.300 Hitters Who Didn't Stick

One of baseball's "big" numbers is .300. If you hit .300 or better, you're a good hitter. As the following players can attest, however, hitting .300 isn't always enough to stick in the major leagues.

Since 1954, thirteen players have hit .300 in more than 50 but fewer than 500 career plate appearances. Players who appeared in the majors during 2009 were not included. I chose fifty PA as the minimum because it takes at least ten starts to rack up that many times at the plate. Impressive as John Paciorek's career was, it doesn't fit the spirit of this post. By the end of this post, you'll see why I used 500 as the maximum.

Name	Year(s)	Age	Team(s)	Pos	PA	AB	AVG/OBP/SLG
Kevin Rhomberg	1982-1984	26-28	CLE	LF	52	47	.383/.423/.447
Randy Asadoor	1986	23	SDP	3B	60	55	.364/.397/.455
Rudy Pemberton	1995-1997	25-27	DET BOS	RF	147	134	.336/.395/.515
Joe Hall	1994-1995 1997	28-31	CHW DET	LF	52	47	.319/.385/.468
Norris Hopper	2006-2008	27-29	CIN	CF	440	396	.316/.367/.371
Victor Mata	1984-1985	23-24	NYY	CF	83	77	.312/.316/.416
Bob Hazle	1955 1957-1958	24-27	CIN MLN DET	RF	297	261	.310/.390/.467
D.T. Cromer	2000-2001	29-30	CIN	1B	114	104	.308/.327/.577
Eddy Garabito	2005	28	COL	2B	102	88	.307/.384/.398
Bob Henley	1998	25	MON	C	132	115	.304/.377/.470
Andy Barkett	2001	26	PIT	LF	51	46	.304/.373/.413
Jose Ortiz	1969-1971	22-24	CHW CHC	CF	136	123	.301/.358/.390
Gerry Davis	1983 1985	24-26	SDP	RF	82	73	.301/.370/.397

The position listed is where the player spent the most time. Almost every player on the list played two or more positions.

Bob Hazle is probably the most famous name on this list. He hit .403 down the stretch in 1957 to help the Braves win the NL pennant. A slow start in 1958 doomed his career. Norris Hooper may still appear again in the majors. He played in AAA for the Reds, White Sox, and Nationals in 2009.

It's worth noting that two pitchers also qualified under the 50-500 PA criteria. Terry Forster, who pitched for five teams from 1971 to 1984, hit .397/.413/.474 over 86 plate appearances during his career. He was one for four as a pinch hitter. Renie Martin, who pitched for three teams from 1979 to 1984, hit .301 over 90 plate appearances. He was 0 for 1 as a pinch hitter.

Obviously, small sample size applies to all of these players. Who knows if they would have been able to hit .300 over a longer career. The fact remains, however, that they hit well in the few opportunities they were given.

I thought it would be interesting to post the following list as well. If you take out active players, here are the .300 hitters who debuted in 1954 or later with the fewest career plate appearances (min. 400):

1. Norris Hopper, 440 (.316)
   
2. Lyman Bostock, 2214 (.311)
   
3. Reggie Jefferson, 2300 (.300)
   
4. Manny Mota, 4227 (.304)
   
5. Rusty Greer, 4420 (.305)
   
6. Hal Morris, 4443 (.304)
   
7. John Kruk, 4603 (.300)
   
8. Mike Greenwell, 5166 (.303)
   
9. Ralph Garr, 5456 (.306)
   
10. Pedro Guerrero, 6115 (.300)

It looks like Norris Hopper has found a uncomfortable niche between flash in the pan and solid regular.

The "Worst" Hitting Streaks

Have you ever heard a player has a relatively long hitting streak and thought, "Really? He doesn't seem to be hitting that well." Since most regular players will get to the plate about four times in any given game, the lowest batting average a player with a lengthy hitting streak could possibly have would be somewhere around .250. That's assuming the guy never walks and only gets one hit every night.

