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January 31, 2008
I see that the Brewers are planning to move reigning AL ROY Ryan Braun from 3B (where he was pretty bad defensively) to LF next year.
It got me to wondering how often that’s happened before. I recall that Pat Burrell was a 3B when the Phillies drafted him, but he was blocked by Scott Rolen. They first moved Burrell to 1B, but eventually to LF, which is where he has played most of his major-league ball. (In fact, he’s played 58 ML games at 1B, all in his first year, and exclusively has played LF or DH since then.)
Anyway, I tried to come up with a search that might show a guy who played both 3B and LF a lot early in his career. This is what I came up with (although it’s definitely not that great): Within the first
Cnt Player Year From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams
+—-+—————–+—-+—-+—-+—–+—-+—–+—–+—-+—-+—+—+—+—-+—-+—+—-+—+—+—+—+—-+—+—–+—–+—–+—–+———+———–+
1 Miguel Cabrera 2007 2003 2007 20-24 720 3072 2694 449 842 183 10 138 523 322 70 592 25 5 26 87 17 11 .313 .388 .542 .930 *579/D FLA
2 Mike Edwards 2006 2003 2006 26-29 106 282 259 24 63 9 2 3 15 19 0 40 2 2 0 7 1 1 .243 .300 .328 .628 /57D96 OAK-LAD-PIT
3 Russell Branyan 2002 1998 2002 22-26 326 1062 928 134 213 38 5 61 154 114 5 380 10 0 10 9 5 4 .230 .317 .478 .795 75/D39 CLE-TOT
4 Kevin Mitchell 1989 1984 1989 22-27 548 2099 1854 279 509 101 17 100 319 216 43 352 11 2 16 31 20 19 .275 .351 .509 .860 57/9683 NYM-TOT-SFG
5 Steve Braun 1975 1971 1975 23-27 629 2339 2012 260 569 91 11 32 212 289 22 242 13 11 14 45 20 17 .283 .374 .387 .761 57/46D39 MIN
6 Bill McNulty 1972 1969 1972 22-25 9 29 27 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 .037 .103 .037 .140 /*75 OAK
7 Jim Dyck 1955 1951 1955 29-33 301 1085 949 131 236 50 5 26 114 118 1 130 7 11 0 26 4 6 .249 .336 .394 .730 57/89 SLB-CLE-BAL
8 Ralph Hodgin 1947 1939 1947 24-32 416 1463 1358 170 393 68 19 3 154 76 0 52 17 12 0 38 7 7 .289 .335 .374 .709 75/9 BSN-CHW
9 Bobby Estalella 1942 1935 1942 24-31 289 1023 852 135 234 50 14 18 130 164 0 94 4 3 0 30 8 5 .275 .394 .430 .824 7/598 WSH-SLB
10 Cozy Dolan 1914 1909 1914 19-24 267 989 865 157 209 29 12 4 73 87 0 109 9 28 0 0 85 0 .242 .317 .317 .634 5/798 CIN-NYY-TOT-STL
11 Scotty Ingerton 1911 1911 1911 25-25 136 575 521 63 130 24 4 5 61 39 0 68 2 13 0 0 6 0 .250 .304 .340 .644 /573469 BSN
12 Emil Batch 1907 1904 1907 24-27 348 1361 1253 134 315 38 22 7 98 65 0 0 3 40 0 0 37 0 .251 .290 .334 .624 *57/9864 BRO
13 Jim Delahanty 1906 1901 1906 22-27 406 1591 1428 176 385 62 20 9 161 104 0 0 30 29 0 0 54 0 .270 .332 .360 .692 *57/49618 CHC-NYG-BSN-CIN
How many of these guys actually qualify as having switched from 3B to LF? Cabrera has basically gone the other way, from LF to 3B. Edwards hasn’t played enough games to be relevant. Branyan has played all around each year. Kevin Mitchell qualifies for the most part, playing most of his games at 3B until moving to LF with the Giants in 1989, although he did play a bunch of OF before that. Same story with Steve Braun. only 9 games for McNulty. Dyck played both positions most years. Alot fo the rest of the guys played in various positions from year to year. Delahanty actually switched from 3B to OF, then back to 3B, then to other positions.
So I didn’t find anybody who fit all that well.
