, Chase Utley, Jason Bay, and Cliff Johnson. Obviously Utley and Bay will likely not finish in that group.

Rk		PA	OPS+	From	To	HR	RBI	Pos	Tm
1	Ginger Beaumont	5160	126	1901	1910	31	529	*8/79	PIT-BSN-CHC
2	Roy Campanella	4815	123	1948	1957	242	856	*2	BRO
3	Ripper Collins	4204	126	1931	1941	135	659	*3/97	STL-CHC-PIT
4	Roy Cullenbine	4786	132	1938	1947	110	599	*973/58	DET-TOT-SLB-CLE
5	Alvin Davis	5010	127	1984	1992	160	683	*3D	SEA-CAL
6	Oscar Gamble	5197	127	1969	1985	200	666	D97/8	CHC-PHI-CLE-NYY-CHW-SDP-TOT
7	Jim Ray Hart	4236	127	1963	1974	170	578	*57D/9	SFG-TOT-NYY
8	Larry Hisle	4780	123	1968	1982	166	674	87D9	PHI-MIN-MIL
9	Bob Horner	4213	127	1978	1988	218	685	*53	ATL-STL
10	Cliff Johnson	4603	125	1972	1986	196	699	*D32/79	HOU-TOT-NYY-OAK-TOR
11	Sixto Lezcano	4814	124	1974	1985	148	591	*97/8D	MIL-STL-SDP-TOT-PHI-PIT
12	Don Mincher	4725	127	1960	1972	200	643	*3/97	WSH-MIN-CAL-SEP-OAK-TOT
13	Stan Spence	4445	125	1940	1949	95	575	*89/73	BOS-WSH-TOT
14	Riggs Stephenson	5135	129	1921	1934	63	773	*74/59	CLE-CHC
15	Roy Thomas	5198	123	1901	1911	7	219	*8/79	PHI-TOT-BSN

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2012.

If we limit the search to retired players and expand the group to 4,200-5,300 PAs, and OPS+ between 123 and 132, here is the group:

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Tmckelv

12 years ago

I always remembered Don Mincher for having played for Washington Senators I & Minnesota Twins, and then Washington Senators II & Texas Rangers. Throw in the Seattle Pilots and that makes an interesting set of “Franchises Played For”.

RIP Don.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

There was an excellent interview with Mincher a year or two ago in Baseball Prospectus. One of the interesting factoids is that he retired after the 1972 season, but Charlie Finley called him a few weeks after that, and asked him if he’d like to come back and be the A’s first DH. Mincher declined, but in the interview said he really wished he’d returned to play in 1973. He’s probably one of the best lifetime >.250 hitters ever*; a .249 lifetime BA, but a 127 OPS+. Run him through Neutralized Batting and he has .265 BA, batting over .300… Read more »

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Gene Tenace might be second-best(.241 career hitter, 48+ WAR).

Hartvig

12 years ago

Mincher was a Twin during much of my formative baseball years in North Dakota, but he was never one of my favorites for no particular reason. But for those among us who may not have read Ball Four or at least Bill James’ comments on Mincher from it in his Historical Abstract; Bouton expected not to like Mincher & expected him to be a redneck but instead wound up holding him in pretty high regard. From every thing I’ve found about him since, I think a number of people felt that way. And another link to one of my favorites,… Read more »

AlbaNate

12 years ago

Thanks for that first table–I hadn’t thought about Danny Cater in a looong time.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to AlbaNate

Danny Cater is best remembered as being traded by the Yankees to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle, a really good trade for the Yankees. Those Sox never seemed to learn.

In 1968 Cater was second to Yaz for the batting title with a .290 average. Anybody know if this was the lowest runner-up BA ever?

Tmckelv

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I would guess it was the lowest runner-up all-time.

I checked the top 10’s by year list which has the top 10 in MLB by year and only 1968 and 1880 had the #10 spot as low as .291. Meaning Cater was not in the top 10 MLB averages in 1968.

But someone would need to check every year to ensure each league had 2 representatives within the top 10 to prove it for sure.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

There were also no players in 1968 who scored a 100 or more runs. Looking at the Leaderboards, this is the only non-shortened year (1918, 1981) since 1882 when no one scored a 100 or more runs.

