Over at the 88 Topps Cards blog, I posted this stat about R. J. Reynolds: he's one of just 14 players to have at least 100 SB and 250 RBI in his career while playing in no more than 800 career games.

Here's the full list:

  Cnt Player            Year  SB    G   RBI From  To   Ages   PA    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
 ----+-----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------
    1 Coco Crisp        2007  104  665  272 2002 2007 22-27  2827  2565  378  717 140  23  49  195   8  371   2  48  17  36  39  .280  .329  .409  .738 *87/D     CLE-BOS
    2 Chone Figgins     2007  204  662  265 2002 2007 24-29  2826  2517  410  737 104  45  25  249   2  419   2  32  26  30  66  .293  .354  .400  .754 584/769D  ANA-LAA
    3 Felipe Lopez      2007  101  730  288 2001 2007 21-27  3058  2720  384  702 131  25  65  279   7  615  12  26  21  38  41  .258  .328  .396  .724 *6/54     TOR-CIN-TOT-WSN
    4 Felix Jose        2003  102  747  324 1988 2003 23-38  2756  2527  322  708 135  14  54  203  28  507   9   3  14  50  57  .280  .334  .409  .743 *9/78D    OAK-TOT-STL-KCR-NYY-ARI
    5 R.J. Reynolds     1990  109  786  294 1983 1990 24-31  2506  2270  288  605 121  17  35  190  26  419   5  16  25  58  29  .267  .321  .381  .702 978       LAD-TOT-PIT
    6 Mitchell Page     1984  104  673  259 1977 1984 25-32  2398  2104  297  560  84  21  72  245  21  449  18  17  14  38  55  .266  .346  .429  .775 *D7/9     OAK-PIT
    7 Birdie Cree       1915  132  742  332 1908 1915 25-32  2982  2603  345  761 117  62  11  269   0   97  43  67   0   0  17  .292  .368  .398  .766 *78/9645  NYY
    8 Joe Birmingham    1914  108  771  265 1906 1914 21-29  2860  2633  284  667  89  27   7  129   0   27  24  74   0   0   1  .253  .294  .316  .610 *8/79536  CLE
    9 Nixey Callahan    1913  157  698  298 1901 1913 27-39  2743  2485  314  682 103  30   8  131   0    2  13 114   0   0   0  .274  .314  .350  .664 *75/19486 CHW
   10 Harry Lumley      1910  110  730  305 1904 1910 23-29  2963  2653  300  728 109  66  38  204   0    6   9  97   0   0   0  .274  .328  .408  .736 *9        BRO
   11 Tommy Corcoran    1907  102  764  358 1901 1907 32-38  3117  2951  304  705  99  37   7  102   0    0   5  59   0   0   0  .239  .266  .305  .571 *6/4      CIN-NYG
   12 Cozy Dolan        1906  109  785  306 1901 1906 28-33  3330  3029  407  820  94  36  10  219   0    0  20  62   0   0   0  .271  .324  .335  .659 *98/3741  TOT-BRO-CIN-TOT-BSN
   13 Chick Stahl       1906  105  781  339 1901 1906 28-33  3407  3004  464  871 122  62  17  280   0    0  33  90   0   0   0  .290  .357  .389  .746 *8/9      BOS
   14 Danny Green       1905  134  656  291 1901 1905 24-28  2795  2432  373  706  87  46  14  256   0    0  31  76   0   0   0  .290  .365  .381  .746 *98/7     CHC-CHW

First off, two things to notice about this group:

• Nobody did it in the years between 1915 and 1984. (The year is the final year of the career--Page for example was active in the few years prior to 1984.)
• The first three guys qualify only because they haven't yet reached 800 career games which, barring something very unusual, they will all do.

Now, I think the last 8 guys on here qualify because the game was different back then. Run-scoring was higher in that period and stolen bases were common, and thus it was a little easier to rack up the necessary totals in a shorter career (under 800 games.)

So if we ignore the first 3 guys and the last 8 guys, that leaves us with just three: Felix Jose, R. J. Reynolds, and Mitchell Page.

A friend who was growing up in Oakland when Page was playing there told me that his nickname was "All the Rage, Mitchell Page", although I can't confirm that anywhere. You can see why, though. He burst on the scene with a .307 BA, .405 OBP, and .521 SLG, accumulating 21 HR, 75 RBI, plus 42 SB (and only 5 CS) in his rookie year of 1977, losing the Rookie of the Year award to Eddie Murray. In 1978, he fell off considerably, losing more than 100 points off his OPS. By 1979, he was washed up. Largely on the strength of his first year, Page finished with a career OPS+ of 118.

Reynolds had a totally different type of career from Page. R. J. topped 400 at-bats in a season just once and got at least 200 AB every season except for his rookie year of 1983. His career high SLG was .420 and his career low was .344, and he was usually right around his career average of .381. His batting average never strayed more than 20 points from its average of .267. He stole between 12 and 22 bases every year from 1985 to 1990. And that's what Reynolds was: a very consistent, if unspectacular, player. In 1990, when he his that career low .344 SLG, his career ended. Reynolds OPS+ was right around 100 virtually every year of his career, and he finished with a career mark of 97.

Felix Jose's career was somewhere in the middle. He didn't start off hot and flame out like Page, nor was he a consistent player like Reynolds. He got his first real shot in 1990 with Oakland and didn't do all that much, slugging .385. Jose, you might remember, was a huge hulk of a man, but also very fit. He was (and probably still is today) quite physically impressive, and looked like a guy with both a lot of power and a lot of speed. But neither really came through that much, in the end. He put together some nice seasons in 1991 and 1992 for the Cardinals, but hit a total of just 22 HRs across those two seasons. He stole 48 bases but was also caught 24 times. In 1993 with Kansas City, his power disappeared completely, though it returned for a final appearance in 1994. Jose was then out of the majors for several years, resurfacing briefly with the Yankees in 2000, and then resurfacing again briefly with Arizona in 2002 and 2003. Thanks to the two years in St. Louis, Jose kept his career OPS+ above 100, finishing at 103.

Three different guys, three similar results.

By the way, just to plug my blog again, if you like free stuff, I'm giving away the first 25 cards of the 1988 Topps set in a drawing here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 7:26 am and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.