In reality, it's rare to see a batter take a hitting streak past fifteen games while hitting below .300. Since 1956, only fifteen players have gone to fifteen or more games with such a low batting average, and only one of those guys got to twenty games. It's important to remember that even though they hit below .300, getting a hit in every game is still a positive thing.

Lowest Batting Average in a 15+ Game Hitting Streak, 1956-2008

Rank	Name	Streak	Games	Average	H-AB
1	Juan Pierre	Sept. 6-22, 2000	15	.273	18-66
2	Jody Davis	May 16-June 1, 1984	15	.281	16-57
	Brian Roberts	June 22-July 12, 2001	15	.281	18-64
4	Don Lock	Sept. 6-22, 1963	15	.286	16-56
	Richie Sexson	July 1-18, 2003	15	.286	16-56
6	Tommie Agee	Apr. 16-May 9, 1970	20	.288	23-80
	Joe Carter	Apr. 6-23, 1992	16	.288	19-66
	Lee Tinsley	June 10-25, 1995	15	.288	19-66
9	Ted Sizemore	June 1-19, 1975	17	.290	18-62
10	Eric Karros	May 16-June 2, 1995	17	.292	19-65
11	Dave McKay	May 19-June 2, 1978	16	.295	18-61
12	Tony Kubek	Aug. 29-Sept. 13, 1963	15	.297	19-64
	Brian Downing	July 28-Aug. 17, 1987	17	.297	19-64
	Adam Kennedy	July 8-Aug. 3, 2006	17	.297	19-64
15	Bill Buckner	Aug. 15-30, 1981	16	.299	20-67

The links go to the Baseball-Reference.com gamelogs of each streak. Pierre, Davis, Tinsley, and Karros all had their season batting averages go down during their streaks. Karros and Davis have the excuse that their streaks were relatively early in the season, though. Bill Buckner's streak raised his 1981 average by .00017 from .29778 to .29795.

For fun, I found the lowest batting average for streaks of 20, 21, 22, etc., games since 1956. I've made each player's name the link to his streak. I've also put the year each guy had his streak next to his name. Any gaps in counting (33 games, etc.) means there hasn't been a streak of that length since 1956.

• 20 games: Tommie Agee, 1970, .288 (23-80)
  
• 21 games: Ron Oester, 1984, .306 (26-85)
  
• 22 games: Sandy Alomar Sr., 1970, .313 (31-99)
  
• 23 games: Kent Hrbek, 1982, .308 (28-91)
  
• 24 games: Miguel Tejada, 2002, .333 (34-102)
  
• 25 games: Joe McEwing, 1999, .318 (35-110)
  
• 26 games: Casey Blake, 2007, .317 (33-104)
  
• 27 games: Ron LeFlore, 1978, .311 (37-119)
  
• 28 games: Shawn Green, 1999, .366 (41-112)
  
• 29 games: Johnny Damon, 2005, .348 (46-132)
  
• 30 games: Jerome Walton, .338 (46-136)
  
• 31 games: Vladimir Guerrero, 1999, .386 (49-127)
  
• 32 games: Hal Morris, 1996-1997, .379 (47-124)
  
• 34 games: Benito Santiago, 1987, .346 (47-136)
  
• 35 games: Luis Castillo, 2002, .403 (62-154)
  
• 38 games: Jimmy Rollins, 2005-2006, .379 (64-169)
  
• 39 games: Paul Molitor, 1987, .415 (68-164)
  
• 44 games: Pete Rose, 1978, .385 (70-182)

EDIT: It was before 1956, but Joe DiMaggio went 91-223 (.408) during his record 56-game hitting streak.

