Mariner second baseman Jose Lopez is tied for  the American League lead in sacrifice flies with 9.  He is also one off the league lead in sacrifice bunts with 6.  I thought that these two statistics  combined were an interesting mix, so I wondered if Lopez's season is common. The answer is not usually, but this year may be different.

Since 1954 when baseball started keeping separate SH and SF records there have been 11 players to have 10 or more sacrifice flies and bunts in the same season. Here is the list.

  Cnt Player            Year  SH  SF Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Juan Uribe        2005  11  10  25 CHW AL 146 540 481  58 121 23  3 16  71  34   0  77   4   7   4  6  .252  .301  .412  .713 *6
    2 Ricky Gutierrez   2001  17  11  31 CHC NL 147 606 528  76 153 23  3 10  66  40   0  56  10  13   4  3  .290  .345  .402  .747 *6
    3 Roberto Alomar    1999  12  13  31 CLE AL 159 694 563 138 182 40  3 24 120  99   3  96   7  13  37  6  .323  .422  .533  .955 *4/D
    4 Kevin Elster      1996  16  11  31 TEX AL 157 596 515  79 130 32  2 24  99  52   1 138   2   8   4  1  .252  .317  .462  .779 *6
    5 Omar Vizquel      1995  10  10  28 CLE AL 136 622 542  87 144 28  0  6  56  59   0  59   1   4  29 11  .266  .333  .351  .684 *6
    6 Jerry Browne      1990  12  11  24 CLE AL 140 610 513  92 137 26  5  6  50  72   1  46   2  12  12  7  .267  .353  .372  .725 *4
    7 Wally Joyner      1986  10  12  24 CAL AL 154 674 593  82 172 27  3 22 100  57   8  58   2  11   5  2  .290  .348  .457  .805 *3
    8 Rob Wilfong       1979  25  10  25 MIN AL 140 485 419  71 131 22  6  9  59  29   3  54   2   2  11  4  .313  .352  .458  .810 *4/879
    9 Bert Campaneris   1976  18  11  34 OAK AL 149 631 536  67 137 14  1  1  52  63   0  80   3   4  54 12  .256  .331  .291  .622 *6
   10 Brooks Robinson   1962  10  10  25 BAL AL 162 697 634  77 192 29  9 23  86  42   3  70   1  18   3  1  .303  .342  .486  .828 *5/64
   11 Johnny Temple     1959  11  13  31 CIN NL 149 696 598 102 186 35  6  8  67  72   2  40   2  11  14  3  .311  .380  .430  .810 *4

As rare as this seems, Lopez is not alone yet. Here are the players who have amassed 6 of each so far  this season.

  Cnt                        SH  SF Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+---+---+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Freddy Sanchez          6   6 2008  30 PIT NL  92 403 376  42  88 14  0  6  39  12   0  48   3   9   0  1  .234  .259  .319  .578 *4/D
    2 Jose Lopez              6   9 2008  24 SEA AL  96 425 394  49 117 26  1  6  51  15   2  36   1  11   4  1  .297  .317  .414  .731 *4/D
    3 Ian Kinsler             6   6 2008  26 TEX AL  97 469 413  84 134 34  4 14  59  38   1  56   6   7  24  1  .324  .384  .528  .912 *4

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Leaders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.