In case we have any newbies, that's most consecutive plate appearances without grounding into a double play.

To some degree, grounding into double plays is a team thing. Obviously, teams with more baserunners ground into more double plays (but also score more runs.) It's also out of a player's control whether he faces more ground ball pitchers or fly ball pitchers. But in general, players certainly have some impact, and some are certainly better than others at avoiding GIDP.

For 2000 to present, here are the longest streaks without grounding into a double play:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Rob Mackowiak      2001-08-24  2003-09-24   236    638   89  160  32   4  24   75  190   59   16   3  .251  .324  .426  .750 PIT                                         

 Abraham Nunez      2000-06-14  2002-05-03   165    434   47  107  18   4   2   34   73   42   10   3  .247  .313  .320  .633 PIT                                         

 Corey Patterson    2005-09-28  2007-05-11   164    594   86  158  29   5  17   66  116   32   50  10  .266  .312  .418  .730 CHC-BAL                                     

 Brady Anderson     2000-06-28  2001-08-04   159    571   90  127  20   2  17   58  115  101   19   5  .222  .347  .354  .701 BAL                                         

 Josh Fogg          2002-04-06  2007-07-17   156    281   17   34   3   0   0   10   91   10    1   0  .121  .154  .132  .286 PIT-COL                                     

 Jason Schmidt      2001-05-16  2006-07-09   150    321   19   37   3   0   5   11  154    9    0   0  .115  .145  .171  .316 PIT-SFG
 Orlando Palmeiro   2004-05-22  2005-08-04   150    244   36   75  19   1   5   21   27   26    4   2  .307  .381  .455  .836 HOU

If you click on the "236" in Mackowiak's line, you'll see that in encompassed a whopping 719 PAs. To me, that is truly incredible.

It's kind of funny to see pitchers on here, i.e. Josh Fogg and Jason Schmidt. It's a different kind of thing, but let's not discount the value. For a pitcher to avoid hitting into DPs, it means he's turning the lineup over and getting the leadoff hitter up to bat with at least one baserunner.

Notice that most of the guys on the above list are pretty speedy, though not all. Nunez has just 37 SB in 11 years, and O. Palmeiro has 37 in 13 seasons.

Here are the leaders for the 1990s:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Mike Felder        1991-04-23  1992-08-25   224    584   82  158  20   9   4   37   54   43   32   9  .271  .322  .356  .678 SFG
 Gary Redus         1990-04-21  1992-08-20   224    579   84  141  29   6  13   52   91   72   36  10  .244  .326  .382  .708 PIT                                         

 Tony Womack        1997-05-30  1998-08-04   219    915  117  262  39   9   6   70  134   55   85  11  .286  .327  .368  .695 PIT

That was 584 PAs for Felder, and 579 for Redus. Three VERY speedy guys on this list. It's easy to forget that Womack once stole 72 bases in a season, mainly because his OBP was so low that it's hard to believe he had that many chances.

For the 1980s:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Duane Walker       1982-07-03  1984-09-20   246    599   68  144  29   4  16   74  121   71   20   9  .240  .320  .382  .702 CIN                                         

 John Cangelosi     1987-08-01  1989-08-01   181    303   48   76  10   5   3   28   39   52   24  13  .251  .364  .347  .711 PIT

That's 682 PAs for Duane Walker, a guy who never hit double digits in SB in any season. I remember Cangelosi as being a tough, scrappy player who was fast and played hard all the time. Looking at his main B-R page, it's kind of amazing that he stuck around as long as he did with such poor numbers both offensively and defensively. Did you know Cangelosi also pitched for 3 different teams, amassing an ERA of 0.00?

In the 1970s, nobody made it to 200 consecutive games.

For the 1960s:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Roger Repoz        1967-06-27  1969-10-02   286    770   77  170  18   3  26   93  172   89   11  11  .221  .300  .353  .653 CAL                                         

 Don Buford         1967-04-26  1968-08-13   223    731   93  191  18  10  14   60   70   94   44  28  .261  .346  .371  .717 CHW-BAL                                     

 Ty Cline           1963-04-16  1966-04-14   222    494   65  118  10   6   1   33   99   34    4   3  .239  .293  .289  .582 MLN-CHC                                     

 Johnny Roseboro    1960-04-27  1961-09-18   210    625   76  145  29   7  25   93  108   90   11  10  .232  .331  .421  .752 LAD                                         

 Bob Gibson         1963-04-21  1968-09-02   203    529   46  101  17   2   9   60  188   32    6   3  .191  .239  .282  .521 STL

Looks like the longest streak we can find belonged to Roger Repoz, who went 806 PAs. (I note that I am just looking at games without GIDP; all of the streaks in this post may also include one ore more plate appearances in the games adjacent to the streak, but probably not more than 4 or 5 PAs per streak.)

Gibson, who was an excellent pitcher and also a very good hitter, was apparently great at avoiding GIDPs too, with a very impressive streak of 606 PAs.

For completeness sake, let me add that there were no streaks of 200+ games in 1957 to 1959. Also, it is possible that my search has missed the record streak. Should that streak span, say, 1978 to 1981, it wouldn't show up here since I only searched by decade.

The longest current streaks are:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  SO   BB   SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Curtis Granderson  2006-09-28  2007-08-06   112    449   90  131  29  18  18   55  109   37   14   0  .292  .348  .557  .905 DET
 Angel Pagan        2006-07-29  2007-08-06   103    256   36   65  14   4   6   33   48   20    6   2  .254  .305  .410  .715 CHC
 Mark Sweeney       2006-08-29  2007-08-06    92    111   23   27   9   0   2   15   24   16    2   0  .243  .359  .378  .737 SFG
 Noah Lowry         2005-04-08  2007-08-05    81    153    8   25   7   0   1   10   34    7    0   1  .163  .199  .229  .428 SFG
 Matt Morris        2005-04-19  2007-08-04    81    158   10   26   5   0   1   10   54    6    0   0  .165  .195  .215  .410 STL-SFG-PIT
 Jonny Gomes        2006-07-29  2007-08-05    78    253   34   61  15   0  13   35   74   29    4   1  .241  .337  .455  .792 TBD
 Brad Penny         2005-04-24  2007-08-05    78    159    9   33  10   0   0   14   44    2    0   0  .208  .227  .270  .497 LAD

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