This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

Most plate appearances without grounding into a double play

Posted by Andy on March 25, 2009

Here are the leaders for most PAs in a season without grounding into a single double play:

  Cnt Player             **PA** GDP Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Frankie Crosetti    757     0 1938  27 NYY AL 157 631 113 166 35  3  9  55 106   0  97  15   5   0  27 12  .263  .382  .371  .753 *6        
    2 Woody English       755     0 1930  24 CHC NL 156 638 152 214 36 17 14  59 100   0  72   6  11   0   3  0  .335  .430  .511  .941 *5*6      
    3 Taylor Douthit      752     0 1928  27 STL NL 154 648 111 191 35  3  3  43  84   0  36  10  10   0  11  0  .295  .384  .372  .756 *8        
    4 Augie Galan         748     0 1935  23 CHC NL 154 646 133 203 41 11 12  79  87   0  53   4  11   0  22  0  .314  .399  .467  .866 *7        
    5 Taylor Douthit      748     0 1930  29 STL NL 154 664 109 201 41 10  7  93  60   0  38   4  20   0   4  0  .303  .364  .426  .790 *8        
    6 Rabbit Maranville   747     0 1922  30 PIT NL 155 672 115 198 26 15  0  63  61   0  43   2  12   0  24 13  .295  .355  .378  .733 *64       
    7 Lyn Lary            745     0 1936  30 SLB AL 155 619 112 179 30  6  2  52 117   0  54   2   7   0  37  9  .289  .404  .367  .771 *6        
    8 Dave Bancroft       745     0 1922  31 NYG NL 156 651 117 209 41  5  4  60  79   0  27   3  12   0  16 11  .321  .397  .418  .815 *6        
    9 Craig Biggio        744     0 1997  31 HOU NL 162 619 146 191 37  8 22  81  84   6 107  34   0   7  47 10  .309  .415  .501  .916 *4/D      
   10 Charlie Jamieson    742     0 1923  30 CLE AL 152 644 130 222 36 12  2  51  80   0  37   6  12   0  18 14  .345  .422  .447  .869 *7        
   11 Lyn Lary            741     0 1937  31 CLE AL 156 644 110 187 46  7  8  77  88   0  64   3   6   0  18  8  .290  .378  .421  .799 *6        
   12 Kiki Cuyler         741     0 1930  31 CHC NL 156 642 155 228 50 17 13 134  72   0  49  10  17   0  37  0  .355  .428  .547  .975 *97       
   13 Red Rolfe           740     0 1937  28 NYY AL 154 648 143 179 34 10  4  62  90   0  53   1   1   0   4  2  .276  .365  .378  .743 *5        
   14 Frankie Crosetti    740     0 1936  25 NYY AL 151 632 137 182 35  7 15  78  90   0  83  12   6   0  18  7  .288  .387  .437  .824 *6        
   15 Lou Gehrig          738     0 1931  28 NYY AL 155 619 163 211 31 15 46 184 117   0  56   0   2   0  17 12  .341  .446  .662 1.108 *3/9      
   16 Buddy Lewis         733     0 1937  20 WSH AL 156 668 107 210 32  6 10  79  52   0  44   3  10   0  11  5  .314  .367  .425  .792 *5        
   17 Max Carey           732     0 1922  32 PIT NL 155 629 140 207 28 12 10  70  80   0  26   4  19   0  51  2  .329  .408  .459  .867 *8/7      
   18 Charlie Gehringer   731     0 1936  33 DET AL 154 641 144 227 60 12 15 116  83   0  13   4   3   0   4  1  .354  .431  .555  .986 *4        
   19 Lefty O'Doul        731     0 1929  32 PHI NL 154 638 152 254 35  6 32 122  76   0  19   4  13   0   2  0  .398  .465  .622 1.087 *79       
   20 Jack Tobin          731     0 1921  29 SLB AL 150 671 132 236 31 18  8  59  45   0  22   3  12   0   7 12  .352  .395  .487  .882 *9/8     

These are all seasons from quite a while ago except for #9, future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio in 1997. For the most part, the rest of the seasons occurred at times when offense was down, meaning fewer baserunners, meaning fewer chances to hit into a double play.

