Seasons With 100+ Games Played & RBI > Half TB

Posted by Steve Lombardi on March 18, 2011

Just goofing around, I decided to run a query of "For single seasons, From 1901 to 2010, requiring RBI>.5*TB and At least 100 games, sorted by greatest Runs Batted In."

Here's the result:

Rk	Player	RBI	TB	G	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Harmon Killebrew	119	232	147	1971	35	MIN	AL	624	500	61	127	19	1	28	114	14	96	0	0	10	21	3	2	.254	.386	.464	.850	*35
2	Maurice Van Robays	116	230	145	1940	25	PIT	NL	609	572	82	156	27	7	11	33	0	58	3	1	0	16	2	0	.273	.316	.402	.718	*7/93
3	Vic Wertz	103	204	131	1960	35	BOS	AL	487	443	45	125	22	0	19	37	4	54	1	1	5	13	0	2	.282	.335	.460	.796	*3
4	Jim Gentile	98	192	138	1960	26	BAL	AL	464	384	67	112	17	0	21	68	5	72	7	0	5	8	0	0	.292	.403	.500	.903	*3
5	Jack Barry	85	166	134	1913	26	PHA	AL	535	455	62	125	20	6	3	44	0	32	8	28	0	0	15	0	.275	.349	.365	.714	*6
6	Richie Hebner	82	159	104	1980	32	DET	AL	388	341	48	99	10	7	12	38	3	45	2	2	5	7	0	3	.290	.360	.466	.826	*35/D
7	George Stovall	79	155	126	1911	33	CLE	AL	492	458	48	124	17	7	0	21	0	0	2	11	0	0	11	0	.271	.306	.338	.644	*3/4
8	Sherm Lollar	70	138	101	1957	32	CHW	AL	403	351	33	90	11	2	11	35	2	24	13	0	4	7	2	0	.256	.342	.393	.736	*2
9	Bones Ely	62	118	105	1902	39	WSH	AL	417	381	39	100	11	2	1	21	0	0	0	15	0	0	3	0	.262	.301	.310	.611	*6
10	Duffy Lewis	61	121	107	1920	32	NYY	AL	407	365	34	99	8	1	4	24	0	32	2	16	0	0	2	8	.271	.320	.332	.651	*7/9
11	Jason Michaels	53	103	123	2008	32	TOT	ML	321	286	28	64	13	1	8	27	0	65	2	2	4	9	2	1	.224	.292	.360	.652	97/8
12	Darren Lewis	53	105	141	1996	28	CHW	AL	405	337	55	77	12	2	4	45	1	40	3	15	5	9	21	5	.228	.321	.312	.632	*8/7
13	Steve O'Neill	50	94	113	1923	31	CLE	AL	404	330	31	82	12	0	0	64	0	34	2	8	0	0	0	4	.248	.374	.285	.659	*2
14	Frenchy Bordagaray	49	97	113	1945	35	BRO	NL	305	273	32	70	9	6	2	29	0	15	0	3	0	3	7	0	.256	.328	.355	.683	*5/789
15	Don Mincher	44	82	108	1972	34	TOT	AL	307	245	25	53	11	0	6	56	1	39	2	1	3	6	2	3	.216	.363	.335	.697	*3
16	Frank Bowerman	42	81	103	1906	37	NYG	NL	310	285	23	65	7	3	1	15	0	0	3	7	0	0	5	0	.228	.274	.284	.558	*23
17	Greg Norton	37	68	113	2002	29	COL	NL	195	168	19	37	8	1	7	24	0	52	0	1	2	4	2	3	.220	.314	.405	.719	53/7D
18	Jose Morales	37	73	104	1976	31	MON	NL	165	158	12	50	11	0	4	3	3	20	2	0	2	5	0	0	.316	.333	.462	.795	32
19	Graig Nettles	33	62	112	1987	42	ATL	NL	201	177	16	37	8	1	5	22	4	25	0	0	2	6	1	0	.209	.294	.350	.644	5/3
20	Robin Ventura	28	55	102	2004	36	LAD	NL	175	152	19	37	3	0	5	22	1	31	0	0	1	3	0	0	.243	.337	.362	.699	35/1
21	Rusty Staub	28	49	104	1983	39	NYM	NL	132	115	5	34	6	0	3	14	3	10	1	0	2	4	0	0	.296	.371	.426	.797	/379

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/18/2011.

