More Pitchers out of Position

I may have been wrong about pitchers spending most of their time out of position in the outfield.
My dad wrote in to tell me about Sam McDowell spending time at first base and second base, and plenty of other pitchers have moonlighted on the infield. Here are the guys since 1957.

At catcher:

• Chris Short - June 29, 1961 - For the first game of a doubleheader against the Giants, Phillies manager Gene Mauch attempted to confuse San Francisco manager Alvin Dark about his lineup by loading it with pitchers. This led to the curious appearance of Don Ferrarese in CF, Jim Owens in RF, and Short at catcher. All three of the players were replaced before the first batter stepped to the plate. Another interesting fact about the game: neither starting pitcher recorded an out. You could argue Short doesn't belong on the list because he didn't actually don the tools of ignorance, but he still got in the box score.

At first base:

• Mickey McDermott - August 2, 1957 - He hit a single in the top of the first inning of game one of the doubleheader before being replaced in the field in the bottom of the first. He also was 1-3 with a strikeout in six innings at first during game two of the doubleheader. McDermott was a capable hitter in his career, putting up a .252/.312/.349 line in 619 career at bats.
  
• Billy O'Dell - June 6, 1965 (Game 2) - O'Dell entered the game in relief with a 6-1 lead and runners on first and second with two out in the seventh. He gave up two singles to make it a 6-3 game and putting runners on the corners before being moved to first base to make room for Bob Sadowski. Sadowski gave up another single, making it 6-4, and O'Dell came back to the mound for 2 1/3 innings, finishing the game and picking up a save.
  
• Catfish Hunter - June 18, 1967 - Hunter recorded the first 26 outs before moving to first base while lefty Tony Pierce struck out Gates Brown with the bases loaded to end the game.
  
• Mike Paul - June 7, 1968 - Paul entered in relief, throwing 2 2/3 innings before being moved to first to make way for Stan Williams. Williams gave up a single and Paul replaced him on the mound. An error and a triple later, Paul picked up the loss.
  
• Dick Selma - June 28, 1970 - Selma moved to first in the bottom of the ninth while Woody Fryman struck out Jerry Davanon. He then moved back to the mound and threw another 1 1/3 innings, picking up the win.
  
• Sam McDowell - September 2, 1970 - McDowell was shifted to first base while Dean Chance came in and gave up two runs in the sixth inning. He then returned and pitched two more innings to finish the game.
  
• Steve Renko - September 22, 1972 - Renko entered the game in the bottom of the tenth inning, replacing shortstop Tim Foli at first base while Coco Laboy moved from third to short and Bob Bailey came in to play third. Renko didn't get a chance to bat, but fellow reliever Mike Marshall did in the top of the eleventh.
  
• Andy Hassler - August 29, 1977 - In another case of lineup trickery, Hassler appeared in the lineup at first base while Jim Colburn "manned" right field. Al Cowens and John Mayberry soon replaced the pitchers.
  
• Fernando Valenzuela - June 3, 1989 - In the 21st inning of a 5-4 loss to the Astros, Valenzuela came in to play first base while third baseman Joe Hamilton took the mound. Valenzuela was in the field for the 21st and 22nd inning, catching a foul popup and taking part in a 1-3 putout.
  
• Chuck Crim - June 6, 1989 -In the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, Crim moved to first base while Tony Fossas came in to give up a single. Crim then moved back to the mound and retired the next two batters to end the game.
  
• Todd Ritchie - October 7, 2001 - Ritchie was listed in the second spot in the lineup at first base but was pinch hit for by Craig Wilson in the top of the first inning.

At second base:

• Milt Pappas - September 11, 1958 - Pappas was in the starting lineup, batting seventh and playing second base but was replaced by Billy Gardner to start the bottom of the first.
• Sam McDowell - July 6, 1970 - McDowell moved to second base in the eighth inning with two outs. Dean Chance replaced him on the mound, intentionally walked the first batter to load the bases and got a 5-4 putout to end the inning. McDowell came back in to pitch the ninth but holds the distinction of being the most recent left-handed second baseman in baseball history. EDIT: Robert notes in the comments that Don Mattingly played second base more recently than Sam McDowell did, spending one-third of an inning there in the (in)famous Pine Tar game.
  