Lowest Batting Average for a League RBI Leader

For a little while now I've been meaning to put together a post with records to watch for in the second half of the season. I haven't actually sat down and looked for anything yet for a number of reasons. Luckily, a comment was posted here yesterday by someone with the intriguing nom de plume of Death:

Ryan Howard is on pace to lead the NL in RBIs with an abysmal .220 batting average. Do you have any idea what the record is for the lowest batting average while leading his league in RBIs for the season? Thanks.

I thought that question was pretty interesting, so I decided to look it up. Howard is now hitting a robust .223 (75 for 337) and his 76 RBI still leads the National League. Below I've listed the fifteen lowest batting averages by a league RBI leader for both the American and National leagues since 1901. I've expanded tied (to three decimal places) batting averages to four decimal places to make the actual order clearer.

Lowest Batting Average by an NL RBI Leader, 1901-2007

1. Jim Nealon, 1906 PIT, .255
2. Howard Johnson, 1991 NYM, .259
3. Andruw Jones, 2005 ATL, .263
4. George Kelly, 1920 NYG, .266
5. Bill Dahlen, 1904 NYG, .268
6. Johnny Bench, 1972 CIN, .2695
   
7. Hank Sauer, 1952 CHC, .2699
8. Darren Daulton, 1992 PHI, .2701
9. Vinny Castilla, 2004 COL, .271
10. Mike Schmidt, 1984 PHI, .2765
11. Matt Williams, 1990 SFG, .2772
12. Mark McGwire, 1999 STL, .278
13. Hank Aaron, 1966 ATL, .279
14. Johnny Bench, 1974 CIN, .2802
15. Sam Mertes, 1903 NYG, .2805
    

Lowest Batting Average by an AL RBI Leader, 1901-2007

1. Harmon Killebrew, 1962 MIN, .243
2. Cecil Fielder, 1992 DET, .244
3. Harmon Killebrew, 1971 MIN, .254
4. Lee May, 1976 BAL, .258
5. Cecil Fielder, 1991 DET, .2612
   
6. Dick Stuart, 1963 BOS, .2614
7. Del Pratt, 1916 SLB, .267
8. Tony Armas, 1984 BOS, .2676
9. Gus Zernial, 1951 CHW/PHA, .2680
10. Roger Maris, 1961 NYY, .269
11. Rudy York, 1943 DET, .271
12. Larry Doby, 1954 CLE, .272
13. Ken Harrelson, 1968 BOS, .2748
14. Jackie Jensen, 1955 BOS, .2753
15. Harmon Killebrew, 1969 MIN, .276
    

So if Ryan Howard manages to keep on top of the RBI leaderboard without improving his batting average, he'll set a record. His batting average looks as though it will see some improvement however: his BABIP sits at .268 while his line drive percentage of 20.3% suggest his BABIP should be about fifty points higher. Once those hits start falling in, his batting average will improve. Going half a season with such a poor batting average, however, means he would have to have an amazing second half to avoid appearing on the above NL list following the season if he keeps driving in runners.

Most PA in a Season, OBP < AVG

Last week, St. Louis Cardinals blog Fungoes wrote about players in Cardinals history with a lower on base percentage than batting average in a season. It seems weird, but since the formula for OBP is (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+HBP+SF), having a higher batting average than on base percentage is possible if you have more sacrifice flies than walks and HBP's. (EDIT: Zeyes points out my error in the comments: you need two to three times as many SF as BB+HBP.)

Sacrifice flies have only been recorded in the major leagues since 1954 so it would be impossible for a player before then to have an OBP less than their batting average. Since that date, however, 160 players have pulled off the feat in a season. The highest number of plate appearances in a season on the list is 131 (Eddie Bowman, 1963). As might be expected then, most on the list are pitchers who don't bat very much and aren't generally known for plate discipline. However, the occasional position player (including Bowman) also shows up.

Only twenty-three players have eighty or more plate appearances in a season with an on base percentage less than their batting average. I've listed them below, as well as the players on the list for their 2007 season.