Here are the leaders from just the last 20 seasons:

  Cnt Player             **PA** GDP Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Craig Biggio        744     0 1997  31 HOU NL 162 619 146 191 37  8 22  81  84   6 107  34   0   7  47 10  .309  .415  .501  .916 *4/D      
    2 Rob Deer            511     0 1990  29 MIL AL 134 440  57  92 15  1 27  69  64   6 147   4   0   3   2  3  .209  .313  .432  .745 *93       
    3 Corey Patterson     498     0 2006  26 BAL AL 135 463  75 128 19  5 16  53  21   5  94   5   8   1  45  9  .276  .314  .443  .757 *8        
    4 Ray Lankford        482     0 1994  27 STL NL 109 416  89 111 25  5 19  57  58   3 113   4   0   4  11 10  .267  .359  .488  .847 *8        
    5 Otis Nixon          461     0 1994  35 BOS AL 103 398  60 109 15  1  0  25  55   1  65   0   6   2  42 10  .274  .360  .317  .677 *8        
    6 Dave Roberts        440     0 2003  31 LAD NL 107 388  56  97  6  5  2  16  43   1  39   4   5   0  40 14  .250  .331  .307  .638 *8        
    7 Rob Mackowiak       439     0 2002  26 PIT NL 136 385  57  94 22  0 16  48  42   5 120   7   3   2   9  3  .244  .328  .426  .754 *985/47   
    8 Jose Cruz           413     0 1998  24 TOR AL 105 352  55  89 14  3 11  42  57   2  99   0   0   4  11  4  .253  .354  .403  .757 *8/7      
    9 Marcus Thames       390     0 2006  29 DET AL 110 348  61  89 20  2 26  60  37   0  92   4   0   1   1  1  .256  .333  .549  .882 7D/9      
   10 Jose Valentin       386     0 1995  25 MIL AL 112 338  62  74 23  3 11  49  37   0  83   0   7   4  16  8  .219  .293  .402  .695 *6/5      
   11 Rickey Henderson    376     0 1994  35 OAK AL  87 296  66  77 13  0  6  20  72   1  45   5   1   2  22  7  .260  .411  .365  .776 *7D8      
   12 Mariano Duncan      356     0 1991  28 CIN NL 100 333  46  86  7  4 12  40  12   0  57   3   5   3   5  4  .258  .288  .411  .699 *46/78    
   13 Abraham Nunez       335     0 2001  25 PIT NL 115 301  30  79 11  4  1  21  28   1  53   1   4   1   8  2  .262  .326  .336  .662 64/75     
   14 Jayson Werth        304     0 2007  28 PHI NL  94 255  43  76 11  3  8  49  44   1  73   2   2   1   7  1  .298  .404  .459  .863 *97/83    
   15 Jerry Hairston      297     0 2008  32 CIN NL  80 261  47  85 20  2  6  36  23   0  36   3   8   2  15  3  .326  .384  .487  .871 6789/45   
   16 Ron Gant            292     0 2001  36 TOT ML  93 252  46  65 13  3 10  35  35   2  80   0   2   3   5  1  .258  .345  .452  .797 *7D       
   17 Nick Green          290     0 2004  25 ATL NL  95 264  40  72 15  3  3  26  12   1  63   4   8   2   1  2  .273  .312  .386  .698 *4/59     
   18 Gary Redus          288     0 1991  34 PIT NL  98 252  45  62 12  2  7  24  28   2  39   3   1   4  17  3  .246  .324  .393  .717 3879      
   19 Ron Gant            285     0 1989  24 ATL NL  75 260  26  46  8  3  9  25  20   0  63   1   2   2   9  6  .177  .237  .335  .572 *58/7     
   20 Carl Crawford       278     0 2002  20 TBD AL  63 259  23  67 11  6  2  30   9   0  41   3   6   1   9  5  .259  .290  .371  .661 *7        

Pretty interesting, huh? Most of them are fast guys (Nixon, Henderson, Redus, etc) or guys who hit lots of fly balls and strike out a lot (Deer, Gant, Thames, etc.)

6 Responses to “Most plate appearances without grounding into a double play”

  1. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    All those guys from the '20s and '30s are because GIDP were not counted at the time. B-R really should show them as blank, rather than 0. GIDP were not counted until 1933 in the NL and 1939 in the AL.

  2. Andy Says:

    I had considered that possibility, but didn't know if it was the case or not. So then that first list is mainly just the post PAs in a season back in that era...heh.

  3. JDV Says:

    Armed with Comment 1 above, it looks like only #4 Galan and Biggio would still make the list. It would be tough to draw any conclusions without a new list with the new search criteria.

  4. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    The easy way to check is the year-by-year leaders for particular stats. So just go here and you can see: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/GIDP_leagues.shtml
    As I said, it would be nice if those showed as blank rather than 0, and it would also be helpful if the PI had a note indicating that searches for particular things prior to particular years are meaningless.

  5. JohnnyTwisto Says:

    That Biggio achievement is one of those little things that made him so good. I believe it was the 1997 season that Bill James compared Biggio and Griffey. On the surface, Griffey's season (50+ HR, etc) looks superior. But James went through all the oft-overlooked pieces of the statistical puzzle to show how Biggio made up ground on Griffey, and why his season was actually superior (per Win Shares).

  6. spudart Says:

    I love this stat. Amazing how Biggio is the only one on the top 20 list since 1938