Using some other searches for just the first 3 years of a career, I also found Jack Howell and Phil Nevin, but again neither really qualifies all that well.
As it’s currently set up, the PI isn’t well-suited to this type of search. I think we might have to rely on actual memories of fans. So–who can remember somebody who made the switch from 3B to LF?
a
January 30, 2008
After playing for five teams in the last four years, Steve Finley is looking to sign with another team. If he does, he could move up on a few speed related “older” player lists.
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Yesterday, when I wrote about bases-loaded walks, I noted that Levale Speigner had the second-most such walks last year. I must admit–I had not heard of him before writing that stat. Turns out he was a rookie pitcher (mainly reliever) for Washington last year, and he finished with 40 IP and an 8.78 ERA. Yuck.
Here are the worst ERAs since 1901 for a pitcher in any of his first 3 seasons, minimum 40 IP:
Cnt Player **ERA** IP Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV H R ER BB SO ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str
+—-+—————–+———-+—–+—-+—+—+–+—+–+–+—+–+–+–+—–+–+—+—+—+—+—+—-+–+—-+—-+–+–+—+—+—+—+—+—+–+–+–+–+—–+—–+—–+—–+—-+—-+—-+
1 Roy Halladay 10.64 67.2 2000 23 TOR AL 19 13 0 0 4 4 7 .364 0 107 87 80 42 44 48 14 349 300 21 3 0 2 2 3 6 3 3 0 1 6 .357 .435 .587 1.022 153 1391 815
2 Micah Bowie 10.24 51 1999 24 TOT NL 14 11 0 0 2 2 7 .222 0 81 60 58 34 41 44 9 265 223 12 2 2 2 3 3 1 10 3 1 2 4 .363 .447 .556 1.003 162
3 Andy Larkin 9.64 74.2 1998 24 FLA NL 17 14 0 0 0 3 8 .273 0 101 87 80 55 43 42 12 373 307 20 3 3 4 5 2 10 13 2 0 0 3 .329 .435 .531 .966 166
4 Glen Cook 9.45 40 1985 25 TEX AL 9 7 0 0 1 2 3 .400 0 53 42 42 18 19 45 12 187 162 7 1 1 3 0 4 4 1 2 0 0 1 .327 .396 .605 1.001 169
5 Edgar Gonzalez 9.32 46.1 2004 21 ARI NL 10 10 0 0 0 0 9 .000 0 72 49 48 18 31 50 15 228 199 13 2 4 5 5 1 9 3 1 0 1 3 .362 .426 .673 1.099 179 814 499
6 Reggie Grabowski 9.23 65.1 1934 26 PHI NL 27 5 0 0 7 1 3 .250 0 114 72 67 23 13 51 13 328 3 1 4 0
7 Nick Bierbrodt 9.14 43.1 2003 25 TOT AL 18 5 0 0 4 0 2 .000 0 64 47 44 27 29 48 9 223 184 16 1 3 5 2 5 4 5 1 0 1 4 .348 .434 .592 1.026 173 852 511
8 Bryan Rekar 8.95 58.1 1996 24 COL NL 14 11 0 0 0 2 4 .333 0 87 61 58 26 25 59 11 289 252 16 6 1 5 3 3 4 1 2 0 0 4 .345 .413 .587 1.000 145
9 Herman Besse 8.83 53 1940 28 PHA AL 17 5 0 0 7 0 3 .000 0 70 56 52 34 19 50 10 262 3 0 2 0
10 Levale Speigner 8.78 40 2007 26 WSN NL 19 6 0 0 3 2 3 .400 0 58 39 39 23 19 48 4 198 170 14 1 2 0 2 3 4 0 1 0 0 1 .341 .413 .506 .919 147 729 432
11 Glenn Liebhardt 8.78 55.1 1936 25 SLB AL 24 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 98 58 54 27 20 61 4 291 2 0 2 0
12 Jim Converse 8.69 48.2 1994 22 SEA AL 13 8 0 0 1 0 5 .000 0 73 49 47 40 39 56 5 253 207 12 6 4 1 2 3 3 3 4 0 0 3 .353 .454 .541 .995 153
13 Mike DeJean 8.41 61 1999 28 COL NL 56 0 0 0 17 2 4 .333 0 83 61 57 32 31 69 13 288 248 11 3 8 2 3 3 12 15 2 0 0 3 .335 .411 .560 .971 126
14 Kyle Davies 8.38 63.1 2006 22 ATL NL 14 14 1 0 0 3 7 .300 0 90 60 59 33 51 53 14 312 271 19 2 0 3 3 2 5 4 1 1 0 3 .332 .408 .572 .980 155 1235 739
15 Jimmy Haynes 8.29 89 1996 23 BAL AL 26 11 0 0 8 3 6 .333 1 122 84 82 58 65 60 14 435 366 18 4 1 2 4 5 10 6 3 1 0 5 .333 .422 .519 .941 136