Rank	Name	Year	Team	PA	AB	H	SF	AVG	OBP	Position
1	Ernie Bowman	1963	SFG	131	125	23	2	.184	.181	IF
2	Rob Picciolo	1977	CAL	128	119	24	1	.202	.200	IF
3	Fernando Valenzuela	1980	LAD	116	109	24	1	.220	.218	P
	Catfish Hunter	1965	OAK	116	105	23	2	.219	.215	P
5	Tony Cloninger	1961	MLN	114	105	17	2	.162	.159	P
6	Mike Cuellar	1959	BAL	113	103	12	2	.117	.114	P
7	Steve Carlton	1965	PHI	112	102	25	3	.245	.238	P
8	Jim Bunning	1955	PHI	109	99	12	1	.121	.120	P
9	Sam McDowell	1961	CLE	104	92	16	1	.174	.172	P
10	Fernando Valenzuela	1980	LAD	103	97	21	1	.216	.214	P
11	Jim Adduci	1983	MIL	97	94	25	3	.266	.258	LF
12	Pedro Ramos	1955	WSH	96	88	21	1	.239	.236	P
	Rick Reuschel	1972	CHC	96	86	19	1	.221	.218	P
14	Randy Jones	1973	SDP	94	86	15	1	.174	.172	P
15	Bobby Clark	1979	CAL	93	90	19	1	.211	.209	OF
16	Mario Soto	1977	CIN	92	87	18	1	.207	.205	P
17	Phil Niekro	1964	ATL	91	87	17	1	.195	.193	P
18	Bob Forsch	1974	STL	88	76	13	1	.171	.169	P
	Ray Moore	1952	BAL	88	84	18	1	.214	.212	P
20	Midre Cummings	1993	PIT	87	85	19	1	.224	.221	OF
21	Billy Beane	1984	OAK	82	79	19	1	.241	.238	RF
22	Fergie Jenkins	1965	CHC	80	67	10	1	.149	.147	P
	Ron Reed	1966	ATL	80	73	13	2	.178	.173	P

As I mentioned above, two players joined the full list of players last year. Livan Hernandez had a line of .213/.211/.267 in 79 PA for Arizona and Wladimir Balentien had a line of .667/.500/2.000 in a whopping four plate appearances for Seattle.

Only two players are on pace to join the list so far this year. One is Orioles hurler Garrett Olson with his .333/.250/.333 line in five plate appearances. Since interleague play is over, he is unlikely to hit again this year, barring a trade. The other player who may join the list is Arizona outfielder Alex Romero. In 38 major league plate appearances, Romero has a .229/.222/.286 line. He currently finds himself in AAA but may yet find his way back to the big club. Just another quirky thing to keep track of in the second half of the season.

Lowest AVG by a DH, minimum 400 PA

This was the idea that led to my long post about designated hitters. I wanted to see which players at an offensive position had managed to put up the worst batting averages in a single season. Certainly batting average is not the best way to measure a player's offense but it's fun to see guys with low averages (so long as their not on your team, I suppose).

Baseball-Reference's Play Index doesn't separate statistics from a season into statistics by position, so in order to get full-time DH's I merely had it look for players that spent 75% or more of their games played at DH. I may have missed a couple players, but when coupled with the 400 PA qualifier, the 75% restriction means I should have caught all the guys whose role was to fill the DH slot pretty much every night.

Here are the ten seasons by designated hitters with averages at .230 or below:

1. Dave Kingman, 1986, .210
2. Billy Williams, 1976, .211
3. Gorman Thomas, 1985, .215
4. Ken Singleton, 1984, .215
5. Jonny Gomes, 2006, .216
6. George Bell, 1993, .217
7. Alvin Davis, 1991, .221
8. Reggie Jackson, 1984, .223
9. Greg Vaughn, 1995, .224
10. Andre Thornton, 1986, .229

The highest OPS put up by any of those guys was .780 by Gorman Thomas. Ken Singleton had the only sub-.600 season, winding up with .575.

