Longest streaks as PH without getting on base
Posted by Andy on February 27, 2009
Check out this very surprising result. Here are the longest streaks where a guy appeared in a game as a PH, had at least one PA, and didn't get on base:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Mickey Mantle 1964-06-01 1966-07-06 28 28 0 0 0 0 0 1 13 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 NYY Steve Lyons 1990-07-18 1991-08-25 26 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHW-BOS Dave Campbell 1971-08-05 1974-09-24 26 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SDP-STL-HOU Luis Lopez 2000-08-01 2001-07-08 24 19 1 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MIL Frank Tepedino 1971-04-06 1971-09-10 24 24 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 NYY-MIL Hiram Bocachica 2001-04-11 2001-07-28 23 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 2 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 LAD Jamie Quirk 1983-06-26 1986-05-10 23 22 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 STL-CHW-KCR Jay Johnstone 1982-09-25 1983-07-14 23 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC Ted Uhlaender 1972-04-18 1972-07-07 23 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CIN Paul Popovich 1970-09-04 1971-06-23 23 21 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC Juan Castro 1996-05-05 2001-05-02 22 20 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 LAD-CIN Tyler Houston 1999-06-12 2000-07-22 22 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC-CLE-MIL Richie Hebner 1985-08-15 1985-10-02 22 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC Tom Hutton 1979-08-22 1980-05-16 22 21 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MON Alan Zinter 2002-08-16 2004-09-02 21 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 HOU-ARI Curtis Goodwin 1997-07-23 1998-08-04 21 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CIN-COL Jim Tatum 1995-07-21 1998-04-21 21 21 1 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 COL-SDP-NYM Milt Thompson 1996-05-20 1996-07-24 21 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 LAD-COL Todd Benzinger 1990-08-09 1991-05-31 21 20 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CIN Phil Linz 1965-07-25 1967-05-04 21 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 NYY-PHI Ray Jablonski 1959-07-16 1959-09-09 21 21 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 STL-KCA Corey Patterson 2004-06-15 2008-04-21 20 22 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC-BAL-CIN Gary Bennett 2003-04-07 2007-04-03 20 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SDP-WSN-STL Bruce Aven 2000-04-22 2000-06-14 20 20 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000 .000 PIT Ted Simmons 1987-07-07 1988-05-05 20 19 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 ATL +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ivan Murrell 1973-04-13 1973-07-15 20 19 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SDP Bob Johnson 1965-05-11 1966-05-15 20 18 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 BAL Cap Peterson 1965-07-22 1966-04-29 20 20 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SFG Bob Hale 1956-07-27 1957-04-26 20 16 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 BAL
How many guesses do you think you would have needed to come up with Mickey Mantle as first? Mind you, Mantle appeared in lots of other games in the interim and got on base plenty. This search considers only those games in which he appeared as a PH.
As a further complication, this list also includes games where the player may have stayed in the game and played another position when getting a 2nd (or more) plate appearance.
If we restrict the search to games appearing as a PH only, here's what we get:
StreakStart Streak End Games AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ivan Murrell 1973-04-13 1974-05-29 36 35 2 0 0 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SDP-ATL Paul Popovich 1970-06-06 1971-06-23 33 31 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CHC Ted Uhlaender 1971-04-15 1972-07-07 30 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 CLE-CIN Dale Sveum 1986-08-31 1996-09-25 28 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MIL-PHI-CHW-OAK-SEA-PIT Quilvio Veras 1996-04-07 1999-09-29 27 26 0 0 0 0 0 1 11 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 FLA-SDP Mickey Mantle 1964-06-01 1966-07-06 27 26 0 0 0 0 0 1 13 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 NYY John Rabb 1984-04-29 1988-07-31 25 25 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 SFG-ATL-SEA Choo Choo Coleman 1961-05-04 1963-05-04 25 24 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 PHI-NYM
Ahh, Dale Sveum. Rhymes with shame. Or blame. Or lame.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Andy, You have a list of guys, one named Choo Choo and you focus on the name Sveum?
When considering these streaks, I think that it is important to check the dates. It took Sveum 10 years to get those pinch hitting appearances, while it took most of the other guys only 1 or 2.
Also, John Rabb's strikeout rates grabbed my attention. For his career Rabb struck out 21 times in 40 AB (53%) as a pinch hitter, but in only 20% (32 of 164)of his other at bats.
February 27th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I guess we can assume Mickey Mantle wasn't so good at riding the bench. The data on his subbing comes starting in 1956, the 6th season into his career. With 104 PA and 86 AB, he was a .221 AVG as a sub. And while you might say it was the end of his career that he was weak at hitting, he went 9-21 subbing in his final two years.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
JGeller - At that point in his career, if Mantle wasn't playing can we assume that he wasn't 100% healthy? Maybe that contributed to his low numbers.
February 28th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I think it's both. There does seem to be a pinch-hitter "penalty": Most players do not perform as well as PH as when starting. But on Mantle specifically, I was surprised he PH so many times over that brief period, and I assume he must have usually been ailing in some way that prevented him from playing the field.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
The ailing theory might be correct. In 1965 and 1966, the Yankees had a Gold Glove 1B named Joe Pepitone. For 1967 and 1968, the Yankees swapped the aging Mantle and Pepitone, putting Joe in OF and Mantle at 1B. After Mantle retired, Pepitone returned to 1B in 1969 and promptly won another Gold Glove.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
The title really shouldn't be "Longest streaks as PH without getting on base" because some of these guys did get on base via an error or fielders choice.
February 28th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
stat boy is right, and some of them even managed to score a run or two in their hitless streak
February 28th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
statboy, ZimJim, point taken, but it's a conventional usage, and quite common, else we'd have to say "on base and not by reaching on error or fielder's choice average" instead of "on base average" and the abbreviation OBANBROEOFCA would give us fits.