Quiz – Catchers and Infielders (solved)

73 Replies

The players in this quiz share the distinction of posting the only qualified seasons since 1961 with a certain batting accomplishment. What is it?

Rk	Player
1	Brad Ausmus
2	Royce Clayton
3	Tony Pena
4	Ted Simmons
5	John Wathan
6	Marty Perez
7	John Bateman

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/17/2016.

Hint #1: only one of these players posted such a season before age 30
Hint #2: no outfielder since 1871 has posted such a season

Congratulations to Richard Chester! He correctly identified that only these players have a qualified season since 1961 with times grounded into double plays exceeding 15% of their total bases. Ouch! More on these forgettable seasons after the jump.

Here are those unfortunate campaigns, plus those from before 1961 with modern qualifying PAs.

Rk	Player	Year	GDP	TB	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Brad Ausmus	2006	21	125	37	HOU	139	502	439	37	101	16	1	2	39	45	71	.230	.308	.285	.593	*2/H43
2	Royce Clayton	2003	25	161	33	MIL	146	543	483	49	110	16	1	11	39	49	92	.228	.301	.333	.634	*6/H
3	Tony Pena	1991	23	149	34	BOS	141	512	464	45	107	23	2	5	48	37	53	.231	.291	.321	.612	*2/H
4	Ted Simmons	1984	23	149	34	MIL	132	532	497	44	110	23	2	4	52	30	40	.221	.269	.300	.569	*D35/H
5	John Wathan	1982	26	147	32	KCR	121	502	448	79	121	11	3	3	51	48	46	.270	.343	.328	.671	*2/3H
6	Marty Perez	1972	21	127	26	ATL	141	518	479	33	109	13	1	1	28	30	55	.228	.276	.265	.541	*6/H
7	John Bateman	1971	27	172	30	MON	139	526	492	34	119	17	3	10	56	19	87	.242	.273	.350	.623	*2/H
8	George Kell	1944	28	159	21	PHA	139	556	514	51	138	15	3	0	44	22	23	.268	.300	.309	.609	*5/H
9	Jimmy Bloodworth	1943	29	163	25	DET	129	519	474	41	114	23	4	6	52	29	59	.241	.289	.344	.632	*4
10	Billy Jurges	1938	22	141	30	CHC	137	540	465	53	114	18	3	1	47	58	53	.245	.335	.303	.638	*6/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/17/2016.

Those are some ugly seasons. While it’s not hard to understand why these seasons would be the exclusive domain of catchers and infielders (positions generally valued for defense as much or more than for offense) I’m still surprised that there are no such seasons by any outfielder for as long as GIDP have been recorded (1933 in the NL and 1939 in the AL).

Marty Perez takes the booby prize in this group with a “Net SLG” score (that is [TB – GIDP] / AB) of .221, good enough for 6th place on the list of known Net SLG scores in modern qualifying seasons. Here’s that list.

The Braves have had their share of weak hitting infielders with Marty Perez at second and Craig Robinson (no. 15) at short on the 1974 team, and the trio of Connie Ryan (no. 20), Eddie Joost (no. 18) and Whitey Wietelmann (no. 10) at second, third and short on the 1943 team.

Hal Lanier is all over this list with three consecutive seasons (1967-69) all in the top (or bottom) 10. Who is the lowest ranked outfielder on the list? I have him as Don Buford with a .255 mark in 1972, good for 62nd place.

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brp

8 years ago

Every one of them has a season of at least 21 GDP. However, I can’t find another common thread. Both of the Johns in the quiz only have a couple qualified seasons so that should help narrow it down.

Is it related to GDP?

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to brp

It is related to GDP.

One other piece.

Joseph

8 years ago

If the answer to this quiz is something like, only players to have at least [stat one] be greater than [random percentage of stat two], I’m giving up now.

Those are two tough.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Joseph

In case you reconsider, the “random” stat is displayed on the linked player pages really, really close to the stat brp identified (that’s how I noticed this quirk).

Joseph

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug: Thank you for the clue–Richard had it figured out by the time I came back.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

They are the only qualifying players since 1961 with GIDP greater than 0.15 total bases.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

With at least 20 GIDP.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Richard has it.

The 20 GIDP minimum is not necessary with a qualifying season requirement.