There have been a 100 or more RBI in every non-shortened year since 1906.

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

Cater ranked 2nd in the AL for BA in 1968, but only 13th in MLB.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

The 1968 AL was the only season ever where only one player (Yaz,.301) hit .300 or better. Every other year there were at least two other .300 hitters, even in the AL of 1905 and 1945. I remember at the time that many veteran writers thought it was an outrage and complete disgrace to the game, that there was only one .300 hitter that year in the AL, and that he only hit .301. That led to a number a columns reminiscing about the “good ‘ole days” of the 20s/30s, when a guy wouldn’t even be a regular unless he… Read more »

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

It is a bit curious, though, that were was just one .300 hitter in the AL, but 5 in the NL (plus 6 more better the the AL’s number 2).

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Those Pilots had wheels.
First in the league in SB.
And Mincher, who had never attempted more than 5 steals in a season, attempted 21.
Only successful 10 times, though.

Imbroglio21

12 years ago

Even if they are a bit long to read, here are two very interesting pieces about Mincher:

Part 1 – http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12702
Part 2 – http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12703

Steven

12 years ago

Not many Twins’ starting players left from that 1965 team.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Mincher probably had the worst offensive context of any player since the dead-ball era. His first year as a regular was 1963. That year, AL scoring plunged to 4.08 R/G (from 4.44). Then 4.06, 3.94, 3.89, 3.70, 3.41 (’68), 4.09, 4.17, 3.87, and 3.47 in ’72, his final year. That’s a 10-year average of 3.87. In his first year away, AL scoring surged by 23% to 4.28 R/G. On the other hand … Mincher’s raw numbers probably benefited from being platooned, pretty strictly so when he was on a good team like the Twins. Only 20% of his career PAs… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Bill James had a short essay in his NBJHA on the subject you mention; the players with the worst offensive context for their careers. As I recall, Don Buford was at the top of the list for modern (since the deadball era) players. In B-R, under “Advanced Batting”, there is a stat called AIR, which measures the relative offensive levels of a batter’s era and park, with “average” at 100. Buford is at 88, Mincher at 91 – waaaay below average. Both played the majority of their career during the “second deadball era” of 1963-68. The career AIR of a… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I wasn’t really familiar with Buford but WOW! Played 300+ games at left, 2nd, and 3rd with very good dWARs. Eight straight seasons of 2.0+ oWAR. Not bad for a guy who’s listed at 5’7, 160. (basically my size btw) Has to be one of the most underappreciated/unknown players in baseball history.

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

BTW, Buford scored exactly 99 runs three years in a row. He missed between 18-40 games each of those seasons or he would have passed 100 easily. Poor guy never did reach 100 runs scored.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Kevin McReynolds was like that with RBI and HR, 1986-88: consecutive seasons of 96,95,and 99 RBI; 26, 29, and 27 HR. So he never reached 100 runs, RBI, 30 HR,or a .300 BA, despite being a pretty good player for nearly a decade.

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

More fun with 99 runs scored…guess how many different players have a season of 99 runs scored? Yep…99!

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Seasons of exactly 99 Runs and 99 RBI:
– Herman Long, 1898
– Ty Cobb, 1922
– Ray Grimes, also 1922 (same year of his record 17 straight games with 1+ RBI)
– Billy Southworth, 1926

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Albert Pujols has scored and driven in over 100 runs every year of his career except 2007 when he scored 99 runs and 2011 when he drove in 99 runs.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

And both of those season totals were like a kick in my gut. I loved the fact that Pujols was putting together the most beautiful looking back of a baseball card ever and hated that those 99s were gonna stand out. Obviously, his stats still look great.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

For 1969-71 combined (Orioles pennant seasons), Buford ranked 3rd in OBP among all MLB hitters with 1000+ PAs.

As for Buford scoring “just” 99 runs all 3 years, blame it on Weaver batting Mark Belanger #2 for about 100 games in that span.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I’ll guess without looking it up (scout’s honor!) that Willie McCovey was #1 by far.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Lawrence @29 — Oh, my, yes, by a big margin.
1) McCovey, .435
2) Killebrew, .409
3) Buford, .405

Care to guess the other 3 men at or above .400?

