Who is the only player in major league history to have at least 30 HR and 80 RBI in a season with fewer than 400 plate appearances?

Read down the page for a clue, and click through for the answer.

CLUE: He did it in 2005

Tim Kurkjian mentions that Curtis Granderson once got 5 hits in 5 at-bats without scoring or driving in a run.

Here's the full list of times it's been done since 1957:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Curtis Granderson 2005-09-18    DET @LAA L  3-5   5  5  0  5  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st CF
    2 Jason Kendall     1999-05-03    PIT  SFG W  9-8   5  5  0  5  2  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th C
    3 Jeff Blauser      1996-06-10    ATL @NYM L  3-8   5  5  0  5  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th SS
    4 Jose Vizcaino     1995-09-23    NYM @FLA L  3-4   5  5  0  5  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd SS
    5 Rafael Palmeiro   1990-06-30    TEX @BOS W  6-5   5  5  0  5  2  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd 1B
    6 Darren Daulton    1989-09-20    PHI @CHC W  9-8   5  5  0  5  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 8th C
    7 Richie Hebner     1978-07-30    PHI @CIN L  3-5   5  5  0  5  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  1 5th 1B
    8 Cesar Tovar       1974-08-14    TEX  MIL L  5-6   5  5  0  5  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  1 2nd LF
    9 Matty Alou        1970-08-19    PIT  SFG L  4-7   5  5  0  5  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st CF
   10 Pete Rose         1970-07-10(2) CIN @ATL W  3-1   5  5  0  5  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st RF
   11 Lee Thomas        1961-09-05(1) LAA @KCA L  3-7   5  5  0  5  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd RF

Nobody has ever done 6-for-6 with no runs or RBI.

4-for-4 with no runs or RBI has been done 230 times. Here are the 2007 occurrences:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt PA AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+
    1 Alexi Casilla     2007-09-03    MIN  CLE L  0-5   4  4  0  4  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 1st 2B
    2 Emil Brown        2007-08-25    KCR  CLE L  4-9   4  4  0  4  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 5th RF
    3 Michael Cuddyer   2007-07-18    MIN  DET L  2-3   5  4  0  4  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 4th RF
    4 Damian Miller     2007-07-07    MIL @WSN L  4-5   4  4  0  4  0  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 6th C
    5 Kenny Lofton      2007-06-29    TEX @BOS L  1-2   5  4  0  4  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  4  0 1st CF
    6 Derrek Lee        2007-06-15    CHC  SDP W  4-1   4  4  0  4  3  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 3rd 1B
    7 Edwin Encarnacion 2007-05-31    CIN @HOU L  2-10  4  4  0  4  1  0  0   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 7th 3B
    8 Troy Tulowitzki   2007-04-30    COL @SFG L  5-9   5  4  0  4  0  0  0   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0  0  0 2nd SS

UPDATE: The 200-hit season by decade numbers were wrong and are corrected below. 

Ichiro got to 200 hits again 2 nights ago, and here are some interesting numbers for you:

A couple more thoughts on hard-working pitchers.

Ten-SO games from most recent to oldest. - Baseball-Reference PI

After reading the MySQL performance blog, I realized I was making things a bit too hard when people asked for the total number of matching outputs. At the bottom of the output you now get the total number of games or seasons that matched your criteria.

Using Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Team Pitching Gamelog Finder, and setting it for "For 2007, Playing in the AL, (requiring pitchers>=4), sorted by greatest number of games matching selected criteria in a game" tells us how many times each team in the A.L., to date, has used 4+ pitchers in a game this season.  Here's the list:

Tm  Year Games Link to Individual Games
+---+----+-----+-------------------------+
NYY 2007    91 Ind. Games               
BAL 2007    90 Ind. Games               
TBD 2007    88 Ind. Games               
TEX 2007    81 Ind. Games               
CHW 2007    80 Ind. Games               
BOS 2007    80 Ind. Games               
SEA 2007    77 Ind. Games               
MIN 2007    77 Ind. Games               
OAK 2007    76 Ind. Games               
DET 2007    73 Ind. Games               
TOR 2007    70 Ind. Games               
KCR 2007    69 Ind. Games               
CLE 2007    66 Ind. Games               
LAA 2007    62 Ind. Games               

It's interesting to see the Yankees as the "worst" in the league here - just ahead of the Orioles and the Devil Rays.  It's probably a few things that leads to high numbers in this list:  Ineffective starters and relievers and/or a manager with a quick hook.