8 years ago

And there are 4 Hall of Famers on that lowest Net Slg. %age list, Ozzie, Rabbit, Sparky and The Lip…OK Leo and Sparky are there as managers ;-).

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to JW

I thought you left one off for a moment until a closer look revealed that it was ROY (not Ray) Schalk. The 2 are apparently no relation.

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Roy Schalk was a 35 year-old rookie in the 1944 season shown above. He was a regular again the next season, his last, in which he polled 13 MVP voting points.

Schalk and Al Todd are the only players with two 125 hit seasons age 35+ and no others over the rest of their careers.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Eddie Joost became famous for low batting averages but tons of walks. Made me wonder, Who was best at drawing walks while posting a low batting average with very few extra-base hits? So here’s a light-slugging outfielder for you, Doug. He’ll take a walk but raps out an extra-base hit only once a month. (No info on how many times he grounded into a double play.) Search parameters: qualified season, SLG less than .279, BB greater than 250 times SLG. May I introduce the only major-league season of Edward (Goat) Anderson, right fielder, 1907 Pirates: .206 / .343 / .225… Read more »

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

The fact that that was Anderson’s only major league season is illustrative of the fact that more offense is expected and required of outfielders.

Anderson makes the short list of players with 500 PA in a one-season career.

Moon Mullen	     502	1944	PHI
Goat Anderson	     510	1907	PIT
Buddy Blair	     523	1942	PHA
Sparky Anderson	     527	1959	PHI
Bob Maier	     529	1945	DET
Johnny Sturm	     568	1941	NYY
Scotty Ingerton	     575	1911	BSN
Dutch Schliebner     587	1923	BRO-SLB
Art Mahan	     591	1940	PHI
Al Boucher	     594	1914	SLM
Irv Waldron	     651	1901	WSH-MLA

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

I thought Buzz Arlett and his 138 OPS+ for the 1931 Phillies would appear on that list, but no—he had only 469 plate appearances.

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Four early dead-ball era players, five from WW2, Dutch Schliebner and good old Sparky.

Philadelphia seems to be the common denominator of what are in large part a number of historically either poorly run or too poor to compete franchises on the list

Richard Chester

8 years ago

#13 on the list, Eddie Mayo, holds the record, since 1914, for most consecutive AB without an XBH, 252 and maybe a few more.

Off topic: Did you know that Derek Jeter has scored 55 times on a GS hit by another player plus 1 more on his own GS?

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I did not know that.

My guess is the record holder also played on the Yankees, but probably in the 1920s/30s.

Joseph

8 years ago

I find it interesting that Wathan could have 26 GDP and 36 stolen bases with only 9 CS in a season. This would suggest that he wasn’t a slow base runner. The season he did that appears to be the only season any player achieved SB >35 with GDP > 25 and CS < 10

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Joseph

Wathan’s 36 SB in 1982 is the seasonal record for a catcher.

Mike L

8 years ago

Reply to Joseph

Wathan was 49 for 60 in stealing with 2 outs. That’s an elite base stealer percentage. With no outs, he was 17 for 30. There’s got to be a reason for that. By contrast, Tim Raines stole more with no out, and he was consistently successful regardless of when he attempted it. Speculation–Wathan wasn’t really fast enough to be sent consistently with no-one out. In 1982, he batted every place in the lineup except for leadoff-70 times batting second. If I have Wathan on first, and the George Brett and the middle of the order coming up, I’m not sending… Read more »

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Mike L

Good intuition there, Mike.

Helps to explain why he was both a base-stealing threat and vulnerable to the double play (i.e. he needed to get a significant head start to steal consistently).

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Mike L

It seems odd that Wathan didn’t become a base stealing threat until after Whitey Herzog had moved on. I wonder if his poorer success rate in stealing with no outs may have had anything to do with the hit-and-run tendencies of Jim Frey and Dick Howser? I know that Cleveland was know to H&R a lot in the 70’s and that both Sparky Anderson and Davey Johnson used it a lot in the 80’s (and beyond).