At third base:

• Hal Brown - July 23, 1958 & September 12, 1958 - On July 23, Brown came in as a defensive substitution in the bottom of the ninth in a de facto line change as everyone but the first baseman and left fielder were replaced. On September 12, Brown was in the starting lineup but replaced by Brooks Robinson in the bottom of the first.
• Dick Selma - April 16, 1970 & April 28, 1970 - On April 16, Dick Selma moved to third so Joe Hoerner could induce a popup to the catcher. Selma was then pinch hit for during the next inning. April 28 saw an exact repeat of the situation, but this time the popup ended the game.
  
• Jim Rittwage - September 25, 1970 - In the fourth inning Rittwage was moved to third in favor of Rick Austin. Austin gave up a double and an intentional walk before getting out of the inning on a popup to short. Rittwage then went back to the mound for three more innings.
• Bill Wilson - August 6, 1971 - Wilson moved to third so Joe Hoerner could strike out Willie Stargell. Wilson then came back to the mound for another 1 1/3 innings, ending the game.
• Orel Hershiser - September 15, 1993 - Hershiser was in the starting lineup but was pinch-hit for in the top of the first inning.
• Pedro Martinez - September 20, 1993 - Yes, that Pedro Martinez. His "appearance" at third base took the same form as Hershiser's five days earlier.

At shortstop:

• None!

That's all the pitchers out of position since 1957 (hopefully). If I missed someone, as always, let me know.

Most HR, Born in Eastern Hemisphere

Most players in baseball history were born in the United States or Latin American countries. I wanted to look at the players that weren't. The title is a slight misnomer, since players born in England and/or Scotland may have actually been born to the west of the Prime Meridian, making them technically part of the Western Hemisphere, but whatever.

Here are the thirteen baseball players born outside the United States and Latin American countries to reach 40 home runs:

Name	HR	From	To	Birthplace
Bobby Thomson	264	1946	1960	Glasgow, Scotland
Dave Nilsson	105	1992	1999	Brisbane, Australia
Hideki Matsui	103	2003	2007	Kanazawa, Japan
Mike Blowers	78	1989	1999	Wurzburg, W. Germany
Glenn Hubbard	70	1978	1989	Hahn Air Force Base, W.Germany
Ichiro Suzuki	67	2001	2007	Kasugai, Japan
Tom Brown	64	1882	1898	Liverpool, England
Elmer Valo	58	1940	1961	Ribnik, Czechoslovakia
Tony Solaita	50	1968	1979	Nuuuli, American Samoa
John Anderson	49	1894	1908	Sarpsborg, Norway
Tadahito Iguchi	42	2005	2007	Tokyo, Japan
Hee Seop Choi	40	2002	2005	Chun-Nam, South Korea
Hobe Ferris	40	1901	1909	Trowbridge, England

If you want to get technical and say the West Germany players and the American Samoa player shouldn't be counted because they were born in areas under the control of the United States, okay. Also, if you want to get technical and look up American Samoa and see if it's actually in the Western Hemisphere (I'm not sure if it is), I'll salute you. In any case, it's cool how high Bobby Thomson set the bar.

Also, did you know that the record for most home runs hit by a player born in A Ship on (the) Atlantic Ocean is zero?

Pitchers Out of Position Since 1957

An emailer was curious about pitchers playing out of position. I knew Bill Wegman spent an inning in right field and Ron Guidry spent a few innings in center field for the Yankees during his career, but I wasn't sure how many pitchers did that. I tried to look it up with the Baseball-Reference Play Index, but I didn't know how to go about it. I finally settled on looking for players that had spent at least 1% of their games on the mound and 1% in the outfield. I figure pitchers generally don't play out of position on the infield, and if one did, too bad. The list captured a lot of utility players (like Scott Spiezio) who pitched in one blowout game, but you can see the full list here. You can tell which position was a player's primary position by seeing which number is listed first in the last column.

After trying to clean up the list, I think I've got all the actual pitchers. Here they are:

Player	Year	Team	Positions
Ruben Gomez	1957	NYG	*1/9
Bobby Shantz	1958	NYY	*1/8
Hal Jeffcoat	1958	CIN	*1/8
Jack Harshman	1958	BAL	*1/8
Don Ferrarese	1961	PHI	*1/8
Jim Maloney	1961	CIN	*1/7
Jim Owens	1961	PHI	*1/9
Bennie Daniels	1963	WSA	*1/79
Al McBean	1965	PIT	*1/7
John Upham	1968	CHC	/178
Steve Blass	1968	PIT	*1/7
Tom Burgmeier	1968,1969,1980	CAL	*1/7
Jim Perry	1970	MIN	*1/7
Jim Rooker	1970	KCR	*1/7
Wayne Granger	1970	CIN	*1/7
Steve Mingori	1972	CLE	*1/7
Jim Colborn	1977	KCR	*1/9
Terry Forster	1977	PIT	*1/9
Gene Garber	1978	ATL	*1/8
Kent Tekulve	1979	PIT	*1/7
Ron Guidry	1979,1983	NYY	*1/8
Bobby Castillo	1980	LAD	*1/79
Dave Stieb	1980	TOR	*1/7
Bob Welch	1982	LAD	*1/79
Fernando Valenzuela	1982	LAD	*1/79
Rick Langford	1982	OAK	*1/78
Don Robinson	1984	PIT	*1/7
La Marr Hoyt	1984	CHW	*1/7
Jeff Dedmon	1986	ATL	*1/7
Jeff Robinson	1986	SFG	*1/9
Jesse Orosco	1986	NYM	*1/9
Randy Bockus	1986	SFG	/*179
Todd Worrell	1986,1987,1989	STL	*1/9
Roger McDowell	1986,1991	NYM	*1/79
Keith Comstock	1987	SFG	*1/9
Ricky Horton	1987	STL	*1/9
Jose DeLeon	1988	STL	*1/79
Frank Williams	1989	DET	*1/79
Les Lancaster	1990	CHC	*1/7
Jeff Nelson	1993	SEA	*1/7
Randy Johnson	1993	SEA	*1/7
Ricky Bones	1993	MIL	*1/9
Bill Wegman	1995	MIL	*1/9
Chuck McElroy	1999	NYM	*1/7
Rick Reed	1999	NYM	*1/9
Scott Elarton	1999	HOU	*1/8
Brooks Kieschnick	2003	MIL	*1/D7
Jason Simontacchi	2004	STL	*1/7
Noah Lowry	2007	SFG	*1/9

The positions column tells you where the pitchers spent time in the field. The reason I chose 1957 as the cutoff was because anyone curious about these guys should be able to look them up on Baseball-Reference, go to their batting gamelogs (available if you scroll down to the batting section of their page), and see exactly when they appeared elsewhere in the field. For example, Randy Johnson's 1993 batting gamelog is here and you can see he spent an inning in left field on October 3. You can even get the box score for the game.

One last thing, does anyone know the John Upham story? As you can see on the list, he's the only pitcher who doesn't have an asterisk next to the number 1, indicating he did not spend over half his games on the mound. He appeared in 21 games in his career, seven times on the mound, twice in the outfield, nine times as a pinch hitter, and three times as a pinch runner. He even spent an entire game in center field in 1968 (box score). He didn't get much time at bat or on the mound for his career, but I thought it was interesting.

Oh, I should also mention it's entirely possible I missed someone because of the clumsy way I looked up the list. If you know I did, drop me a line!

UPDATE: My dad emailed me to tell me about Sam McDowell, a Cleveland lefthander in the 60's and 70's. On July 6, 1970, McDowell was moved to second base during a game for one-third of an inning and then returned to the mound to finish the game. Curiously, he actually recorded a putout, ending the top of the eighth inning. Also, on September 2, 1970, he was moved to first base for two-thirds of an inning until returning to the mound for the rest of the game. Oddly, the team he faced in both games was the Washington Senators, and the pitcher to replace him both times was Dean Chance.

The Only "Ghost" in MLB History?

One of the cool things about Baseball-Reference's search function is you can look for nicknames as well as given names. Apropos of Halloween, I decided to look up "ghost" and see what happened. It turns out that only one player in major league history had a nickname with "Ghost" in it, and he's already been mentioned on this site.

Jo-Jo Moore, a New York Giants outfielder from 1930-1941, was nicknamed "The Gause Ghost." He came from Gause, Texas, so the origin of part of the nickname is obvious. I don't know where the ghost part comes from, but his BR Bullpen (Baseball-Reference's wiki) page states:

Moore was known to be a first-ball hitter, and some opposing managers would fine their pitchers if they threw Moore a strike on the first pitch.

He is listed by Bill James as the # 77 left-fielder of all time.

Pretty interesting stuff. Happy Halloween and hopefully everyone stays safe trick-or-treating.

UPDATE: jsackmann points out Oliver "Ghost" Marcelle was a famous Negro Leaguer.

Most Career Games Pitched, No Wins

This post is similar to the previous one but rather than looking for players with no decisions, its focus is players with zero career wins. Some of the names overlap, but there's been a fair amount of winless pitchers to throw in a lot of games. Of the 2,408 pitchers with zero career wins, there are twenty-two that have appeared in forty or more games. A number of these guys are still active, so the list will be fluid next season.

