The hottest anyone has ever been
Posted: June 12th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 84 Comments »
Jose Guillen is hot. The last two weeks he has hit .410 with a .721 slugging percentage.* I had not paid much attention to Guillen before he signed with the Royals — and as everyone here knows I was against that signing — but I must now admit that I’ve really warmed up to the guy. Yes, I still think his numbers will decline dramatically over the three-year, $36 million deal, and I still think he will get frustrated by all the losing (and MAN is there a lot of losing going on) and really blow up at some point. If things keep going like they are going, the blow up will come REAL soon.
*I do not mention Guillen’s on-base percentage here because … it’s pretty much his batting average. Jose Guillen has not walked a single time over this stretch (he has been hit by a pitch). In fact, he has now gone 108 plate appearances without walking. The guy is as FBFB as you can possibly get (That’s First Ball, FastBall). Still, I would be remiss if I did not give the update:
Jose Guillen: .282/.307/.498, 11 homers, 49 RBIs, 29 runs, 113 OPS+.
Emil Brown: .250/.289/.375, 5 homers, 37 RBIs, 30 runs, 85 OPS+.
I’m admitting it. This is a blowout.
The reason I’m developing an appreciation for Guillen is that he’s a kind of player that, as a fan, I’ve come to like more and more — the kind of player who for weeks at a time can look useless, and then for weeks at a time is simply impossible to get out. Manager want consistency, and I appreciate that. But as a fan, I have lost all patience for those consistently average players that managers keep throwing out there because “they know what they’re going to get.” I like hot and cold, I like wild swings, I like that one week Johnny Damon looks useless, helpless, defenseless, pointless and the next week he looks like Ty Cobb. It adds something to the game.
I remember in 2003, the Royals got off to that incredible start — 16-3 — and then they more or less collapsed and the silly dream looked to be over. On June 11, the Royals hit .500 — 31-31 — and it looked like it would go downhill from there. Only at that point, Michael Tucker of all people went absolutely crazy. Over the next 22 games, he hit .382/.453/.671, and the Royals moved back into first place, and even though he went back to being Michael Tucker after that and the Royals went back to being the Royals, that was just kind of fun for a while.
Guillen is like that. He’s a hot-cold player, and I just wasn’t fully aware of that when the Royals signed him. He’s adding some entertainment value to a team sorely lacking entertainment.*
*Although I will say that watching Trey Hillman try to singlehandedly deny the existence of the righty-lefty advantage has been entertaining, you know, in an Inherit The Wind sort of way.
ANYWAY, watching Guillen hit everything hard, I started to wonder which player had the hottest streak in baseball history. Of course by baseball history I really mean: “Which player had the hottest streak since 1956, when we have Baseball-Reference day-by-day numbers to look at?”
I have not done a lot of study on this yet. I’m looking for suggestions here. And I should say I don’t have any real ground rules … I guess I’m generally thinking about which player was hot over a decent stretch of time … 25-30 games seems like a good minimum. And by “hot” I think we can use any number of descriptions, but for me a hot streak involves a hitter who is crushing the ball every time up, hitting for a ridiculous batting average, adding home runs, an impossible out.
My initial feeling was that the hottest hitter ever was George Brett in the summer of 1980. I’ve studied that season very closely … I was, for a while, going to do a book about that year. For 58 games, between May 22, 1980 and August 20, 1980, he hit .468//517/.768 with 13 homers, 56 runs, and 73 RBIs. George still might be right answer … I mean I doubt anyone has ever hit a baseball harder than George did those two months. But that is over two months. I think it’s possible that over a shorter period of time, someone may have been even hotter.
In fact, I think I have found someone even hotter. Going into the All-Star Break in 1957, Ted Williams was hitting .343/.476/.645 … which is beyond incredible if you think about it. By that point, Teddy Ballgame was 38 years old, he’d been to war twice, he’d dealt with all kinds of injuries. No 38-year-old man had batted .340 since a 40-year-old Sam Rice hit .349 in that freak year of 1930*, and while we all know Ted Williams was no ordinary hitter, while we all know he was great at 37 and 36 and 35, it seemed like time had to run out on him at some point, and it was unlikely that he would continue to hit at that crazy clip.