16 Jesus Colome 8.27 41.1 2002 24 TBD AL 32 0 0 0 15 2 7 .222 0 56 41 38 33 33 53 6 204 164 8 2 5 2 4 1 4 9 4 1 0 5 .341 .455 .524 .979 162 855 468
17 Roberto Ramirez 8.26 40.1 1999 26 COL NL 32 4 0 0 6 1 5 .167 1 68 42 37 22 32 70 8 209 185 15 2 2 0 2 0 4 6 0 0 0 4 .368 .435 .600 1.035 141
18 Chad Durbin 8.21 72.1 2000 22 KCR AL 16 16 0 0 0 2 5 .286 0 91 71 66 43 37 62 14 349 302 21 1 1 0 1 3 6 5 0 0 0 7 .301 .385 .517 .902 124 1368 784
19 Willie Adams 8.18 58.1 1997 24 OAK AL 13 12 0 0 0 3 5 .375 0 73 53 53 32 37 54 9 282 238 22 3 2 4 3 5 2 5 2 1 0 2 .307 .391 .538 .929 143
20 Brad Havens 8.18 80.1 1983 23 MIN AL 16 14 1 0 0 5 8 .385 0 110 75 73 38 40 52 11 378 330 23 5 3 0 1 9 4 10 1 0 0 6 .333 .393 .533 .926 149
Speigner checks in at 10th. I’m surprised he wasn’t higher. The bad news for Speigner is that this list is populated mainly by recent pitchers who flamed out early in their careers. The obvious exception is Roy Halladay, who might be the best starting pitcher in the American League now that Santana has gone to the Mets. Outside of Halladay, there are no great careers on there, although a number of guys are still active and might do something.
In case you’re interested, searching on the same criteria (first 3 years, minimum 40 IP) but ranking by WHIP instead of ERA pushes Speigner further down the list, to 40th, despite his 2.025 WHIP.
Yesterday Andy focused on bases-loaded walks. I’d like to focus on the most demoralizing type of bases -loaded walk, the two out walk to the opposing pitcher. Just when you think you’re out of the jam, not only have you replaced an easy out with a run, you have also brought up the top of the order. Recently this is has become an uncommon event, but it seemed happen about 3-10 times a year before 2006. Let’s take a look at the last 5 years.
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January 29, 2008
Using the Team Pitching Event Finder, we came up with this list of all 2007 instances of a team issuing a bases-loaded walk.
Among the things you can tell from this are:
- The pitchers to do it the most were Barry Zito (7), Levale Speigner (5), and Chad Gaudin (5).
- The team to draw the most bases-loaded walks was Boston (24), followed by Anaheim (19), and Philadelphia (17).
- Right-handed batters received 58.4% of the walks with the bases loaded, as compared to 53.5% of ALL walks (regardless of number of baserunners) issued to righties in 2007. I can’t think of any easy explanation for this discrepancy, except perhaps that lefties are more likely to pitch in tight spots and therefore the opposing manager might be more inclined to send up a right-handed pitcher.
- Right handed pitchers issued 63.2% of the walks with the bases loaded, as opposed to 70.9% of ALL walks issued by righties in 2007. This one is easier to explain, as left-handed specialists are brought in during tight squeezes all the times, so it stands to reason that they issue a higher fraction of bases-loaded walks (and probably a smaller fraction of bases-empty walks.)
- The 6th-place batter in the lineup received the most bases-loaded walks (57), followed by the 7th (53) and 5th (52) place batters.
- The relative score when the walk occurred was most often tied (74 times) and after that generally happened more when the pitching team was already behind (no surprise there.)