With that in mind, here are the winless wonders. As with yesterday, active pitchers are bolded:

Name	Games	Innings	Losses	(L/R)HP
Ed Olwine	80	89.2	1	LHP
Juan Alvarez	80	60.1	5	LHP
Chris Britton	63	66.1	3	RHP
Franquelis Osoria	61	75.2	6	RHP
Erik Plantenberg	61	42.1	0	LHP
Terry Felton	55	138.1	16	RHP
Frank Fanovich	55	105.0	5	LHP
Rob Mallicoat	51	53.2	2	LHP
Jeff Kaiser	50	52.0	2	LHP
Ross Powell	48	53.1	5	LHP
Mike Kinnunen	48	51.2	0	LHP
Bob Moorhead	47	119.2	3	RHP
John Lamb	47	66.1	2	RHP
Erik Schullstrom	46	60.0	0	RHP
Mike Burns	45	52.0	0	RHP
Steve Sinclair	45	34.1	3	LHP
Marcos Carvajal	42	57.0	2	RHP
Scott Forster	42	32.0	1	LHP
Brad Voyles	40	68.1	4	RHP
Ron Tompkins	40	50.0	2	RHP
Carmen Cali	40	34.1	1	LHP
Chad Bentz	40	29.2	3	LHP

Though I didn't bold his name Chad Bentz pitched this season for the Bridgeport Bluefish, an independent league team featuring other ex-major leaguers like Quinton McCracken, Brian Boehringer, and Matt Perisho, among others. It's not inconceivable that he'd be able to catch on again in some team's minor league system and the fact he's lefthanded makes it that much more probable.

Another interesting name is Terry Felton. Despite support from Brooks Robinson, Felton was released after going 0-13 for the Twins in 1982. He never appeared in the majors again and holds both the record for most career losses without a win with 16 (Steve Gerkin and Charlie Stecher are the only winless others to lose as many as ten) and the record for most losses in a season without a win with 13.

Most Career Games Pitched, No Decisions

Shortly after the season ended, I noted Trever Miller had set a single-season record for most games pitched without a decision. Today I want to look at the career leaders for most games without a win or a loss.

There have been thirty-one pitchers in baseball history to appear in 20+ games without moving their career record off 0-0. Overall, 1,417 pitchers have appeared in at least one game without a career decision.

UPDATE (2/11/13): There are now 35 pitchers who have appeared in 20+ games without a decision.  The table below has been updated through 2012.  The active contenders (pitched in majors or minors in 2012) are bolded:

Name	Games	Innings	(L/R)HP
Erik Plantenberg	61	42.1	LHP
Mike Kinnunen	48	51.2	LHP
Erik Schullstrom	46	60.0	RHP
Greg Jones	38	47.2	RHP
Allen McDill	38	34.2	LHP
Tom Qualters	34	52.2	RHP
Mike Neu	33	46.0	RHP
Dae-Sung Koo	33	23.0	LHP
Harry Shuman	30	50.2	RHP
Dustin Richardson	29	16.1	LHP
Mike Hinckley	28	23.1	RHP
Scott Watkins	27	21.2	LHP
Eulogio de la Cruz	27	32.0	RHP
Don Rowe	26	54.2	LHP
Wayne Schurr	26	48.1	RHP
Tim Kubinski	25	25.0	LHP
Roberto Vargas	25	24.2	LHP
Ron Diorio	25	20.1	RHP
John Anderson	24	44.2	RHP
Lee Hancock	24	32.1	LHP
Brad Boxberger	24	27.2	RHP
Jose Valdez	24	26.0	RHP
Norm McRae	22	34.1	RHP
Jose Cecena	22	26.1	RHP
Chris Hatcher	22	25.0	RHP
David Sanders	22	24.0	LHP
Rick Kester	21	40.2	RHP
Doug Piatt	21	34.2	RHP
Jim Morris	21	15.0	LHP
Takahito Nomura	21	13.2	LHP
Rommie Lewis	22	23.2	LHP
Lester Oliveros	22	23.0	RHP
Aaron Taylor	20	21.1	RHP
Reynaldo Garcia	20	20.0	RHP
Kevin Tolar	20	17.2	LHP

I wonder if Erik Plantenburg knows he set a major league record during his career? Speaking of Erik's, it's kind of weird that both the LHP and RHP records for career decisionless games were set by guys with the first name Erik. There have only been nine major league players (seven pitchers) named Erik, so that's almost unbelievable.