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

To be fair, in the third of those years, Buford led the league in runs scored, despite playing only 122 games.

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

“Care to guess the other 3 men at or above .400?”

John, in spite of the fact that I’m almost certain that I’m going to come off looking like an idiot & following Lawrence’s lead of not cheating, I will guess: Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and…. someone else

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yep.

Looks like the only one I got right was “someone else”.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I’ll take a stab (I promise I haven’t looked). I’ll guess Joe Torre(for that .360ish BA in ’71), Yaz, and Tony Oliva. Oliva is probably wrong but I couldn’t think of anyone else.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Not surprisingly, Colorado Rockies players, who play in Coors Field (the “Baker Bowl” of the mid/late 90s) are at the other end of the AIR scale, having the _highest_ offensive context:

CAREER AIR:
Helton: 123 (the humidor doesn’t seem to have as much an effect as some people think)
Castilla: 120
Bichette: 118
Walker: 117 (95 and below his first four years)
Galarraga: 109 (above 100 only one of his 1st 8 years)
Burks: 109 (above 101 once his first seven years)

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

I wonder if any other player with exactly 1 PA in a World Series made as much of it as Mincher did? Game 4 of the ’72 Series, last of the 9th, A’s trailing 2-1 with 1 out and 2 on. Mincher, who’d only gotten 64 PAs since rejoining Oakland in a July 20 trade (hitting .148 without a HR), pinch-hit for Dick Green against Clay Carroll, who that year set a new MLB record with 37 saves, and had tossed 9 scoreless innings in the 1970 WS. Mincher singled to RF, plating the tying run and sending Gene Tenace… Read more »

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Some other good 1 PA WS careers:
– Bobby Kielty, 2007, Game 4, leadoff HR in 8th inning providing eventual margin of victory in 4-3 series clinching win for Red Sox
– Geoff Blum, 2005, Game 3, 2-out solo HR in 14th inning for go-ahead and eventual winning run
– Jesse Orosco, 1986, Game 7, RBI single in 8th inning extends Mets lead as Orosco earns 2-inning save in series clinching win
– Lefty O’Doul, 1933, Game 2, with Giants trailing 1-0, pinch-hit 2-RBI single puts Giants ahead and ignites a big 6-run frame for eventual 6-1 win

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

The games in #12 were for a single PA in a player’s entire WS career.

For a single PA in one particular WS, I still like Kirk Gibson in 1988. Yes, it was game 1, but the shock value of that 9th inning come-from-behind win completely changed the tone of the series in which the As were so heavily favored, not least because of Eckersley, seemingly invincible but now suddenly humanly frail.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Er, um, yes — obviously Gibson’s HR is the creme de la creme of 1-PA World Series achievements, and I should have noted that explicitly.

PhilM

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

How abot Onix Concepcion in 1985, Game 6? He gets “credit” for a Todd Worrell/Darrell Porter passed ball (maybe he was psyching them out from second base?), eventually scoring the tying run with Sundberg right behind him as the game-winner. Concepcion did get into two other games as a pinch runner, but still with no plate appearances: so he earned .207 WPA for zero plate appearances!

Tmckelv

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I remember the A’s pinch-hitting as being really effective during those early 1970’s world series’. Along with Mincher and Mangual – Gonzalo Marquez also got some pinch hits in that 1972 series.

Tmckelv

12 years ago

Reply to Tmckelv

Add Pat Bourque, Claudell Washington, Jim Holt, Vic Davalillo, Deron Johnson, George Hendrick, Dave Duncan, Tommy Davis & Jesus Alou to the list of A’s getting Pinch Hits during the Playoffs/World Series from 71-75. Unfortunately the same could not be said for super pinch runner Herb Washington. In the 1974 playoffs he pinch ran in 2 games with 2 CS. Then in the World Series he got picked off in his first game. He must have stayed put after that as he finshed the 1974 post season with 5 G, 0 SB, 2 CS, 1 Pick-off, 0 R. His Post-season… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

In his first time up in the WS (1965), Mincher hit a game-tying HR off Don Drysdale, and the Twins routed him. Mincher hadn’t played much (or done much) against lefties that year, but he started every game of that Series. They beat Koufax in game 2, and Mincher had a single in 3 trips against Sandy. But he went 0-6 in games 5 and 7 as Koufax tossed a pair of shutouts (7 hits combined) to give LA the title.