To date, the Yankees have gone 46-45 in those 91 games where they used 4 pitchers or more.  New York's overall ERA in those 91 games is 5.48.  But, it's 3.57 in the games that they've won and it's 7.51 in the games that they've lost.

Just for the heck of it, I used Play Index to run this Pitching Game Finder query:  "For 2007, Playing for NYY, Team Lost, (requiring ER>=5 and pitchers>=4), sorted by greatest number of games matching selected criteria in a game" and it gave me 38 games where the Yankees lost, used 4 pitchers or more, and allowed 5 ER or more. 

The results show that this happened 12 times in April, 7 times in May, 5 times in June, 5 times in July, and 9 times in August.   Those 19 times before June 1st tell the story as to why the Yankees got off to a 22-29 start this season:  Too many games where the pitching staff did not get the job done.

Random thing to check on -- how to NL pitchers compare with AL pitchers when it comes to CG in the DH era? (That's 1973-2007 for those curious).

Well, looking at the rival leaderboards, American Leaguers complete far more than their NL counterparts.

Nearly twice as many have completed 100.  Over twice as many (65-26) have completed 50.  While 197 AL pitchers have completed 15, only 144 NL guys have.

Pretty dang substantial if you ask me.

Happy Labor Day to everybody. Here are some notes on pitchers who have labored the most so far this season (through Saturday):

Jerry Crasnick, for my money one of the best baseball journalists around, wrote an interesting piece on ESPN.com about players with the most seasons having at least 30 HR and no more than 70 strikeouts. I used the PI to reproduce his list (a simple batting season finder sorted by players with most seasons):

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Hank Aaron        1957 1973 23-39      10 Ind. Seasons
 Lou Gehrig        1929 1937 26-34       9 Ind. Seasons
 Ted Williams      1939 1957 20-38       8 Ind. Seasons
 Mel Ott           1929 1942 20-33       8 Ind. Seasons
 Joe DiMaggio      1937 1950 22-35       7 Ind. Seasons
 Albert Pujols     2002 2007 22-27       6 Ind. Seasons
 Barry Bonds       1992 2004 27-39       6 Ind. Seasons
 Stan Musial       1948 1955 27-34       6 Ind. Seasons
 Gary Sheffield    1992 2003 23-34       5 Ind. Seasons
 Willie Mays       1954 1959 23-28       5 Ind. Seasons
 Vladimir Guerrero 1999 2006 23-30       4 Ind. Seasons
 Frank Thomas      1993 1997 25-29       4 Ind. Seasons
 Frank Robinson    1960 1969 24-33       4 Ind. Seasons
 Ted Kluszewski    1953 1956 28-31       4 Ind. Seasons
 Roy Campanella    1950 1955 28-33       4 Ind. Seasons
 Babe Ruth         1929 1932 34-37       4 Ind. Seasons
 Chuck Klein       1929 1932 24-27       4 Ind. Seasons
 Aramis Ramirez    2004 2006 26-28       3 Ind. Seasons
 Magglio Ordonez   1999 2001 25-27       3 Ind. Seasons
 Don Mattingly     1985 1987 24-26       3 Ind. Seasons
 Billy Williams    1968 1972 30-34       3 Ind. Seasons
 Hank Sauer        1949 1954 32-37       3 Ind. Seasons
 Ralph Kiner       1948 1951 25-28       3 Ind. Seasons
 Johnny Mize       1940 1948 27-35       3 Ind. Seasons
 Hal Trosky        1934 1937 21-24       3 Ind. Seasons
 Earl Averill      1931 1934 29-32       3 Ind. Seasons
 Rogers Hornsby    1922 1929 26-33       3 Ind. Seasons                  