- Seven games ended on bases loaded walks, and those are listed right here.
- 55% of all bases-loaded walks were issued at the visitor’s park, i.e. at the batter’s home park.
- The pitch count for the bases-loaded walk was most rarely 4 pitches (19.7%) and most often 5 pitches (30.5%.) And twice in 2007, it was 38 pitches.
- More than half the time, the walk came with 2 out.
A few things you can’t tell from this report, but that you can tell from the Team Batting Even Finder for bases-loaded walks:
- The most were drawn by Pat Burrell (6) and Chone Figgins (5).
- The most were issued by Texas (19), Baltimore (19), Tampa Bay (17), and Washington (17.)
January 28, 2008
The 1934 season was Babe Ruth’s last productive year in baseball as a player. Then, the Big Bam was 39-years old - and truly on his last legs. But, he managed to come to the plate 471 times and post an OPS+ of 161. This got me wondering as to what modern players have put together a season like Babe Ruth’s last good season - so, I went to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Batting Season Finder and set it for: “For single seasons, From 1996 to 2007, (requiring OPSp>=160, PA>=450, PA<=499, and OPSp<=170), sorted by name” and this is what I got:
Cnt OPS+ PA Year Age Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions
+—-+—————–+—+—-+—+—-+—+—+–+—+—+—+—+–+–+–+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+–+—–+—–+—–+—–+———+
1 Javy Lopez 169 495 2003 32 ATL NL 129 457 89 150 29 3 43 109 33 5 90 4 0 1 10 0 1 .328 .378 .687 1.065 *2/D
2 Ellis Burks 163 458 2000 35 SFG NL 122 393 74 135 21 5 24 96 56 5 49 1 0 8 10 5 1 .344 .419 .606 1.025 *9/D
3 Barry Bonds 170 477 2007 42 SFG NL 126 340 75 94 14 0 28 66 132 43 54 3 0 2 13 5 0 .276 .480 .565 1.045 *7/D
I had a feeling that Barry would show up on this list - somehow. But, Javy Lopez and Ellis Burks, well, I did not expect to see them here. I wonder, during 2000, for Ellis, and 2003, for Javy, what if someone had yelled out to them “Hey, you’re playing like Babe Ruth on his last legs!” - would they have thought that was a bad thing?
I did a team streak finder for most consecutive games with no Extra Base Hits (XBH.) It runs from 1957 to 2007 and here are the top three:
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
NYY 1967-04-14 1967-04-22 6 3 3 218 16 43 0 0 0 15 34 33 1 0 .197 .307 .197 .504 BOS,CHW
PIT 1985-05-17 1985-05-21 5 2 3 151 10 32 0 0 0 10 32 19 4 4 .212 .298 .212 .510 CIN,HOU
LAA 1964-06-26 1964-06-30 5 2 3 147 8 29 0 0 0 6 17 15 2 1 .197 .274 .197 .471 KCA,NYY
These are the only teams to muster more than 4 straight games with no XBH. Surprisingly, their records are pretty good, with that 1967 Yankees team going 3 and 3 in their streak of 6 such games.
Here are those 6 games:
TmG Date Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RB BB IW SO HB SH SF RE DP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS LOB Batrs Th Opp. Starter
+---+---------+----+-------+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+---+--+--+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+-----+--+------------+
3 Apr 14 BOS L 0-3 33 28 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 .223 .298 .359 .657 6 13 L B.Rohr
4 Apr 15 BOS W 1-0 33 27 1 5 0 0 0 1 4 1 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 .215 .301 .323 .624 8 9 L D.Bennett
5 Apr 16 BOS W 7-6 76 65 7 15 0 0 0 6 9 0 13 1 1 0 1 3 1 0 .221 .312 .292 .604 16 19 R J.Lonborg
6 Apr 19 @CHW W 3-0 40 31 3 7 0 0 0 3 6 2 2 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 .221 .315 .283 .598 10 9 L T.John
7 Apr 21 @BOS L 1-6 36 35 1 8 0 0 0 1 1 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .222 .307 .276 .583 8 14 L B.Rohr
8 Apr 22 @BOS L 4-5 43 32 4 7 0 0 0 4 8 0 6 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 .222 .317 .270 .587 12 16 R J.Lonborg
Can you imagine a team scoring 7 runs today with no doubles, triples, or homers? Sheesh.