Designated Hitters

I don't know about you, but whenever I picture a designated hitter, it's a thunderfooted, lumbering, home run masher. David Ortiz plays well into the conventional thinking of a quality DH. The thing is, however, not all DH's are home run hitters. In fact, especially on bad teams, many times the DH is just whatever position player on the team needed a day off defensively. To wit, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this year used 13 different designated hitters, with Greg Norton leading all players with 46 starts.

In order to try and verify the perception of designated hitters as pure mashers, I decided to use the league splits (Example: 2007 Major League splits) at Baseball-Reference.com to get data on DH performance since the DH rule was enacted in 1973. Since National League teams don't have to plan a roster spot for the designated hitter, I decided only to look at American League numbers. Since the advent of interleague play, the non-DH numbers are slightly skewed due to pitchers batting, but the effect shouldn't be too drastic.

First, let's look at the traditional, though flawed, measure of batting average to compare designated hitters to the rest of the league:

(click image to enlarge)


Alright, so we can see that traditionally designated hitters hit for a lower average than the rest of their AL counterparts. This seems to support the idea that DH's aim to hit for power rather than average. Note the sharp dropoff in 1985; this isn't the last time we'll note that particular season.

Now let's turn our attention to a hitter's main goal: avoiding outs. On Base Percentage helps us here, as it's a measure of a player's ability to, well, get on base and avoid outs.

(click image to enlarge)


Here we can see that designated hitters generally have been better at getting on base than the rest of the AL. This is especially apparent in the mid-to-late 1990's. Interestingly, for the first decade after the DH rule took effect the players in the DH role did not really distinguish themselves from the rest of the league. This graph also shows the mysterious dip in 1985.

So designated hitters get on base more than the rest of the league. Woohoo. If they really are so good at driving the ball, it should show up in their slugging percentages. Let's take a look:

(click image to enlarge)


So, every year since 1973 has seen slugging percentages by DH at least equal to the rest of the league. In many cases, designated hitters slugged much better than the rest of the league. It's beginning to become repetitive, but the one season the rest of the league caught up to their DH's was...1985! This chart confirms the idea of designated hitters being better than average at mashing the ball. In fact, the last two charts show the overall superiority of players used as DH's at hitting in general. Using OPS, or On Base plus Slugging, a metric giving a quick-and-dirty yet useful approximation of a hitter's value, we can see the value of designated hitters.

(click image to enlarge)


As we can see, and as we gathered from the last two charts, designated hitters have a higher OPS than the rest of the league virtually every season. The only expection, obviously, was 1985. What exactly went on that year, anyway?

Baseball-Reference also has an interesting split statistic called tOPS+. This statistic compares how DH's compare to the numbers for the whole league. Anything over 100 means they were better than the rest of the league in terms of OPS, while anything less than 100 means they were worse. You might say this chart is a re-hashing of the last one, but it gives an impression of the degree to which DH's were better than the rest of the league. Finally, tOPS+ has a pretty simple formula for this chart: 100*((DH_OBP/AL_OBP) + (DH_SLG/AL_SLG) - 1).

(click image to enlarge)


It turns out that ever since roughly 1991 those DH's have been much better than the rest of the league. The expansion year (for the NL) in 1993 saw a dip in DH dominance, but other than that the designated hitters have exceeded 110 every season. Who could have figured that 1985 was the only year since 1973 that DH's were worse than the rest of the league? Anyone?

To recap, we've determined that DH's generally hit for worse average (swinging for the fences?), get on base more (walked because they represent a power threat?), slug better, and put up higher OPS numbers than the rest of the league. If they truly are swinging for the fences because they're home run hitters, might it show up in their strikeout percentage (strikeouts over at bats)? I think it might, but let's appeal to the chart:

(click image to enlarge)


Well, well, well, it turns out these guys are free swingers. While strikeout percentage overall has gone up since 1973, it's gone up faster for designated hitters. For the last dozen years, one out of every five at bats by a designated hitter has been a strikeout (as opposed to two out of eleven for the rest of the league). Pretty neat stuff.