As it turned out, he did not continue to hit at that clip …
*Among the absurd offensive things that happened in 1930.
– Hack Wilson slugged .723 and drove in 190 RBIs.
– Bill Terry, a very good hitter whose No. 1 comp is Don Mattingly, hit .401.
– George Watkins — a 30-year-old rookie — hit .373 in 391 at-bats.
– Gabby Hartnett — who for the rest of his distinguished career never hit 25 home runs or drove in more than 91 RBIs — hit 37 home runs and drove in 122.
– Adam Comorosky — who was Adam Comorosky — banged 47 doubles, 23 triples, 12 homers, stole 14 bases, scored 112 runs and drove in 119.
– Ed Morgan — who played six otherwise undistinguished seasons — hit .341 with 47 doubles, 11 triples, 26 homers, 122 runs scored and 136 RBIs.
– Carl Reynolds hit .359 (career average INCLUDING that year was .302), Goose Goslin hit 37 homers (second-most was 24), Johnny Hodapp hit 51 doubles (second most was 31), Lefty Grove and Dazzy Vance were the only two pitchers with ERA’s below 3.00.
In fact, it’s quite fun to go to Baseball Reference and neutralize a players stats to 1930 (and for kicks put them in Wrigley Field). Try it! Here are only a few.
Joe Morgan (1975 season): .407/.551/.630, 220 hits, 23 homers, 123 RBIs, 140 runs, 90 stolen bases.
Mickey Mantle (1957 season): .435/.584/.793, 233 hits, 46 homers, 131 RBIs, 159 runs, 197 walks.
Barry Bonds (2001 season): 386/.578/1.014, 192 hits, 90 homers, 172 RBIs, 162 runs, 289 runs created.
George Brett (1980 season): .437/.502/.742, 203 hits, 28 homers, 153 RBIs, 113 runs in 112 games.
Joe Torre (1971 season: .413/.473/.640, 270 hits (!), 28 homers, 184 RBIs, 130 runs.
Here’s what Ted Williams did the next 28 games in 1957.
On July 11, he hit two doubles in Detroit.
On July 12, he banged two solo home runs off of Jim Bunning.
On July 13, he managed only one hit, but it was a homer, off Lou Sleater.
July 14 was a doubleheader in Cleveland, and all told he went 4-for-4 with two homers, one off Bob Lemon, the other off Hackensack’s Stan Pitula. That’s homers in four straight games, if you’re counting.
On July 16, he made it five straight games with a homer, cracking one off Virgil Trucks, who was sometimes called Fire.
On July 17, the Kid went 3-for-3 with three walks in Kansas City.
Only July 18, his one hit off Tom Gordon was a triple.
On July 19, he homered again, off Lefty LaPalme.
The next five games, he managed 4 hits in 15 at-bats. And then, believe it or not, he got REALLY hot.
Only July 26, he got two hits against Cleveland and knocked in three runs.
On July 27, he got two more hits and homered off Ray Narleski at Fenway Park.
On July 28, he went 4-for-4 with a double and homer off Early Wynn. It was the third homer he’d hit off of a Hall of Famer during this stretch.
On July 29, he got two more hits.
On July 30, he banged three hits off the Yankee Killer Frank Lary.
He got a hit on July 31, another on August 1, two hits and a homer off Chicago’s Jim Wilson on August 2nd, two more hits on August 3rd and three hits on August 4th. The team went to Baltimore, and he got a hit on August 6th, and two hits on August 7th and 8th. He ended the hot streak against Washington August 9th with two hits off Pedro Ramos.
And so, that’s 28 games. Over those 28 games, Ted Williams hit .522/.619/.957 with 10 home runs.