This is his list, extended out for players with at least 3 such seasons. It's amazing to me that the only players on here who played from the 1980s in are Pujols, Bonds, Sheffield, Guerrero, Thomas, Ramirez, Ordonez, and Mattingly. I would have thought that with so many more players hitting 30 HR these days, there would be more opportunities for some players to make it under the 70-K barrier.

After all, here are the total number of player seasons with 30+ HR by decade:

2000-2007: 241
1990-1999: 235
1980-1989: 117
1970-1979:  100
1960-1969: 118
1950-1959: 95
1940-1949: 38
1930-1939: 62
1920-1929:29 (9 by Babe Ruth alone, he missed only in 1925 when he played just 98 games)

As we know, Babe Ruth set the new season record of HR at 29 in 1919, so clearly no players hit 30 prior to 1920.

Isn't it amazing how 2000-2007 already has the most 30+ HR seasons, even with 2 full seasons to go? Not to mention the 35 players who at the moment have 22 to 29 HR and could hit 30 in 2007?

This data just serves to bring home Crasnick's point stronger. As 30 HR seasons have gotten more common, so have strikeouts, making Pujol's feat more impressive, not less impressive.

asdas

Reasonably quietly, Jimmy Rollins has put together a very good first 7 years of his career. His offensive game is more akin to shortstops of yore, as opposed to the power production of more recent SS's such as Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada, and Alex Rodriguez.

I did a Play Index Batting Season Finder search for seasons by shortstops (minimum 80% of games played there) with at least 30 stolen bases, 80 runs scored, and 50 extra base hits. Here are all players with at least two such seasons:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Honus Wagner      1903 1912 29-38       7 Ind. Seasons
 Jimmy Rollins     2001 2006 22-27       6 Ind. Seasons
 Derek Jeter       1998 2006 24-32       5 Ind. Seasons
 Barry Larkin      1991 1998 27-34       4 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Furcal     2003 2006 25-28       3 Ind. Seasons
 Alex Rodriguez    1997 1999 21-23       3 Ind. Seasons
 Orlando Cabrera   2003 2006 28-31       2 Ind. Seasons
 Cristian Guzman   2000 2001 22-23       2 Ind. Seasons
 Alan Trammell     1986 1987 28-29       2 Ind. Seasons

An additional 15 players have done it once. Rollins is right up there, behind only the great Honus Wagner. Rollins and Wagner alike have gotten their extra base hits with a nice mix of doubles, triples, and homers.

This season (2007), Rollins already has 117 runs scored (#1 in the NL) and 73 XBHs (tied for #1 in the majors with Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday, and Curtis Granderson.) He needs just 3 more stolen bases to achieve a 7th such season above, tying Honus Wagner.

His extra base hits this season are quite a mix: 34 doubles, 15 triples, and 24 homers.

In fact, Rollins already has the record for most seasons by a shortstop with double digits for 2B, 3B, and HR:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Jimmy Rollins     2001 2007 22-28       5 Ind. Seasons
 Robin Yount       1980 1983 24-27       3 Ind. Seasons
 Zoilo Versalles   1963 1965 23-25       3 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Furcal     2003 2005 25-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Neifi Perez       1999 2000 26-27       2 Ind. Seasons
 Nomar Garciaparra 1997 2003 23-29       2 Ind. Seasons
 Arky Vaughan      1934 1935 22-23       2 Ind. Seasons
 Glenn Wright      1925 1930 24-29       2 Ind. Seasons

An addition 14 players have done it once, but among the notables who have never done it are Jeter, A-Rod, Tejada, and Trammell.