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A leader board with HOF'er Harmon Killebrew at #1 and Maurice Van Robays at #2. That's why baseball is such a fun game!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

20 Responses to “Seasons With 100+ Games Played & RBI > Half TB”

Larry R. Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
I never, ever heard of Maurice (The Belgian Bomber) Van Robays. He came pretty close to having a career that fit your search...303 ribbies and 701 TBs. I love this site!
Lawrence Azrin Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
A related topic would be something along the lines of "who had _lowest_ RBI total with an extremely high Total Bases total?"

I'm not sure how to define this, but in 1986, Don Mattingly had 388 total bases, but only 113 RBI. The year before, he had 370 total bases and 145 RBI, which seems like a more common result. Also, in 1924 (the year he hit .424), Rogers Hornsby had 373 total bases, but only 94 RBI.
Anon Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
@2 - Lawrence - a fairly easy search to set up in the PLay Index. I just did a quickie with at least 100 games and at least 200 total bases and RBI<0.25*TB (if you don't set a total bases minimum you get a whole bunch of offensively inept defensive replacements - Tony Muser is on the list for example). Sorted by RBI, Luis Castillo's 2000 tops the list with 17 RBI and 209 TB. Bump it to 250 TB and Lloyd Waner's 1927 is on there with 27 RBI and 258 TB.

As you might imagine, the list tends to be dominated by a) leadoff hitters and b) since 1973, leadoff hitters in the NL. The latter list above has several players that I can identify as leadoff hitters without even looking it up - Richie Ashburn, Joe Morgan (1965 version), Juan Pierre, Tim Raines, Ichiro, Pete Rose (1971 version), etc. I suspect many of the rest were as well.
Doug Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Killebrew came within shouting distance of having more RBI than hits. I figured that would be a pretty unlikely feat. And, I was right.

In fact, there are only 3 seasons of over 100 games with more RBI than hits. And, Mark McGwire has two of them, in '95 (90 RBI, 87 hits) and '99 (147 RBI, 145 hits). In fact, he also did this in '97, '00 and '01, albeit in seasons of under 100 games.
Doug Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Oops. Forgot to hide the partial seasons. McGwire did the RBI > Hits thing in '97, only for his NL time, not the full season.
DoubleDiamond Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
@4 For completeness, the third season in which this happened was also in 1995 (hmm, two of them in that late-starting year) - Paul Sorrento (79 RBI, 76 hits).
Doug Says:
March 18th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
@4.

Further to McGwire, I change the qualifying threshold from 100 games to 50 hits so as to include McGwire's two other RBI > Hits seasons ('00 and '01).

The result: those were the only two such seasons added to the query result. So, out of only 5 seasons all-time of 50+ hits and RBI > Hits, McGwire has 4 of them. Talk about a having a unique talent.
Shane Says:
March 19th, 2011 at 1:21 am
Robin Ventura holds strong at number 20. Thanks for the stats, I don't think I've seen stats set up like this before. Great job.
Jimbo Says:
March 19th, 2011 at 5:51 am
So other than McGwire, who was the other guy?
Richard Chester Says:
March 19th, 2011 at 11:52 am
@4
In 2006 Jason Giambi had 113 hits and 113 RBI.
Doug Says:
March 20th, 2011 at 3:26 am
@9. The other season was Paul Sorrento. See DoubleDiamond's post @6.

@10. Thanks Richard for running the query for RBI = Hits. Don't know why there can't be a ">=" option for this type of query.
Richard Chester Says:
March 20th, 2011 at 11:07 am
@11

Doug: When I access P-I there is a ">=" option. I am not a P-I subscriber so my results have very limited data. I did some clever manipulation with the index to identify Jason Giambi as the player with 113 RBI and hits.
Lawrence Azrin Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 10:41 am
@3/ Anon Says: "@2 - Lawrence - a fairly easy search to set up in the PLay Index. I just did a quickie with at least 100 games and at least 200 total bases and RBI<0.25*TB... Bump it to 250 TB and Lloyd Waner's 1927 is on there with 27 RBI and 258 TB."

Thanks, but I should'd specified that I meant the RBI should be _extremely_ high, say about 370 or so, like Hornsby's 1924 (373 TB/ 94 RBI). This is for the real "slugger" types, as opposed to the leadoff-type hitters who piled up lots of Total Bases due to 200+ hits and some 2Bs and 3Bs, like Lou Brock for example.