I would have to think that in the modern era, it is pretty hard to win a game without a single extra-base hit.
Here are the longest streaks from the last 10 seasons (1998-2007):
Team StreakStart Streak End Games W L AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Opponents
+-------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
SDP 2005-09-10 2005-09-12 3 0 3 92 7 18 0 0 0 6 18 11 0 1 .196 .286 .196 .482 LAD,SFG
CHW 2004-09-14 2004-09-16 3 0 3 89 4 15 0 0 0 4 16 6 0 1 .169 .227 .169 .396 MIN
KCR 2004-08-31 2004-09-03 3 2 1 100 10 25 0 0 0 9 27 6 0 0 .250 .290 .250 .540 DET,MIN
KCR 2004-07-05 2004-07-07 3 0 3 87 0 13 0 0 0 0 24 2 2 1 .149 .196 .149 .345 MIN
TBD 2004-04-17 2004-04-20 3 0 3 91 2 12 0 0 0 1 13 7 1 1 .132 .202 .132 .334 CHW,BAL
MON 2004-04-11 2004-04-14 3 0 3 92 1 18 0 0 0 1 21 8 0 1 .196 .257 .196 .453 NYM,FLA
BAL 2003-07-11 2003-07-13 3 0 3 92 3 15 0 0 0 1 17 3 1 0 .163 .189 .163 .352 OAK
MIL 2003-05-24 2003-05-27 3 1 2 86 5 13 0 0 0 5 22 9 0 1 .151 .245 .151 .396 LAD,SDP
PIT 2003-05-02 2003-05-04 3 1 2 97 8 18 0 0 0 6 23 11 4 0 .186 .269 .186 .455 LAD
STL 2002-08-04 2002-08-07 3 0 3 93 3 14 0 0 0 1 11 5 0 1 .151 .194 .151 .345 ATL,MON
SFG 2002-05-30 2002-06-01 3 0 3 92 6 21 0 0 0 5 14 7 2 2 .228 .280 .228 .508 ARI,COL
SDP 2001-09-03 2001-09-05 3 0 3 89 1 10 0 0 0 1 20 4 2 0 .112 .160 .112 .272 STL
NYY 2000-05-13 2000-05-16 3 0 3 95 4 16 0 0 0 4 16 10 1 1 .168 .255 .168 .423 DET,CHW
Indeed, check out that record. 4 up and 35 down, a .103 winning percentage.
But if you thought the Yankees scoring 7 runs in 1967 without an XBH was impressive, check out this game, one of the Royals’ victories in their 3-game streak above from 2004. Nine runs on 17 singles, 3 walks, and 2 reaches-on-error.
January 27, 2008
Brian Cashman started trash talking about Bernie Williams the other day, leading to this thread at BTF. In post #22 Lance Linden says “For my money, Williams was the Yankees’ best outfielder since Mantle.” Is that true? Well, looking at the PI . . .
Clearly, he crushes everyone in terms of quantity. Only 4 had half as many games as him (Piniella juuust misses 50% as many games). He leads in every notable counting stat except SB, where he’s 3rd.
Looking at the guys with 500+ games (Williams is over 2000), he’s middle-of-the-pack at OPS+. The only guy noticably higher than him with much playing time is Dave Winfield though.
That’s career. How ’bout single-season? Well, he’s not as good. Going by OPS+, he only has 1 of the top 11 seasons (though 6 of the top 20). Then again, Dave Winfield only has 2 of the top 11 and 3 of the top 20.
So, yeah, I guess he is the best OFr for the Yanks since Mantle.
The title says it all. By using a minimum of 100 games, I’m ensuring that the player had at least 2 appearances at each position (other than pitcher, catcher, and DH.)