Richard Chester

8 years ago

There seems to be a pause in the action here so I thought I would submit some trivia. There is a guy named Alex George whose ML career consisted of one season at age 16. He is one of two players since 1901 to achieve that. But I found that he was the first active player to appear in the ML and be younger than I was at the time. Today of course they all younger than me.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

When he debuted for the Yankees on April 5, 1984, José Rijo became the first major-league player younger than I. He was about five weeks short of 19. (Dwight Gooden became the second when he started for the Mets on April 7.) I remember Sports Illustrated ran a cover that spring featuring Rijo and his 45-year-old teammate Phil Niekro.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Mine is Mike Morgan, who debuted in June 1978 aged 18 years, 8 months. Morgan pitched a complete game (without a strikeout), the fifth youngest since 1914 with a CG in his debut. The youngest to do this since then was Andy Rincon in 1980 at 21 years, 6 months, almost three full years older than Morgan. Morgan would pitch 22 seasons, but had a winning record in only 5 of them. He and Ron Kline are the only pitchers without a winning record in any of their first 10 seasons. Andy Van Hekken is the last pitcher with a… Read more »

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, your comment about Morgan and Kline starting their ML careers with 10 consecutive non-winning seasons reminds me of something I noticed a few days ago: David Weathers started his ML career with nine straight sub-100 ERA+ seasons, followed by 10 straight seasons with an ERA+ over 100. The change took place from 1999 to 2000. No Y2K glitches for David Weathers.

I figured there’d never be a really opportune moment for me to drop this nugget into a conversation. Thanks, Doug. (-;þ

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

Glad to be of service. 🙂

no statistician but

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Alex George played on the A’s their first year in KC, 1955. I’m guessing he was a local high school phenom the team signed and played in late September as a publicity stunt to push attendance. The next year he was deep in the minors and never rose above AA level. That team is interesting for several reasons beyond George and KC’s first big league team. An 18 year-old rookie, also with no minor league experience, named Clete Boyer, got into 47 games. Clete’s oldest brother Cloyd was on the team, too, in his final year as a big-league pitcher.… Read more »

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Suitcase Simpson played well in KC, with 115 OPS+ over two stints (the Yankees took notice and shuttled him to the Bronx where he played parts of the ’57 and ’58 seasons before catching the return shuttle back to the A’s). But he was no better than 91 OPS+ with any of the four other franchises he played for. Simpson’s 105 RBI in 1956 is the second highest total for a KC Athletic. He had 20+ doubles and HR and 10+ triples to go with his 100+ RBI that year, a feat matched since by only 30 players, none of… Read more »

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to no statistician but

Fun article on the 1957 edition of the Kansas City A’s: http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-1957-kansas-city-athletics/

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

That article mentions that the 29.5% HR/R ratio for the ’57 A’s might be the highest ever. That article was written in April 2005 and at that time the 1964 Twins had a ratio of 30.0% and the 2004 Cubs had a ratio of 29.8%. Since then another 9 teams have beaten the ’57 A’s.

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

The ’57 A’s scored 41.6% of their runs on home runs (114 solo HRs, 39 2-run HRs, 10 3-run HRs, 3 grand slams—234 runs scoring on HRs out of a total of 563 runs). Very high percentage, I’m sure, but I have no idea where it ranks all time.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

The 2010 Blue Jays scored 53.1% of their runs on HR (147 solo, 79 2-run HR, 28 3-run HR and 3 GS). That makes 401 runs on HR out of a total of 755 runs. Don’t know if that’s the record.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

For comparison purposes in 2015 the ML ratio of HR/R = 4091/20647 = 19.8%. The ratio of all runs scored on HR/R = 7701/20647 = 37.2%

Dr. Doom

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Since people are sharing their first player younger than they are, I’ll share mine. It was Justin Upton on August 2, 2007. It’s kind of nice for me to think that at least the first guy younger than me to get there was the #1 overall draft pick the year we graduated from high school.

CursedClevelander

8 years ago

Reply to Dr. Doom

I knew we were pretty close in age, Doom. Mine was also J-Up, who is about 3 weeks younger than me. I don’t think I noticed at the time, since all my attention was on the Indians-Tigers race for the Central division, but I knew Upton was around my age since he was a #1 pick and a much discussed prospect.

Voomo Zanzibar

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I’ve got Julian Tavarez. A month and a half younger than me, debuted at 20.077, while I was finding creative applications for Jagermeister in college. Pitched in 828 games to a big fat 4.9 WAR. He made over 26 million dollars in salary. He once rolled the ball to first base: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beLT6tY9cFw The last line of his wikipedia entry is: “He is considered by many to be one of the most objectionable individuals to ever play Major League Baseball.” _____________________ When asked why he chose to sign with the Nationals, Tavárez acknowledged he had no other options: “Why did I… Read more »

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I just missed Robin Yount & Jack Clark being the first MLB player to be younger than I was at the time. The first that I can find is Alfredo Griffin but I’d suspect that there may have been someone in ’74- since I’m only a month older than Clark but a year and 10 months younger than Griffin. Dunno if there’s a way to figure that out without spending a ton of time on it.