I did not use the PI, but glancing through the highest single-season Total Bases,Hornsby seems to be the only one with 370+TB, but less than 100 RBI.
Lawrence Azrin Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 10:44 am
@13 - sorry, I meant to type for the first line:
"Thanks, but I should'd specified that I meant the TOTAL BASES should be _extremely_ high, say about 370 or ..."
Anon Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 1:18 pm
@ Lawrence - well, if you limit it to 370+ TB you're talking about a very small subset of seasons. There have only been 102 seasons of 370+ TB. I ran a search at 350+ TB which is still only about 260 seasons:
- Felipe Alou managed 355 TB and 74 RBI in 1966
- TOny Oliva goes Hornsby one better with 374 TB and the same 94 RBI in 1964.
- however, Jimmy Rollins beats both of them with 380 TB and 94 RBI in 2007
Anon Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Oops, accidentally posted my last post without finishing.

Oliva, Rollins & Hornsby are the only 3 seasons of over 370 TB and fewer than 100 RBI. In addition to Alou, there are a handful of other seasons of over 350 TB and under 100 RBI including 2 by Willie Mays.
Lawrence Azrin Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 1:56 pm
@15, 16 - Anon, thank you,that is _exactly_ what I was looking for. Comments:

- Jimmy ROLLINS - batted leadoff, also set the record for season PA's (718)
- Felipe ALOU - batted leadoff (a very unconventional decision at the time...),1966 also was in the middle of the "second dead-ball era"
- Tony OLIVA - 1964 was also in the "second dead-ball era"

this leads to...
- Rogers HORNSBY - I don't have the line-up positions, but he must have batted 3rd or sometimes 4th the entire year. He also had 43 2Bs, 14 3Bs, and 25 HRs amongst his 227 hits. I suppose if we knew who batted #1/#2 for the Cardinals, we might have an answer, or mebbe the Rajah didn't hit well with runners on base that year. But look at that batting line - how could he NOT have well over a 100 RBI? He did have 125+ RBI five other years.

I guess this will be one those mysteries that'll never be solved, like why Babe Ruth had only 72 walks in 1929.
John Autin Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 3:59 pm
@17, Lawrence -- A few notes on Hornsby's 94 RBI in 1924:

-- Rajah batted 3rd. The Cardinals' #1-2 hitters were mediocre, combining for a .340 OBP, a few points below the league average for those spots. They were caught stealing 31 times, while swiping just 33.

-- We don't usually think about the #9 spot as a factor, but the Cards' production there was quite bad -- a .185 BA (league average .220, every other team at least .206 for the #9 spot), and just 35 runs scored (last).

-- We don't have splits for men-on-base situations, but it's a fair bet that Hornsby drew a lot of walks in RBI spots: He led the NL with 89 walks (no other Cardinal had more than 35). He had already won the last 4 batting titles, hitting a combined .390; he just missed the Triple Crown in '21 and won it in '22. And he got off to a hot start in '24, hitting .451 over the first month.

-- And having said all that, I'd guess that Hornsby did also have an off year in terms of "clutch" hitting. It happens to the best of 'em ... since it's not a true skill.
Lawrence Azrin Says:
March 21st, 2011 at 4:24 pm
@19/... Autin Says: "@17, Lawrence -- A few notes on Hornsby's 94 RBI in 1924:..."

Thanks much, John A.; I meant to write about how Hornsby probably got a lot of walks with runners in scoring position, but it slipped my mind. I also noticed that Jim Bottomley (whom I assume batted 4th) had 111 RBI, with totals inferior to Hornsby in every RBI-related category - maybe "Sunny Jim" drove in the baserunners that "Rajah" left for him??

Of course, getting on base 318 times, Hornsby gave Bottomley plenty of RBI chances all by himself (Hornsby led the NL with 121 reuns scored).

It would interesting to see if a baseball traditionalist would argue that Hack Wilson's 191-RBI season is noticeably better (or better at all) than Hornsby's 1924. This is how they are rated by Offensive WAR:
1924 Hornsby: 5th all-time (12.3)
1930 Wilson: 146th (8.4)
T Says:
March 22nd, 2011 at 6:26 am
This is why baseball is so fascinating. One can break it down in so many fashions. Wonderful list!

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