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Powerless RBIs

Posted by Sky on October 29, 2007

I have no idea where this idea came from, but I had an inkling to see who had the most RBIs without hitting many homeruns.  I initially set the filter at fewer than 20 HRs after 1980.  Here's the list:

  Cnt Player            RBI HR Year Age
+----+-----------------+---+--+----+---+
    1 Tony Gwynn        119 17 1997  37 
    2 Pedro Guerrero    117 17 1989  33 
    3 Al Oliver         117 19 1980  33 
    4 Jeff Cirillo      115 11 2000  30 
    5 Derek Bell        113 17 1996  27 
    6 Paul Molitor      113  9 1996  39 
    7 Marty Cordova     111 16 1996  26 
    8 Paul O'Neill      110 19 1999  36 
    9 Kirby Puckett     110 19 1992  32 
   10 Bill Buckner      110 16 1985  35 
   11 Tom Herr          110  8 1985  29 
   12 Rusty Greer       108 16 1998  29 
   13 Ted Simmons       108 13 1983  33 
   14 Bobby Abreu       107 15 2006  32 
   15 Hideki Matsui     106 16 2003  29 
   16 Joe Randa         106 15 2000  30 
   17 Keith Moreland    106 14 1985  31 
   18 Jeff Francoeur    105 19 2007  23 
   19 Willie McGee      105 11 1987  28 
   20 Bill Buckner      105 15 1982  32 

Lots of professional hitters who didn't take a lot of walks.  How could you not have rooted for Rusty Greer, Tony Gwynn, Jeff Cirillo, and Marty Cardova?  Those are great names.  I'm shocked to see Willie McGee on the list.

How about if we also limit doubles to fewer than 30?

  Cnt Player            RBI HR 2B  G  Year Age
+----+-----------------+---+--+--+---+----+---+
    1 Joe Randa         106 15 29 158 2000  30 
    2 George Hendrick   104 19 20 136 1982  32 
    3 Paul O'Neill      100 18 26 142 2000  37 
    4 Terry Kennedy      98 17 27 149 1983  27 
    5 Steve Kemp         98 19 23 160 1982  27 
    6 Jeff Conine        97 14 23 139 2001  35 
    7 Eddie Murray       96 19 23 153 1991  35 
    8 Terry Pendleton    96 12 29 159 1987  26 
    9 Marquis Grissom    95 19 27 157 1993  26 
   10 Will Clark         95 19 25 154 1990  26 
   11 Jose Cruz          95 12 28 160 1984  36 
   12 Jody Davis         94 19 25 150 1984  27 
   13 Dave Parker        94 16 28 156 1984  33 
   14 Will Clark         92 16 27 123 1995  31 
   15 Lloyd Moseby       92 18 28 158 1984  24 
   16 Jose Cruz          92 14 28 160 1983  35 
   17 Jose Cruz          91 11 29 160 1980  32 
   18 Carlos Baerga      90 15 28 135 1995  26 

Obviously, it's hard to knock in 100 runs when you're only hitting singles.  Jose Cruz appears three times in the top 20.

Finally, how about the most runs scored with the second set of restrictions: fewer than 20 homeruns and 30 doubles:

  Cnt Player             R  HR 2B  G  Year Age
+----+-----------------+---+--+--+---+----+---+
    1 Paul Molitor      136 19 26 160 1982  25 
    2 Willie Wilson     133  3 28 161 1980  24 
    3 Derek Jeter       127 19 25 149 1998  24 
    4 Derek Jeter       124 18 26 157 2002  28 
    5 Derek Jeter       122 19 25 159 2005  31 
    6 Vince Coleman     121  3 14 151 1987  25 
    7 Tony Phillips     119 12 29 153 1996  37 
    8 Rickey Henderson  119 10 24 149 1982  23 
    9 Al Bumbry         118  9 29 160 1980  33 
   10 Chuck Knoblauch   117 17 25 150 1998  29 
   11 Chuck Knoblauch   117  9 26 156 1997  28 
   12 Kenny Lofton      116  1 28 148 1993  26 
   13 Willie McGee      114 10 26 152 1985  26 
   14 Chone Figgins     113  8 25 158 2005  27 
   15 Craig Biggio      113 15 24 162 1996  30 
   16 Eric Young        113  8 23 141 1996  29 
   17 Tony Phillips     113  7 27 151 1993  34 
   18 Rickey Henderson  113 12 26 150 1989  30 
   19 Rickey Henderson  113 16 27 142 1984  25 
   20 Brian Hunter      112  4 29 162 1997  26 
   21 Brett Butler      112  2 13 161 1991  34 

Derek Jeter just knows how to win, huh?  Brett Butler scored 112 runs in 1991 while only hitting two homeruns and 13 doubles.  Yikes.

6 Responses to “Powerless RBIs”

  1. skyking162 » Blog Archive » SOTD - Powerless RBIs Says:

    [...] Brett Butler once scored 112 runs in a season while only hitting two homeruns and thirteen doubles. That fun fact plus many more concerning the most RBIs and RUNs without hitting for power at the Stat of the Day Blog. [...]

  2. OscarAzocar Says:

    Here are a couple of related lists people might be interested in:
    Fewest XBH among players with at least 100 RBI: http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/vEU3
    Includes Thurman Munson (1975) and Gary Carter (1986)

    Fewest XBH among players with at least 100 Runs Scored:
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/fBs7
    Includes Tom Goodwin (1998) , Luis Castillo (2000) as well as the previously mentioned season by Butler

  3. Andy Says:

    I had a similar post to this way back when this blog first starter...players with fewer than 10 HR and more than 100 RBI in a season. Paul Molitor and Tom Herr are the only ones to do it recently.

    This post is here.

  4. vonhayes Says:

    I did something similar recently using Isolated Slugging. I set the time frame to the 1970s onward and it was pretty similar. Thurman Munson was #1, Herr #3 or something.

    Here's something that I thought would be interesting, but wasn't: 100 Runs Scored - Worst OBP. Not much of a surprise, lots of free-swinging sluggers and free-swinging leadoff men.

    1. Tony Armas .300 (1984)
    2. Juan Samuel .303 (1985)
    3. Devon White .306 (1987)
    4. Neifi Perez .307 (1999)
    5. Alfonso Soriano .309 (2005)
    6. Bret Boone .310 (1999)
    7. Red Rolfe .311 (1940)
    8. Andruw Jones .312 (2001)
    9. Steve Finley .313 (1997)
    10. Frankie Crosetti .315 (1939)

    Sky, were you being facetious with your Jeter comment? Ha.

  5. Sky Says:

    Yes, I was being facetious ; )

    I was fully expecting Alex Sanchez's name to pop up at some point, but no go. His career high in runs is only 58, which he accomplished in about 580 PAs. For RBIs, he's a Luis Castillo type.

    Which brings me back to being in awe of Willie McGee's 100 RBIs.

  6. vonhayes Says:

    Look at Willie's RBI opportunities that year:

    Actual Runners on Base: 544 (265-177-102), Avg. Runners on Base: 400 (195-133-71)

    If I'm looking at this correctly, at each base, Willie had a 30% (or more) chance of having runners on than the average player with his amount of PA's. Was Jack Clark pitched around all the time with first base open?

    In 1985, Tom Herr had 118 opportunities to bat someone in from third, versus 73 for the average player.