Mike L

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Hartvig, you and I must be very close in age, because I found the same thing. Alfredo Griffin, who Bill James once said had the lowest Baseball IQ ever..

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Mike L

FWIW 11 Dec 1955 And now that I’ve read a paragraph further & used the tool that David P showed us I find the first ML player that was younger than me was Butch Wynegar who was born 14 Mar 1956 and debuted April 9th, 1976, well before Griffin’s call up on Sept 4th. Manny Sarmiento, Larry Monroe and Garry Templeton all came along before Griffin as well. That was also the same year that Apple & Microsoft were founded and that I told a college calculus teacher that I didn’t think a career in computer science- which wasn’t even… Read more »

Paul E

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Hartvig,
Mine is Alan Trammell but I do recall seeing Jack Clark on the cover of Baseball Digest in May 1979 and thinking, “well, I guess this ain’t gonna happen for me” 🙁

Confession: I had to search “google” images to find the Baseball Digest issue. If anyone hasn’t seen Clark recently, just think “a cross between Mike Scioscia and Santa Claus”. Yo, Jack, “Easy on the canoli’s”

bstar

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Mine is Ramon Martinez, Pedro’s big brother. He debuted on Aug. 13, 1988 at the age of 20.

In Ramon’s first year in the rotation, 1990, he won 20 games for the Dodgers and finished 2nd in Cy Young voting to Jose Rijo. Injuries and wildness kept him from making the next step. He sure had a lot of potential.

Wow — Ramon has more career shutouts (20) than his kid brother (17). Who knew?

Author

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to bstar

Who knew, indeed! Probably win a few bets at the bar with that factoid.

The brothers both had a career .600 W-L%, and twice each compiled 10+ wins as teammates (for the 1993 Dodgers and 2000 Red Sox). The two went head-to-head on 8-29-96 with Ramon pitching into the 9th inning and beating Pedro (who went the distance) by a 2-1 score (apparently quite a duel as, after the 4th inning when Mike Piazza and Eric Karros took Pedro deep back-to-back, both brothers faced just one batter over the minimum through the 8th inning).

oneblankspace

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Everyone in my birth year, and the first half of the next can claim an active player:

Alex Rodriguez

He went 0-3 in 3 PA with 3 assists and started a double play on a ground ball by Scott Fletcher, whom I met at a baseball clinic ten years previously when he was with the White Sox.

David P

8 years ago

Mine would be some guy named Ken Griffey Jr. I think his career was a bit longer than Alex George’s. 🙂 BTW, anyone else who wants to participate, Baseball Reference lists the debuts for every season. Here’s the one for 1989: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/1989-debuts.shtml To to go other seasons, you can change the year in the link above. Since I was born in 1969, I found mine by searching through the debuts for 1987, 1988, and 1989. No one who debuted in ’87 or ’88 was born after me. So I then looked at 1989 and found 4 players who were born… Read more »

Luis Gomez

8 years ago

Mine is still active, but he´s on his forties. Alex Rodriguez, who made his ML debut on July 8th, 1994 at only 18 years of age. He went 0-for-3, against lefty Chris Nabholz, then with the Red Sox.

I remember feeling a bit down, when I learned that a younger player was already making his ML debut. Now almost everyone is younger than I am. I can only hope that Bartolo Colon´s career lasts a few more years. 😉

e pluribus munu

8 years ago

Using David P’s tool (thanks!) I found two rookies who broke in on the same day who were the first players younger than I was. One was the immortal Jimmie McMath (I know; me neither); the other was Dusty Baker.