Most Boring Records in Sports

Let's expand from just baseball today and enjoy this list of "The Most Boring Records in Sports."

Fewest Innings Pitched in a Season, 200+ Hits Allowed

In 2007, forty-three pitchers allowed 200 or more hits while on the mound. Eighteen of them had fewer than 200 innings pitched. David Wells had the lowest IP total, giving up 201 hits in 157 1/3 innings for San Diego and Los Angeles. He managed to avoid having the highest H/9 IP total of the forty-three, as his 11.50 was edged out by Scott Olsen (226 hits in 176 2/3 IP => 11.51 H/9 IP).

Forgetting about the H/9 IP numbers for now, I was curious to find out which pitcher gave up more than two hundred hits in the fewest innings pitched. I looked at the years 1901-2007 in order to avoid the myriad rule changes and schedule havoc of the nineteenth century. Twenty-six pitchers since 1901 have given up over 200 hits in less than 160 innings. Here they are, for your reading pleasure:

Name	Season	Hits	Innings
Jack Knight	1926	206	142.2
Dick Coffman	1935	206	143.2
Jim Walkup	1937	218	150.1
Jack Russell	1932	207	152.2
Claude Willoughby	1930	241	153.0
Dennis Martinez	1983	209	153.0
Dutch Henry	1930	211	155.0
Lefty Weinert	1923	207	156.0
Joe Mays	2005	203	156.0
Ernie Wingard	1927	213	156.1
Jeff Fassero	1999	208	156.1
Whitey Glazner	1924	210	156.2
Bill Trotter	1939	205	156.2
Clise Dudley	1929	202	156.2
Jack Bentley	1925	200	157.0
Herb Pennock	1929	205	157.1
David Wells	2007	201	157.1
Jesse Barnes	1926	204	158.0
Jake Miller	1928	203	158.0
Mark Hendrickson	2003	207	158.1
Ed Whitson	1985	201	158.2
Chubby Dean	1940	220	159.1
Jeff Weaver	2003	211	159.1
Huck Betts	1935	213	159.2
Mike Paxton	1979	210	159.2
Jaime Navarro	1999	206	159.2

Unsurprisingly, almost all of these seasons took place during the two most batter-friendly eras in baseball history: the 1920's-1930's and the late 1990's through today.

I didn't list them all, obviously, but a pitcher gave up 200+ hits in less than 200 IP 701 times since 1901. There have been 4,588 total 200+ hits allowed seasons since the AL came into existence that year.

Lowest SO/9 While Qualifying for ERA Title

This is pretty out there, but I figured I'd try and take a look at starting pitchers who didn't strike out many batters. I figured the easiest way to do this was to examine pitchers qualifying for the ERA title. For those unfamiliar with Rule 10.22(b) of the Official Rules, which establishes the minimums for individual pitching champions, a pitcher must throw "at least as many innings in league championship games as the number of games scheduled for each club in his club’s league that season." Thus in most seasons, the minimum is 162 innings. I'm not sure if this is what MLB does, but Baseball-Reference.com has its own method for determining the minimum requirement in strike years (i.e., 1981 & 1994). That site uses the average number of games played by teams in the league during that season.

I also only looked at seasons since 1961. Those familiar with baseball history will note that was the first year of expansion. I wanted to keep a sense of the "modern game" (as in lots of strikeouts) in the list and by going further back in history, the top of the list becomes
clogged with guys from the 1940's and 1950's. I guess it's kind of arbitrary but I think that's alright. After all, it saves the lowest SO/9 figures from 1940-1959 as an entry for a rainy day. :)

To recap, the qualifiers are that the pitcher must have qualified for the ERA title in a season since 1961 to make the list. I included ERA for fun to see if the fact they didn't strike many batters out impacted their overall line. Most of the pitchers on the list had quite good ERA's. Here are the twenty-four seasons with 2.50 SO/9 or below:

Name	Year	IP	SO	SO/9	ERA
Nate Cornejo	2003	194.7	46	2.13	4.67
Ross Grimsley	1977	218.3	53	2.18	3.96
Steve Kline	1972	236.3	58	2.21	2.40
Bill Lee	1978	177.0	44	2.24	3.46
Ed Lynch	1983	174.7	44	2.27	4.28
Clyde Wright	1973	257.0	65	2.28	3.68
Mike Caldwell	1983	228.3	58	2.29	4.53
Tommy John	1984	181.3	47	2.33	4.52
Bob Stanley	1979	216.7	56	2.33	3.99
Paul Splittorff	1980	204.0	53	2.34	4.15
Bill Lee	1979	222.0	59	2.39	3.04
Lary Sorensen	1979	235.3	63	2.41	3.98
Ken Holtzman	1976	246.7	66	2.41	3.65
Bill Swift	1988	174.7	47	2.42	4.59
Glenn Abbott	1981	130.3	35	2.42	3.94
Paul Hartzell	1979	163.0	44	2.43	5.36
Jim Barr	1979	163.0	44	2.43	3.53
Dave Rozema	1978	209.3	57	2.45	3.14
Mike Flanagan	1989	171.7	47	2.46	3.93
Jim Palmer	1981	127.3	35	2.47	3.75
Lary Sorensen	1980	195.7	54	2.48	3.68
Clyde Wright	1974	232.0	64	2.48	4.42
Tommy John	1983	234.7	65	2.49	4.33
Lary Sorensen	1978	280.7	78	2.50	3.21

I wonder if Nate Cornejo realized he did something that hadn't been done for 14 years (Flanagan's 1989 was the second most recent season on the list). To put his numbers in more context with recent baseball history, only four other qualifying pitchers had less than 3.00 SO/9 since 1990: Bill Gullickson (2.60, 1992), Kirk Rueter (2.65, 2004), Ricky Bones (2.78, 1993), and Mark Knudson (2.99, 1990). Note that 1,456 seasons qualifying for ERA titles have been recorded in that time.

Lowest SLG by a DH, minimum 400 PA

I meant to post this yesterday but was attacked by some computer gremlins. Now that they're taken care of I want to turn attention to designated hitters who weren't good at hitting for power. A number of the guys on the lowest batting average and lowest on base percentage lists kept their jobs because they were capable of mashing the ball. By looking at the lowest slugging percentages, we should be able to find the designated hitters that were, essentially, slap hitters.

I'm going to make this a pretty long list, simply because giving the lowest thirty seasons for slugging percentage also gives you all the seasons of .400 or below. (EDIT: After reading the comments on the link Baseball Think Factory gave this entry, I realized I forgot to detail qualifiers for the list. The following are players who appeared in at least 75% of their games on the season as a designated hitter according to the B-R Play Index. Sorry for the confusion.):

1. Ken Singleton, 1984, .289
2. Carlos May, 1976, .333
3. Mitchell Page, 1979, .335
   
4. Alvin Davis, 1991, .335
5. Billy Williams, 1976, .339
6. Hank Aaron, 1975, .355
7. Tommy Davis, 1975, .357
8. George Bell, 1993, .363
9. Greg Luzinski, 1984, .364
10. Dave Parker, 1991, .365
11. Gates Brown, 1973, .366
12. Reggie Jefferson, 1993, .372
13. Tommy Davis, 1974, .377
14. Tony Oliva, 1975, .378
15. Ken Singleton, 1982, .381
16. Paul Molitor, 1998, .382
17. Edgar Martinez, 2004, .385
    
18. Jeff Burroughs, 1983, .387
19. Al Kaline, 1974, .389
20. Willie Horton, 1978, .389
21. Rico Carty, 1979, .390
22. Dwight Evans, 1990, .391
23. Harold Baines, 1992, .391
24. Tommy Davis, 1973, .391
25. Andre Thornton, 1986, .392
26. Don Baylor, 1987, .392
27. Jose Vidro, 2007, .394
28. Hal McRae, 1981, .396
29. George Brett, 1992, .397
30. Deron Johnson, 1973, .400

It's not altogether surprising so many of these seasons took place in the 1970's and 1980's. Slugging percentage league-wide was lower than fans today are accustomed to: in the first ten seasons of the DH, AL slugging percentage topped .400 all of three times. The AL slugging percentage hasn't dropped below .400 since 1992. That makes Seattle special in a dubious way; the Mariners are the only team to have a full-time DH since 2000 make the list, and they did it twice (Martinez in 2004 and Vidro in 2007)!

Regardless of the time he played in, Ken Singleton's all-time low mark is perversely impressive. It's hard to slug .289 and get 400 PA in a season, much less without playing impressive defense to back it up. Opening the search to all positions since 1973, only 144 players amassed 400+ PA in a season while slugging lower than .300. They were preponderantly shortstops, with the rest mainly second basemen and catchers. To show how rare it is, consider that 6,614 seasons of 400+ PA have been recorded since 1973. In either case, rare or not, the fact the second-lowest finisher had a .333 slugging percentage makes Singleton's mark stand out even more. I would say he holds one of the esoteric "unbreakable" records.