Finally, there's one more statistic that might tell us whether designated hitters are swinging for the fences. I'm referring to home run percentage, or home runs over at bats. This should give us a final clue to the power displayed by designated hitters. Here we go:

(click image to enlarge)


So, perhaps obviously, it turns out that designated hitters do hit home runs at a higher percentage than the rest of the league. Just eyeballing it, it seems as though the HR% for the average DH is 4/3 that of another average position player. That's pretty cool.

I may have just spent a significant amount of time telling the world what it already knew: designated hitters are better hitters than the rest of the American League. It took some time for patience and/or other on-base skills to develop, but the slugging percentage, strikeouts and home runs were always there. If nothing else, I hope this lengthy post brought the fact designated hitters in 1985 suffered a dip in numbers compared to the rest of the league. I'm not really sure why that is, but in hopes someone sees something, I'll list below the batting lines for every player to spend 50 or more games at DH in 1985. Thanks for reading this marathon entry!

Name	Age	Team	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Ron Kittle	27	CHW	57	.250	.305	.526	.831
Hal McRae	39	KCR	105	.264	.355	.459	.814
Jeff Burroughs	34	TOR	74	.267	.377	.433	.810
Gorman Thomas	34	SEA	133	.215	.330	.451	.781
Don Baylor	36	NYY	140	.232	.332	.432	.764
Cliff Johnson	37	TEX	103	.264	.337	.425	.762
Larry Sheets	25	BAL	93	.262	.323	.418	.741
Mike Easler	34	BOS	130	.259	.320	.411	.731
Reggie Jackson	39	CAL	52	.196	.335	.387	.722
Roy Smalley	32	MIN	56	.244	.348	.372	.720
Ted Simmons	35	MIL	99	.265	.325	.390	.715
Dave Kingman	36	OAK	149	.233	.301	.404	.705
Andre Thornton	35	CLE	122	.235	.301	.400	.701
Jorge Orta	34	KCR	85	.263	.310	.384	.694
Al Oliver	38	TOR	59	.253	.276	.376	.652
Len Matuszek	30	TOR	52	.220	.265	.319	.584

The only thing that struck me as curious was Reggie Jackson's bizarre split as RF/DH (.286/.378/.555 in 325 PA vs. .196/.335/.387 in 206 PA). He spent slightly more time as a designated hitter late in the season but overall his starts are pretty mixed up.

Highest BA, OBP under .300

I've always kind of liked these guys: players with batting averages very close to their on base percentages. I wouldn't want them on my team necessarily, but I enjoy their inability or unwillingness to take walks.

With that in mind, I looked up the top batting averages in a single season (since 1871) with 400+ PA (to allow for catchers not playing every day) and an on base percentage under .300. Only those seasons featuring batting averages over .275 are listed (22 of 1,959):

Name	Season	AVG	OBP
Charlie Carr	1903	.281	.296
Ivan Rodriguez	2007	.281	.294
Harry Swacina	1914	.280	.297
Dave Foutz	1886	.280	.297
Ozzie Guillen	1993	.280	.292
Don Kolloway	1946	.280	.293
Johnny Estrada	2007	.278	.296
Damaso Garcia	1980	.278	.296
Joe Hornung	1883	.278	.291
Hal Chase	1917	.277	.296
Wayne Nordhagen	1980	.277	.294
Hick Carpenter	1885	.277	.295
Tom Burns	1886	.276	.298
Ron Coomer	1998	.276	.295
Ivan Rodriguez	2005	.276	.290
George Wright	1879	.276	.299
Brian Hunter	1996	.276	.297
Bengie Molina	2007	.276	.298
Rafael Ramirez	1988	.276	.298
Larry Bowa	1974	.275	.298
Jerry Denny	1883	.275	.291
Bill Buckner	1973	.275	.297

I find it interesting three 2007 catchers (Rodriguez, Estrada, and Bengie Molina) made it onto the list.