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to e pluribus munu

Then you’ve still got a shot at being a MLB manager anyways…

I kind of suspect that team could- and probably will- do a lot worse.

e pluribus munu

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

I think it’s pretty clear that McMath is my doppelganger. If you compare our MLB records, there is only a difference of two hits between us. If B-R listed similarity scores for him, I’d be on that list!

bells

8 years ago

The first time I remember being aware of my age relative to that of a professional athlete was watching the 1996 World Series and seeing young phenom Andruw Jones rip the cover off the ball. What caught my eye was that we shared a birthday – ‘wow’, I remember thinking, ‘this guy is doing this and he’s only three years older than me!’ But of course that’s not the first player younger than me to debut. I didn’t know it at the time, as I didn’t follow things that closely, but mine is CC Sabathia. I guess it makes sense… Read more »

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Number 13 on the last list, Eddie Mayo, holds the record for position players, since 1914, for most consecutive AB without a extra-base hit. He had 252 such AB in 1943 and possibly a few more. Second is Horace Clarke with 239.

David P

8 years ago

How about this? Who are the best and/or worst players to debut during your year of birth?

I was born in 1969. Best player to debut that year was Carlton Fisk. There were also 4 future MVP winners who debuted (Munson, Blue, Foster, Garvey). Interestingly, Munson grew up in my hometown.

Worst by far was Jack Heidemann (-6.1 WAR) who was drafted #11 overall in 1967 by my Cleveland Indians.

And even though I was born on May 3rd, no one actually debuted on my bday. Closest was the aforementioned Heidemann who debuted on May 2nd.

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to David P

My best is probably Bob Gibson in 1959, with Willie McCovey and Billy Williams not far behind. Others of note are Tim McCarver, Maury Wills, Lee Maye, Tommy Davis and several pitchers, including Jim Kaat, Jim Perry, Mike Cuellar and Gary Peters.

Worst is probably Don Gile, a catcher with the Red Sox who compiled -1.3 career WAR in only 131 PA over four seasons. At 6’6″ and 220 lb, Gile is the tallest catcher in major league history, one inch taller than Joe Mauer, Matt Wieters and Sandy Alomar (among others, including Larry McLean, the tallest catcher before Gile).

oneblankspace

8 years ago

Reply to David P

Jack Kucek débuted the day I was born; Tippy Martinez and Junior Kennedy débuted the next day (the day Matt Morris was born). The last début before I was born was Ron LeFlore. My 25-man roster of 1974 débuts: R.LeFlore, LF (17.8 WAR) R.Yount,SS (77.0) K.Hernandez,1B (60.0) J.Rice,DH (47.4) F.Lynn,CF (50.0) 6.Lezcano,RF (28.1) G.Carter,C (69.9) Lr.Parrish,3B (15.5) D.Kuiper,2B (4.2) Rotation: R.Rhoden (35.9) J.Denny (32.4) D.Leonard (26.3) B.Forsch (25.1) J.Montefusco (20.0) Bullpen: K.Tekulve (26.3) E.Figueroa (16.0) T.Martinez (LHP) (8.7) G.Lavelle (LHP) (19.4) V.Ruhle (12.9) Bench: M.Hargrove, 1b/dh (30.3) A.Howe, 1b/3b (13.9) A.Bannister, UT (3.6) J.Mumphrey, of (22.2) J.Sundberg, c (40.5) Manager:… Read more »

Kahuna Tuna

8 years ago

1964: Two Hall of Famers, Phil Niekro, 97 WAR, and Tony Pérez, 58 WAR. Also Bert Campaneris and Luis Tiant.

Scary Tuna

8 years ago

The first player younger than me was Roberto Alomor, who debuted with the Padres on 04/22/88. At the other end of the spectrum, I’m guessing the last MLB player older than me was Jamie Moyer, whose final game was May 27, 2012 at age 49. Notable debuts in my birth year (1967): Tom Seaver (110.5 WAR), Rod Carew (81.1), Reggie Jackson (73.8), Johnny Bench (75.0), Graig Nettles (68.0), and Jerry Koosman (53.9). Inglorious debuts: Tommy Dean (-3.4) and Rich Morales (-3.3). Special category – “Lowest career WAR for a player debuting in 1967 who nonetheless remained in the big leagues… Read more »

David P

8 years ago

Reply to Scary Tuna

Interesting birth year Scary Tuna! In addition to the guys you mentioned, 1967 saw debuts from two relievers who won Cy Youngs (Marshall and Lyle) and two younger brothers of HOFers (Ken Brett and Joe Niekro).

Scary Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to David P

I agree, David P. There were a lot of interesting names debuting that year.

Correction on the last player older than me: Omar Vizquel is more than five months older and played his last game October 3, 2012. He was in the back of my mind when I was posting, but I blanked on his name last night so I couldn’t verify his age.