Dr. Remulak

12 years ago

Mincher’s mediocre stats and high OPS+ underscore the “pitcher’s era” in which he played. Besides the higher mound and generally larger ballparks, what else contributed to this anomolous era (strike zone?)?

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to Dr. Remulak

Starting in 1963 the definition of the strike zone went from “the knees to the shoulders” to “the BOTTOM of the knees to the shoulders.

12 years ago

Mincher is one of three players to finish with exactly 200 home runs. The other two are Bill Freehan and Oscar Gamble. Had Mincher played just a little less in his final stop in Oakland, he might have pulled off the quite rare feat of having exactly 1,000 base hits and 200 home runs (he finished with 1,003 hits and none of his last 3 hits were home runs).

Other players to finish with a round number of homeruns:

100 Home Runs: Augie Galan, Duke Sims, Bruce Bochte, John Kruk, Randy Velarde

300 Home Runs: Chuck Klein

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Following up here…two players – Birdie Tebbets and Dee Fondy finished their careers with exactly 1,000 basehits. No one finished with exactly 2,000 hits. Jimmy Collins with 1,999 was the closest. And of course, Clemente finished with 3,000 hits.

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Ed

Tangent alert (barely a tangent, actually).

I happened to be looking at Yaz’s splits and, for his career, he had 6996 PAs at home and the exact same total on the road. What would be the chances of that?

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug,

I’d guess the chances would be about the same as Stan Musial having 1815 hits at home, and 1815 hits on the road…

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

I always thought it was cool that Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth finished with the exact same amount of runs scored: 2,174. Pete Alexander and Christy Mathewson tying at 373 career wins is also neat.

MikeD

12 years ago

OPS+ used by itself is limiting, but it does provide quick context.

Michner’s career OPS+ of 127 is higher than Mark Teixeira’s OPS+s the last two years, and his 1967 OPS+ is higher than Adrian Gonzalez’s 2011 OPS+.

I’m not suggesting he’s a better first baseman than Tex or A-Gon, since among other things he was platooned, but he was much better than his traditional stats suggest.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

#30/ John A.,

Howzabout: Yaz, Willie Stargell, Rico Carty, Reggie Jackson, Dick Allen, Joe Torre, Billy Williams? (I’m thinking of guys who had monster years in those three years).

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Yaz fell just short at .399.
There were just 3 others with a combined .400 OBP in 1969-71:
4) Rusty Staub, .404
5)-6) Frank Robinson and Dick Dietz, .400

Dick Dietz’s random 1970 season (.300/.426/.515, 109 walks, 107 RBI) ranks #11 all-time in batting runs by a catcher. He actually was always a pretty good hitter with an insane walk rate (119 BB/700 PA), but he couldn’t stay healthy for long.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

If you’re interested in catchers with insane walk rates, check out Wes Westrum, especially in 1951 – a .219 BA, but a .400 OBA. That’s what 104 walks against only 79 hits will do. Since they won the pennant after the three-game playoff, the Giants probably needed almost every walk he drew. He wasn’t the overall hitter that Dietz was.

For his career, Westrum had a .217 BA, but a .356 OBA.
Trivia note: he was on the very first Sports Illustrated cover in 1954; he was the catcher, Eddie Mathews was the batter, and Augie Donatelli was the umpire.

Editor

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Thanks for the tip, Lawrence.

I have a post coming up about someone very similar. I’ll be sure to mention the similarity to Westrum.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

When I hear about catchers and high walk rates (and very nomminal BA’s) I think about Gene Tenace. Counting partial years, he had seven seasons with more walks than hits and six years of 100+ walks.

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Bingo. Another good comp. Thanks.

Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

When I hear about catchers with “insane walk rates” I think about Manny Sanguillen.

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Yeah, I think that Manny thought that getting on base by a walk was cheating somehow. But off the top of my head, he may have been the best “bad ball” hitter between Yogi (another catcher!) and Vlad.