’09 Yanks, ’93 Tigers & ’78 Brewers Stand Alone?
Posted by Steve Lombardi on September 11, 2009
The 2009 Yankees currently have 7 players with 400+ PA and an OPS+ >=120. If New York can keep this up, they will become only the third team in baseball history have have 7 players with 400+PA and an OPS+ >=120. Via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index, here are the other teams to do it:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 2009 AL New York Yankees 7 Robinson Cano / Mark Teixeira / Derek Jeter / Nick Swisher / Johnny Damon / Hideki Matsui / Alex Rodriguez 1993 AL Detroit Tigers 7 Cecil Fielder / Mickey Tettleton / Tony Phillips / Travis Fryman / Lou Whitaker / Chad Kreuter / Alan Trammell 1978 AL Milwaukee Brewers 7 Sal Bando / Larry Hisle / Gorman Thomas / Don Money / Sixto Lezcano / Ben Oglivie / Cecil Cooper 2003 AL Boston Red Sox 6 Nomar Garciaparra / Manny Ramirez / Bill Mueller / Jason Varitek / Trot Nixon / David Ortiz 1991 AL Texas Rangers 6 Ruben Sierra / Rafael Palmeiro / Julio Franco / Juan Gonzalez / Kevin Reimer / Brian Downing 1982 AL California Angels 6 Brian Downing / Reggie Jackson / Doug DeCinces / Bobby Grich / Rod Carew / Fred Lynn 1969 NL Cincinnati Reds 6 Tony Perez / Lee May / Pete Rose / Bobby Tolan / Johnny Bench / Alex Johnson 1965 NL Milwaukee Braves 6 Eddie Mathews / Hank Aaron / Joe Torre / Felipe Alou / Mack Jones / Gene Oliver 1939 AL New York Yankees 6 Red Rolfe / Joe Gordon / George Selkirk / Bill Dickey / Joe DiMaggio / Charlie Keller 1933 AL New York Yankees 6 Lou Gehrig / Ben Chapman / Tony Lazzeri / Babe Ruth / Bill Dickey / Earle Combs 1932 AL New York Yankees 6 Lou Gehrig / Ben Chapman / Earle Combs / Tony Lazzeri / Babe Ruth / Bill Dickey 1897 NL Baltimore Orioles 6 Jake Stenzel / Joe Kelley / Willie Keeler / Hughie Jennings / Jack Doyle / John McGraw 1884 NL Chicago White Stockings 6 Fred Pfeffer / Cap Anson / Abner Dalrymple / King Kelly / Ned Williamson / George Gore
September 11th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Just wanted to tack on that Jorge Posada could soon give the 2009 Yanks an 8th guy to add to their total. He's close to 400 PA.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:32 am
[...] 7 players with 400+PA and an OPS+ >=120. The others to do it were the 1993 Tigers and 1978 Brewers. Click here for all the statistics on this [...]
September 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
somewhere in this blog over the summer i posted my research on the highest team OPS+ (which was at 115 in early July and is now at 119) and teams with the most players with 100+ OPS+s. Currently the Yankees have all nine of their starting line up with OPS+s of 100 or more. Talk about a murderer's row.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Completely off subject, but I thought I would share this stat: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/MqvTT
The other night, Billy Butler became the first player (since 1954, at least) to have four 3-double games in a season. Hard to believe that only two other players have even had three 3-double games in a season, and that it's happened only in the past 4 seasons is even crazier.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Oddly, their team OPS+ leader is actually A-Rod who is having an off-year at just 141. This is 7-8 guys bunched between 120 and 140. Rare to see that level of balance up and down the lineup. Not really a row of "murderers", but incredibly balanced.
Also, if I'm not mistaken OPS+/ERA+ numbers may see a couple of after season corrections due to the way the park factors are calculated. Sometime in the off-season, Sean will update the park factors based on this season's data causing those numbers to change a bit. And if I'm not mistaken, he'll update them 2009 park factors again following 2010. These changes are usually small, but could affect the Yankees more because their park is brand new.
Perhaps this is worth clarifying... when exactly to the PF's and OPS+/ERA+ numbers get finalized?
September 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Yeah, I think the ballpark effect will lower some of those numbers, but will it make Swisher go up or down? On the one hand, he "can't" hit homers in a "homer-friendly" ballpark (tell that to the Rays), but he can slam anywhere based on his road figures. For those who don't know, before that two-homer game, he had more homers in Baltimore this year than New York.
September 11th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
The park factors just change the league averages associated with a team. A players numbers are adjusted from there and the home/road splits are not considered.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Surprisingly, it appears Yankee Stadium has not increased scoring that much this season. Or to be more accurate, the Yankees and their opponents have scored around the same number of runs in Yankee Stadium games as in away games. Considering HR are definitely increased, and there is less foul territory than the old Stadium, I tend to think it will play as more of a hitter's park in years to come, even if it hasn't this season for whatever reasons.
And I second David's question. A LOT of people tend to take the PF's and OPS+/ERA+ numbers as gospel...and then they suddenly change. I seem to recall they may not have been finalized for a few weeks after the season last year. I think it should be indicated on the site that those numbers are subject to change.
Also, B-R now has 1-year and 3-year park factors. I _think_ (but am not sure, and the glossary is no help) that he calculates OPS+ and ERA+ based on the 1-year PFs, so they won't be adjusted further after 2010.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Currently New Yankee and Citi are neutral. I'm going to try and recalculate the park factors for them next week and start using that number as I suspect it will knock the Yankees hitters down a good bit.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hey, I was going to mention Posada having a 133 OPS+ with 388 plate appearances!
September 11th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
The 2009 Yankees currently have 7 players with 400+ PA and an OPS+ >=120.
. . . and six players who likely will finish the season with more than 80 RBIs but fewer than 100. Jeter might make it seven. What a strange set of numbers.