Bad OBP in 1990
Posted by Andy on February 5, 2009
Continuing with stuff from Joel Sherman's book, he claims that in 1990 the Yankees had 5 of the 17 worst OBP in the majors for players with at least 200 PAs (p.76). Well, he's not quite right.
Cnt Player **OBP** PA Year Age Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+---------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Jeff Kunkel .221 218 1990 28 TEX AL 99 200 17 34 11 1 3 17 11 0 66 2 5 0 7 2 1 .170 .280 .501 *654/897 2 Andres Thomas .248 290 1990 26 ATL NL 84 278 26 61 8 0 5 30 11 2 43 0 0 1 10 2 1 .219 .302 .550 *6/5 3 Carlos Martinez .252 283 1990 24 CHW AL 92 272 18 61 6 5 4 24 10 2 40 0 1 0 8 0 4 .224 .327 .579 *3/D7 4 Frank White .253 257 1990 39 KCR AL 82 241 20 52 14 1 2 21 10 0 32 3 0 3 7 1 0 .216 .307 .560 *4/9 5 Fred Manrique .254 237 1990 28 MIN AL 69 228 22 54 10 0 5 29 4 0 35 2 1 2 8 2 0 .237 .346 .600 *4 6 Oscar Azocar .257 218 1990 25 NYY AL 65 214 18 53 8 0 5 19 2 0 15 1 0 1 1 7 0 .248 .355 .612 *79/D 7 Alfredo Griffin .258 502 1990 32 LAD NL 141 461 38 97 11 3 1 35 29 11 65 2 6 4 5 6 3 .210 .254 .512 *6 8 Alvaro Espinoza .258 472 1990 28 NYY AL 150 438 31 98 12 2 2 20 16 0 54 5 11 2 13 1 2 .224 .274 .532 *6 9 Charlie O'Brien .259 249 1990 30 TOT ML 74 213 17 38 10 2 0 20 21 3 34 3 10 2 4 0 0 .178 .244 .503 *2 10 Bob Geren .259 303 1990 28 NYY AL 110 277 21 59 7 0 8 31 13 1 73 5 6 2 7 0 0 .213 .325 .584 *2/D 11 Scott Coolbaugh .264 201 1990 24 TEX AL 67 180 21 36 6 0 2 13 15 0 47 1 4 1 2 1 0 .200 .267 .531 *5 12 Marvell Wynne .264 202 1990 30 CHC NL 92 186 21 38 8 2 4 19 14 3 25 1 1 0 4 3 2 .204 .333 .597 *87/9 13 Scott Bradley .264 257 1990 30 SEA AL 101 233 11 52 9 0 1 28 15 2 20 0 3 6 6 0 1 .223 .275 .539 *2/D53 14 Darnell Coles .265 235 1990 28 TOT AL 89 215 22 45 7 1 3 20 16 2 38 1 1 2 4 0 4 .209 .293 .558 D95/37 15 Ernie Whitt .265 204 1990 38 ATL NL 67 180 14 31 8 0 2 10 23 1 27 0 0 1 6 0 2 .172 .250 .515 *2 16 Bob Melvin .267 318 1990 28 BAL AL 93 301 30 73 14 1 5 37 11 1 53 0 3 3 8 0 1 .243 .346 .613 *2D/3 17 Cory Snyder .268 468 1990 27 CLE AL 123 438 46 102 27 3 14 55 21 3 118 2 1 6 11 1 4 .233 .404 .672 *9/6 18 Mel Hall .272 371 1990 29 NYY AL 113 360 41 93 23 2 12 46 6 2 46 2 0 3 7 0 0 .258 .433 .705 D79 19 Gary Gaetti .274 625 1990 31 MIN AL 154 577 61 132 27 5 16 85 36 1 101 3 1 8 22 6 1 .229 .376 .650 *5/63 20 Bill Spiers .274 389 1990 24 MIL AL 112 363 44 88 15 3 2 36 16 0 45 1 6 3 12 11 6 .242 .317 .591 *6 21 Kevin Elster .274 352 1990 25 NYM NL 92 314 36 65 20 1 9 45 30 2 54 1 1 6 4 2 0 .207 .363 .637 *6 22 Lee Stevens .275 275 1990 22 CAL AL 67 248 28 53 10 0 7 32 22 3 75 0 2 3 8 1 1 .214 .339 .614 *3 23 Randy Velarde .275 253 1990 27 NYY AL 95 229 21 48 6 2 5 19 20 0 53 1 2 1 6 0 3 .210 .319 .594 *56/74D
They actually had 5 of the 23 worst, which is still really bad.
Looking at it slightly differently, here are leaders by team for most players with an OBP under .300 with at least 200 PA:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 1990 AL New York Yankees 6 Alvaro Espinoza / Steve Balboni / Mel Hall / Bob Geren / Randy Velarde / Oscar Azocar 1990 NL Atlanta Braves 5 Jim Presley / Oddibe McDowell / Mark Lemke / Andres Thomas / Ernie Whitt 1990 AL California Angels 3 Devon White / Dante Bichette / Lee Stevens 1990 NL Chicago Cubs 3 Shawon Dunston / Luis Salazar / Marvell Wynne 1990 AL Cleveland Indians 3 Felix Fermin / Mitch Webster / Cory Snyder 1990 NL Houston Astros 3 Rafael Ramirez / Glenn Wilson / Eric Anthony 1990 AL Minnesota Twins 3 Gary Gaetti / Greg Gagne / Fred Manrique 1990 AL Oakland Athletics 3 Mike Gallego / Terry Steinbach / Ron Hassey 1990 NL San Diego Padres 3 Joe Carter / Garry Templeton / Mark Parent 1990 NL San Francisco Giants 3 Robby Thompson / Jose Uribe / Greg Litton 1990 AL Texas Rangers 3 Jeff Kunkel / Steve Buechele / Scott Coolbaugh 1990 AL Toronto Blue Jays 3 Manuel Lee / Greg Myers / Glenallen Hill
Six sure seems like a lot. Let's see the leaders from 2008:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 2008 AL Oakland Athletics 4 Bobby Crosby / Emil Brown / Rajai Davis / Carlos Gonzalez 2008 NL San Diego Padres 4 Kevin Kouzmanoff / Khalil Greene / Tadahito Iguchi / Nick Hundley 2008 AL Seattle Mariners 4 Kenji Johjima / Jose Vidro / Wladimir Balentien / Jeff Clement
Nobody with more than 4.
The most recent year in which any team had 6 such players was 1992, in which two teams actually did it:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 1992 AL California Angels 7 Gary DiSarcina / Junior Felix / Gary Gaetti / Luis Sojo / Lee Stevens / Mike Fitzgerald / Hubie Brooks 1992 NL Houston Astros 6 Eric Anthony / Casey Candaele / Luis Gonzalez / Eddie Taubensee / Scott Servais / Andujar Cedeno That's bad.
February 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
At least Jeff Kunkel could pitch.
Not well, but at least he *could*. 🙂
Love that of Alfredo Griffin's 29 walks (.258 OBP in 502 PAs!), ELEVEN were intentional. And who knows how many attempted intentional walks he broke up by swinging at a pitchout...
February 5th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Oscar Azocar is one of 9 players to have 200+ PA and only 2 walks.
Amazingly enough there were actually 2 players who had 200+ PA and only 1 walk:
Kim Batiste (1994) and Andy Kosco (1970).
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/ZYBx
February 5th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
[...] the Andy’s post Bad OBP in 1990 and the related comments it is mentioned that in 1990 Alfredo Griffin was walked intentionally [...]