Cnt Player Year G Age Tm Lg PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions
+—-+—————–+—-+—+—+—+–+—+—+—+—+–+–+–+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+—+–+—–+—–+—–+—–+———+
1 Alfredo Amezaga 2007 133 29 FLA NL 448 400 46 105 14 9 2 30 35 0 52 4 4 5 4 13 7 .263 .324 .358 .682 *8654/397
2 Willie Bloomquist 2006 102 28 SEA AL 283 251 36 62 6 2 1 15 24 0 40 4 2 2 3 16 3 .247 .320 .299 .619 86495/37
3 Alfredo Amezaga 2006 132 28 FLA NL 378 334 42 87 9 3 3 19 33 4 46 3 7 1 5 20 12 .260 .332 .332 .664 *8476/539
4 Damian Jackson 2003 109 29 BOS AL 172 161 34 42 7 0 1 13 8 0 28 0 2 1 4 16 8 .261 .294 .323 .617 46879/53
5 Jolbert Cabrera 2003 128 30 LAD NL 380 347 43 98 32 2 6 37 17 3 62 10 3 3 10 6 4 .282 .332 .438 .770 487/6359
6 Dennis Hocking 2001 112 31 MIN AL 363 327 34 82 16 2 3 25 29 1 67 2 4 1 7 6 1 .251 .315 .339 .654 643/D7589
7 Joe McEwing 2001 116 28 NYM NL 319 283 41 80 17 3 8 30 17 0 57 10 6 3 2 8 5 .283 .342 .449 .791 7956/438D
8 Dennis Hocking 2000 134 30 MIN AL 433 373 52 111 24 4 4 47 48 1 77 0 7 5 2 7 5 .298 .373 .416 .789 4897563/D
9 Shane Halter 2000 105 30 DET AL 265 238 26 62 12 2 3 27 14 0 49 1 10 2 5 5 2 .261 .302 .366 .668 *5364/89721
10 Scott Brosius 1995 123 28 OAK AL 443 389 69 102 19 2 17 46 41 0 67 8 1 4 5 4 2 .262 .342 .452 .794 5983/764D
11 Cory Snyder 1992 124 29 SFG NL 420 390 48 105 22 2 14 57 23 2 96 2 2 3 10 4 4 .269 .311 .444 .755 93758/46
12 Luis Salazar 1988 130 32 DET AL 489 452 61 122 14 1 12 62 21 2 70 3 10 3 13 6 0 .270 .305 .385 .690 765/9843
13 Jose Oquendo 1987 116 23 STL NL 312 248 43 71 9 0 1 24 54 6 29 0 6 4 6 4 4 .286 .408 .335 .743 946/75381
14 Rod Kanehl 1962 133 28 NYM NL 378 351 52 87 10 2 4 27 23 2 36 1 3 0 7 8 6 .248 .296 .322 .618 457/8396
15 Randy Reese 1928 109 24 NYG NL 432 406 61 125 18 4 6 44 13 0 24 1 12 0 0 7 0 .308 .331 .416 .747 *74/63598
16 Jack Rothrock 1928 117 23 BOS AL 384 344 52 92 9 4 3 22 33 0 40 1 6 0 0 12 6 .267 .333 .343 .676 795368/421
17 Jimmy Johnston 1917 103 27 BRO NL 369 330 33 89 10 4 0 25 23 0 28 2 14 0 0 16 0 .270 .321 .324 .645 783/9645
18 Possum Whitted 1913 123 23 STL NL 450 404 44 89 10 5 0 38 31 0 44 4 11 0 0 9 0 .220 .282 .270 .552 6579/483
19 Solly Hofman 1907 134 24 CHC NL 536 470 67 126 11 3 1 36 41 0 0 1 24 0 0 29 0 .268 .328 .311 .639 69837/54
20 Wid Conroy 1905 101 28 NYY AL 424 385 55 105 19 11 2 25 32 0 0 0 7 0 0 25 0 .273 .329 .395 .724 5763/849
Amezaga has done it each of the last 2 years, and Denny Hocking is on here twice too.
Just for giggles, I looked at Amezaga’s two games in LF this past season. In one, he played only LF, but came in as a defensive replacement for Mike Jacobs in the 9th. In the other, he pinch ran for Josh Willingham in the bottom of the 9th, but did not score, sending the game into extra innings. In the 10th, he took over LF (vacated by Willingham). The the 11th, Amezaga was displaced from LF by another pinch-runner, Cody Ross, and Amezaga himself took over 2B from Dan Uggla, who left as part of a double-switch.
This kind of versatility, assuming that the player can manage defensively, is extraordinarily valuable, in my opinion, just like pitchers who can play a little outfield.
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