Thanks for Playing, Maybe Next Time You'll Hit

The objective of a batter in baseball is to get on base. Most often one accomplishes this by putting the bat on the ball and getting a base hit. Sometimes, though, guys like Laynce Nix pop up for short time on an MLB roster and put up an 0-for-the-year line. They generally don't have that many plate appearances (Nix had 12), but they're still interesting.

Unsurprisingly, the top players in plate appearances for a season with no hits are pitchers. Here's the only five to ever reach 50 PA without a hit:

1. Bob Buhl, 85 PA, 1962
2. Bill Wight, 75, 1950
3. Ernie Koob, 57, 1916
4. Ron Herbel, 54, 1964
5. Karl Drews, 54, 1949

Brett Tomko led all players this year by going hitless in 37 plate appearances.

Let's throw pitchers out of the mix and get an idea of the most hapless position players in a single season. Here's the only guys at or above 25 PA.

1. Hal Finney (C), 35 PA, 1936
2. Larry Littleton (OF), 27 PA, 1981
3. Don Slaught (C), 26 PA, 1997
4. David Ortiz (DH/1B), 25 PA, 1999

The interesting thing about Finney is he didn't even manage to draw a walk or be hit by a pitch in 1936. He managed to drive in three runs and score three runs despite the .000 AVG, OBP and SLG. Fred Tauby (1937), Harry Redmond (1909) and Cliff Carroll (1888) are the only three other position players in major league history to reach even 20 PA without getting on base. Laynce Nix's 12 plate appearances this year tie him, with ten others, for the 28th most by a position player without getting on base in history.

Harry Redmond is atop the career leaderboard for most PA with an OBP of .000, but let's look at the list of guys who simply didn't get hits. Here's the players with 20 or more career PA sans hits:

1. Larry Littleton, 27
2. Mike Potter, 24
3. Cy Wright, 21
4. Harry Redmond, 20

Minor league veteran Josh Labandeira has a chance to join the list as he went 0-for-14 in 2004 for Montreal but still plays (he was in Albuquerque this year for the Marlins).

To finish off this entry, the player with the lowest career batting average above .000 was Skeeter Shelton, a Yankees centerfielder in 1915 who put up a 1-for-40 career line. He had a .025 average, a .071 OBP (2 walks), and a .025 SLG to give him a whopping .096 OPS.

Highest Slugging Percentage, AVG under .240

In the Daily Tracker posts, I keep pointing out Rickie Weeks's uncommon season in relation to batting average and on base percentage. In honor of his two home runs last night giving him fifteen for the year, I decided to look up players with the highest slugging percentage with a batting average under .240. Why .240 and not something more round like .250? Simply because I wanted to keep it close to what Weeks will end up with. I made the report only return qualifiers for the batting title (usually 502 PA, though strike years are different) since it's almost the end of the season. Weeks likely will end up qualifying as he needs 11 plate appearances in three games and he bats leadoff. His current batting line is .235/.375/.432.

Here's the top 20 slugging percentages by players with batting averages below .240:

Name	Year	AVG	SLG
Jose Canseco	1998	.237	.518
Mickey Tettleton	1995	.238	.510
Phil Plantier	1993	.240	.509
Dave Kingman	1976	.238	.506
Rob Deer	1986	.232	.494
Dave Kingman	1975	.231	.494
Adam Dunn	2006	.234	.490
Mark McGwire	1990	.235	.489
Carlton Fisk	1985	.238	.488
Jeromy Burnitz	2003	.239	.487
Mike Cameron	2004	.231	.479
Mike Pagliarulo	1987	.234	.479
Jose Valentin	2004	.216	.473
Gorman Thomas	1980	.239	.471
Gus Zernial	1957	.236	.471
Pat Seerey	1946	.225	.470
Mickey Tettleton	1992	.238	.469
Mark McGwire	1989	.231	.467
Darryl Strawberry	1989	.225	.466
Mike Pagliarulo	1986	.238	.464

Rickie Weeks' .432 slugging average this year would place him into an exact tie with Rob Deer's 1990 for 63rd place (both would have .431818181818 and so on).

