Comments on: Most PAs, no homers, active players

By: TheGoofyOne

TheGoofyOne — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:16:35 +0000

Just to clarify on my search, it was career AB from 1960-1980, not single season. The number of players who have many homerless seasons may actually end up with quite a few career homers, so you can't base anything on such seasons without looking at the total picture. Ozzie Smith hit 28 homers, Bowa 15. That's a long way from zero. Comparing the guys on the single-season homerless list to guys with 0 on the active career list isn't a fair way to do it. Ozzie homered in his first season. Bowa, it is true, did take nearly three years with lots of ABs, but if you did this same list any time after Aug. 1972, the bulk of his career, he wouldn't show up either.

By the way, possibly my favorite homerless stat: Otis Nixon, all-time leader in 0-30 seasons http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/gyrTW

By: gerry

gerry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:36:54 +0000

Note that the ten guys on the multiple seasons list all date back to 1995 or earlier. Reggie Willits seems to walk a fair bit for someone with so little power. Eorns, Bergen was a catcher with a great defensive reputation, who played for some crappy teams.

By: DoubleDiamond

DoubleDiamond — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:28:45 +0000

I thought for sure that Rod Carew would be on that last list, but he had only one homerless season. However, it was one of the years in which he won a batting title, 1972. I thought I had read somewhere at the time that he was the only player to win a batting title (at least in the post-1900 era) without hitting a home run. Later, I read that Zack Wheat did so for Brooklyn in the late 19-teens. I just looked it up here, and indeed he hit zero homers in 1918 while leading the lead in batting average. Both 1972 and 1918 were shortened years - 1972 due to a labor dispute that delayed the beginning of the season and 1918 due to ending early because of World War I. So maybe given a little more time, Carew or Wheat would have homered. Some of these guys who don't have much power, especially in the "dead ball" era, may have hit inside-the-park home runs. I also noticed that Pedro Martinez, Jamie Moyer, and Brett Myers are among the active players. Now watch all three of them go deep in the same game! (Martinez starts home game at Citzens Bank Park, homers in second inning, rain delay in third, play resumes, Moyer comes in to pitch, homers in fourth, Myers comes into game in top of eighth in a double switch that will allow him to also pitch ninth with less of a chance to need a pinch hitter, Myers' spot comes up anyway with no one warmed up, Myers then homers.) No one currently in the Phillies' starting rotation has a career regular season home run. I thought Cole Hamels would have one, but I just checked, and he doesn't. Cliff Lee, with admittedly very few opportunities so far, also doesn't have any. Joe Blanton does have that one in the World Series.

By: TheGoofyOne

TheGoofyOne — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:03:55 +0000

Actually, it may not have been as common circa 1970 as believed. I did a search, 1960-1980, most AB w/o a home run, non-pitchers only. Ten guys had 500 AB, although one would later homer a bunch of times. Only two have more than 1,000 AB, Tim Johnson and Luis Gomez. The first guy I thought of, Mick Kelleher, was third with 954.

By: DavidRF

DavidRF — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:54:13 +0000

Huh... Al Bridwell hit the single that was nullified by Merkle's boner. Small world. Can't find anything on the homerless PA streak though. Looks like most other sources use AB's to measure this type of thing.

By: bradtempleman

bradtempleman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:45:59 +0000

The most career PA without a home run of any position player who started his career after 1900 was Tom Oliver, OF for the Red Sox from 1930-1933, who had 2072 PA without a Home Run. He probably would have gotten ROY votes had there been one (led the league in AB, .293 BA) and even received MVP votes the next year.

By: DavidRF

DavidRF — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:45:51 +0000

Wikipedia tells me that Thevenow has the record for consecutive AB's without a homer (with a citation of a 1982 baseball digest article)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Thevenow

That's by AB's. Bridwell's PA streak was longer. Bridwell, had a halfway decent walk rate.

By: eorns

eorns — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:07:25 +0000

Nice find on the streaks. Belliard actually has the lowest career OPS+ (46) of any player with over 1500 PA (despite the fact that had over 2500!). That is, if you don't count some guy named Bill Bergen who played between 1901 and 1911 with a 21 OPS+. Not sure how that could be possible. FYI, Newman's 58 is tied for 78th on the list with, among others, one of my favorite baseball names, Onix Concepcion.

By: JDV

JDV — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:47:33 +0000

My apologies for not knowing how to introduce a new subject, but I noted that the Giants' Pablo Sandoval played in his 162nd MLB game on Saturday. Through that game, his career totals included 203 Hits and 330 Total Bases...pretty lofty numbers. In recent years, I could only find similar numbers from Ryan Braun and Hunter Pence. Is there a way to compile a list other than a game-by-game count of the partial season? I'm interested in using 200 H and 324 TB (2x162) as the threshholds. Thanks to all.

By: leatherman

leatherman — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:38:36 +0000

Al Newman went 2252 plate appearances after his only career home run before retiring.
Rafael Belliard went 2044 plate appearances between his only two career home runs.

Those are the longest streaks I could find from 1954-2009.