I want to find the players with the highest and lowest career strikeout rates (SO/PA). I'm going to use Baseball-Reference.com's minimum requirement for career rate stats: a player must have 3000 or more PA in his career. Also, strikeouts weren't recorded for batters in both major leagues until 1913 so I'm not going to look up players before then. Any players who played before and after this time will only have their plate appearances from 1913 forward counted.
Most Career SO/PA, 1913-2007, min. 3000 PA
Rank | Name | PA | SO | SO/PA |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rob Deer | 4512 | 1409 | .312 |
2 | Jose Hernandez | 5089 | 1391 | .273 |
3 | Pete Incaviglia | 4677 | 1277 | .273 |
4 | Adam Dunn | 4098 | 1092 | .266 |
5 | Brad Wilkerson | 3444 | 879 | .255 |
6 | Cory Snyder | 3933 | 992 | .252 |
7 | Don Lock | 3116 | 776 | .249 |
8 | Steve Balboni | 3440 | 856 | .249 |
9 | Ron Kittle | 3013 | 744 | .247 |
10 | Preston Wilson | 4436 | 1085 | .245 |
11 | Dave Kingman | 7429 | 1816 | .244 |
12 | Gorman Thomas | 5486 | 1339 | .244 |
13 | Jim Thome | 8427 | 2043 | .242 |
14 | Dean Palmer | 5513 | 1332 | .242 |
15 | Henry Rodriguez | 3343 | 803 | .240 |
16 | Pat Burrell | 4743 | 1137 | .240 |
17 | Jose Conseco | 8129 | 1942 | .239 |
18 | Mike Cameron | 6299 | 1500 | .238 |
19 | Jay Buhner | 5927 | 1406 | .237 |
20 | Nate Colbert | 3863 | 902 | .233 |
Fewest Career SO/PA, 1913-2007, min. 3000 PA
Rank | Name | PA | SO | SO/PA |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Joe Sewell | 8329 | 114 | .014 |
2 | Lloyd Waner | 8326 | 173 | .021 |
3 | Nellie Fox | 10349 | 216 | .021 |
4 | Tommy Holmes | 5565 | 122 | .022 |
5 | Tris Speaker | 9365 | 220 | .023 |
6 | Emil Verban | 3110 | 74 | .024 |
7 | Stuffy McInnis | 7325 | 189 | .026 |
8 | Andy High | 4969 | 130 | .026 |
9 | Homer Summa | 3318 | 88 | .027 |
10 | Sam Rice | 10246 | 275 | .027 |
11 | Frankie Frisch | 10100 | 272 | .027 |
12 | Dale Mitchell | 4357 | 119 | .027 |
13 | Charlie Hollocher | 3390 | 94 | .028 |
14 | Jimmy Brown | 3832 | 110 | .029 |
15 | Johnny Cooney | 3675 | 107 | .029 |
16 | Billy Southworth | 4927 | 148 | .030 |
17 | Frank McCormick | 6207 | 189 | .030 |
18 | Buddy Hassett | 3807 | 116 | .030 |
19 | Ossie Vitt | 4188 | 131 | .031 |
20 | Eddie Collins | 9052 | 286 | .032 |
Joe Sewell Not-So-Fun Fact: He was installed at shortstop for the Cleveland Indians following Ray Chapman's death during the 1920 season. Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays. Some people believe that pitch has been the major factor keeping Mays out of the Hall of Fame.
1 comment:
Great work on the K-men. I would like to offer a special notice of my alltime favorite strikeout king. Paul Ratliff was a catcher for the Brewers and Twins in the early 70's. He only amassed 365 career PAs but managed to whiff 133 times for an average of .366. In his final year, 1973, he was 3 for 42 for Milwaukee with 23 K's. Numbers only a mother could love.
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