Who needs Hits?

Rickie Weeks of the Milwaukee Brewers has 74 hits in 323 at bats this season, "good" for a .229 batting average. He has shown good plate discipline and a proclivity to be hit with pitches, taking 56 walks and being hit 12 times. Altogether, he's reached base 142 times in 395 plate appearances. Taking out his three sacrifice hits, he's got a .362 on base percentage. Not bad for a guy who can't put the bat on the ball very well. Here's a list of the players since 1901 that have had a lower batting average and a higher on base percentage in at least 395 plate appearances (I used 392 when I posted this on Brew Crew Ball because it was in my mind after taking out his sacrifice hits).

Name	Year	PA	AVG	OBP
Roy Cullenbine	1947	607	.224	.401
Wes Westrum	1951	474	.219	.400
Gene Tenace	1980	416	.222	.399
Gene Tenace	1978	515	.224	.392
Jimmy Wynn	1976	584	.207	.377
Mickey Tettleton	1990	559	.223	.376
Wes Westrum	1952	403	.220	.374
Gene Tenace	1974	612	.211	.367
Rickey Henderson	2001	465	.227	.366
Bud Harrelson	1974	412	.227	.366
Tim Salmon	2001	581	.227	.365
Donie Bush	1915	703	.228	.364
Charlie Gehringer	1941	537	.220	.363

By making the criterion 395 PA rather than 392 PA, it cuts out Roy Cullenbine's 1940 when he put up a .220/.369 line in 394 PA. Either way, Weeks is having an uncommon year.

200+ Hits, Batting Average below .300

This is another recycled Brew Crew Ball post, so visitors from there please bear with me. In all of baseball history, only 46 times has a player put up more than 667 at bats and more than 200 hits in a single season. Matty Alou (2), Dave Cash (2), Juan Pierre (3), Pete Rose (2), Ichiro Suzuki (5), and Michael Young (3), are the only players to do it multiple times. The reason I set those parameters is simply because going 200 for 667 results in a .29985 batting average, slightly below .300 (without rounding).

Only nine (now ten) players have ever put up a batting average less than .30000 with over 200 hits in that season. When you trim that to a rounded off average of .300 or less, you can add a tenth (now eleventh). Here's the players:

Name	Year	Hits	At Bats	AVG	OBP	SLG
Jo-Jo Moore	1935	201	681	.29515	.353	.429
Maury Wills	1962	208	695	.29928	.347	.373
Lou Brock	1967	206	689	.29898	.327	.472
Matty Alou	1970	201	677	.29690	.329	.356
Ralph Garr	1973	200	668	.29940	.323	.415
Dave Cash	1974	206	687	.29985	.351	.378
Buddy Bell	1979	200	670	.29851	.327	.451
Bill Buckner	1985	201	673	.29866	.325	.447
Alfonso Soriano	2002	209	696	.30029	.332	.547
Juan Pierre	2006	204	699	.29185	.330	.388
Jimmy Rollins	2007	212	716	.29609	.344	.531

Juan Pierre has the worst batting average of any of the players ever to do this, by a relatively wide margin. He's right in the middle of the pack for on-base percentage, however, which is unsurprising given how little you must walk to even get 667 AB in the first place. A player at every position except catcher (and they probably shouldn't count, since even the best don't play every game) has done it.

EDIT: Jimmy Rollins made the list for 2007 with 212 hits in 716 at bats, good for a .29609 average.