Richard Chester

8 years ago

Reply to Scary Tuna

Last player older than me was Manny Mota in 1982.

Mike L

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I think I have El Presidente (Dennis Martinez) in 1998. He started pitching when I was in college….

Ouch

Doug

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Mine was pretty obvious; no need to look up Julio Franco. He beat out, by four years, Rickey Henderson and Jesse Orosco.

Scary Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

The end of my comment above (“…I couldn’t verify his age”) gets me thinking that we probably need to add the caveat to our discussions of the youngest and oldest players, especially as Pablo Sandoval is just the most recent of my players whose age has been called into question. So, “to the best of my knowledge” Roberto Alomar was the first player youngest than me and Omar Vizquel was the last player older than me. :o)

Scary Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

The end of my comment above (“…I couldn’t verify his age”) gets me thinking that we probably need to add the caveat to our discussions of the youngest and oldest players, especially as Pablo Sandoval is just the most recent of many players whose age has been called into question. So, “to the best of my knowledge” Roberto Alomar was the first player youngest than me and Omar Vizquel was the last player older than me. :o)

Scary Tuna

8 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Shoot. I found a typo in my post and thought I caught it in time. Instead, it ended up posting twice with a one word variation between them. [Sigh].

Hub Kid

8 years ago

I had thought there weren’t many posters in a similar age range, but Luis and bells have since posted (apologies to Voomo and anyone else from the 70s)…

For me, the first player younger than I was Adrian Beltre (June 24, 1998, at 19 years and 1 month). It would also have been my “age 19” season, if MLB had decided that was the year they needed to recruit some uncoordinated non-athletes.

Thanks to David P and bells for sharing the links!

David P

8 years ago

One thing that’s interesting is how the teenage debut has all but disappeared from baseball.

In this century, here are the teenage debuts:

2001: Wilson Betemit

2003: Jose Reyes

2004: Melvin Upton

2005: Felix Hernandez

2007: Justin Upton

2011: Mike Trout

2012: Bryce Harper, Jurickson Profar, Dylan Bundy

Not sure what year has the most teenage debuts but I found 1965 had 23. And that was with far fewer teams than nowadays.

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to David P

The ’65 Houston Astros could almost field a starting lineup of 19 & 20 year olds by themselves.

David P

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Hartvig – Maybe you mean the ’63 Houston Colt .45s? That team accounted for 8 of the 20 teenage debuts that year. The ’65 team only had 2 of the 23 teenage debuts.

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to David P

Yeah, that will teach me not to go back & check before posting.

Dr. Doom

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

You could almost field a team of JUST teenagers with the 1963 Colt .45s:

P – Chris Zachary (19), Jay Dahl (17)
C – Dave Adlesh (19)
1B – Rusty Staub (19)
2B – Joe Morgan (19)
3B – Glenn Vaughan (19; utility IF)
SS – Sonny Jackson (18)
LF – Jim Wynn (21)
CF – Brock Davis (19)
RF – John Paciorek (18)

I had to cheat at exactly ONE position to get this to work. That’s pretty crazy, especially when you consider how good all of these guys got.

Paul E

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Doom, Hartvig, I did witness Dave Adlesh’s sole ML homer at Connie Mack Stadium. Bill James did a short piece on Walter Bond and the impatience of the Houston front office. When you think that they let go of Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn, and Rusty Staub, phew… who could have combined with Cesar Cedeno, Bob Watson, Cliff Johnson, Doug Rader. I imagine the Astrodome, and it’s ridiculously extreme low run-scoring environment, must have made it difficult for those management types to evaluate talent. How’s that for a “benefit of the doubt” statement? One thing I never understood was Roger Metzger… Read more »

Hartvig

8 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

Jerry Grote was in the mix as a 20-year old catcher as well. If he was good enough to start for the miracle Mets…

And just a year later a 17-year old Larry Dierker came along.

Build on that core just a little and Houston could have given The Big Red Machine some serious competition as the early 70’s National League version of Oakland and/or Baltimore.

If only ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a merry Christmas too.

David P

8 years ago

1984 is a VERY odd year for debuts. 7 of the top 8 in WAR are pitchers – Clemens, Saberhagen, Gooden, Langston, Key, Gubicza, and Rijo. The only position player in the top 8 is Kirby Puckett, who slots in at #4.