BABIP by Season

Last Saturday I posted about players with the highest and lowest career BABIP, minimum 3000 plate appearances. A commenter asked if I had a similar list for each season and I didn't at that time. Now, however, I've put one together and posted it in Google Spreadsheet form. I used the modern formula for determining the minimum plate appearances necessary to qualify for leaderboards (3.1 PA/Team Game) and applied it to each season in baseball history going back to 1876 (though anything before 1913 is somewhat iffy in my mind) to create the list of qualifiers. Seasons before 1904 and strike/lockout years were of varying length so that's why the number of PA required early in baseball history changes so much. There also were some years in which strikeouts weren't recorded for batters, skewing each player's BABIP more. I've put those years in red text. All years before 1954 did not have sacrifice fly data recorded. The spreadsheet should be pretty easy to figure out on its own.

Rather than just post a link sending you elsewhere, I've also put together a list of the highest and lowest single-season BABIP since 1913. I know strikeouts were recorded in years prior to that season, but I'm somewhat dubious about the record-keeping in the nineteenth century. First up are the only seventeen individual seasons with a BABIP over .400:

Highest BABIP in a Single Season, Minimum 3.1 PA/G, 1913-2007

1. Babe Ruth, 1923, .423
2. George Sisler, 1922, .422
3. Rogers Hornsby, .422
4. Ty Cobb, 1922, .416
5. Ty Cobb, 1913, .415
6. Harry Heilmann, 1923, .414
7. Rogers Hornsby, 1921, .409
8. Rod Carew, 1977, .408
9. Jose Hernandez, 2002, .404
10. Manny Ramirez, 2000, .403
11. Roberto Clemente, 1967, .403
12. George Sisler, 1920, .401
13. Ty Cobb, 1917, .401
14. Bill Terry, 1930, .400
15. Luke Appling, 1936, .400
16. Ty Cobb, 1917, .400
17. Benny Kauff, 1914, .400

There are some pretty good names on that list. Jose Hernandez is kind of a weird guy to show up on a list of pretty good hitters. I'm also not familiar with Benny Kauff, but he pretty much dominated the Federal League. So help me, I'm a sucker for mediocrity in baseball, so I find the next list more interesting.

Lowest BABIP in a Single Season, Minimum 3.1 PA/G, 1913-2007

1. Curt Blefary, 1968, .198
2. Ted Simmons, 1981, .200
3. Brooks Robinson, 1975, .204
4. Dave Kingman, 1986, .204
5. Roy Cullenbine, 1947, .206
6. Dick McAuliffe, 1971, .206
7. Dave Kingman, 1982, .207
8. Jim King, 1963, .208
9. Roger Maris, 1961, .209
10. Darrell Evans, 1988, .212
11. Ed Brinkman, 1972, .212
12. Gene Tenace, 1974, .213
13. Art Scharein, 1933, .213
14. Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones, 1953, .213
15. Carlton Fisk, 1985, .213
16. Don Wert, 1968, .213
17. Mark McGwire, 1989, .214
18. Mark McGwire, 1991, .214
19. Del Crandall, 1955, .214
20. Tony Armas, 1983, .214

The coolest name on this list, to me, is the guy in the #9 slot. While he was breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, Roger Maris didn't have very many hits falling in on the field of play. There are some other famous names on the list though most of them aren't really remembered as great hitters. I do like Willie Jones's nickname and the fact that Curt Blefary spent time as a catcher in 1968 despite very limited experience in the minors at the position in an effort to stay in the lineup.