Sorry. Let me write that again. Over those 28 games, Ted Williams hit .522/.619/.957.
I’m open to suggestions. But this is an early choice for the hottest anyone has ever been.
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I believe you meant 1957, not 1937.
Joe, as always, great post. Sorry to bring up the royals again, but as a baseball fan, I’m a Royals fan, first (I live in New York these days, and it’s painful to be a Royals fan in New York, but what am I gonna do? Be a Sox fan, like everyone else in NY these days?). My question is: have you ever heard of a team this bad with a 4-run lead? I posted this same question on a friend’s blog last week, and he told me I was just over-reacting … again. Then, today I got an email from him asking for forgiveness (since that’s two more in a row in Texas where we’ve coughed up 4-run leads). I haven’t done the math, but I’m betting we’ve lost more games, up four runs, late, than we’ve won this season…
Are you limiting the discussion to hitters? Hershiser’s streak in 88 is the hottest that I’ve seen anyone ever.
Arod – July 31, 2003 to August 21, 2003 (21 games)
.354/.480/.937, 13 HR
Arod – April 2, 2007 to April 23, 2007 (18 games)
.400/.453/1.053, 14 HR
How about Bonds in August/September 2002?
How about the month in 1980 Brett hit .494?
I would submit Lance Berkman’s May of 2008: .471/.553/.856, 9 home runs, 11 doubles, 22 rbi (and 6 stolen bases!). And if we parse it down further, from May 2 through May 18 Berkman was 35 for 62 (.564) with 8 home runs and 19 rbi.
The guys mentioned so far are all Hall of Famers, or will be someday. I wonder who in history posted the 30 game stretch that was furthest above their career norms.
If you made a list of the 50 hottest stretches ever, who would be the guys that would make you say Where the heck did THAT come from?
All these guys that’ve been mentioned are Hall of Fame caliber, sans Tucker and Guillen, so I actually kind of expect them to have hit that well for certain periods. How about a 58 game stretch where a player who has hit 287/345/434 for his career suddenly started outhitting Vlad Guerrero’s best seasons? Check out Randy Winn’s 2005 after he joined the Giants. It’s unreal.
Bonds was pretty hot over several stretches in 2002. I think his hottest was probably July 7 to August 30. He hit .616/.971.
Bonds’s first 19 games of 2004: .500/.703/1.227, 10 HRs, 30BB, 5K
Bonds, Aug. 3-Sep. 1, 2002: 26G .466/.643/1.000, 11HR, 39BB, 6K
Bonds, April 15-May 17, 1993: 30G .471/.596/.853, 8 HR, 33BB, 18K
Yaz’s .526/.604/.955 for games 151-162 in 1967 wasn’t as long as the others, but gains degree-of-difficulty points for the stage of the pennant race.
And you say Ted f’ing Williams hit 2 HR off Jim f’ing Bunning? Jim f’ing Bunning and that little s–t slider of his…
How about Chipper Jones from June 26th to August 14th 2006:
.506/.564/1.023, 10 2B, 1 3B, 11 HR, 30 RBI, 13 BBs, 7 Ks.
Add extra degree of difficulty for that Yaz stretch because it was 19-freaking-67.
The best thing about 1930? The Phillies scored 944 runs, and won 52 games (mostly because they allowed 1199 runs… yes, that’s as absurd as it sounds). If you really want crazy numbers from that year, put people in the Baker Bowl, not Wrigley.
Joe mentioned Lance Berkman’s May ‘08 above in the comments, but paring it down even further – May 3 – 10 (7 games) he batted .741/.788/1.296 with 20 hits (9 xbh) and never made an out in consecutive plate appearances.
Every regular here knew I would post this, so here goes:
Jime Rice, May 1-22, 1978: 20 G, 9 HR, 26 RBI, .443/.489/.886
There is also Barry Bonds from April 24 to June 7, 2001. Over 38 games–longer than most of these stretches–he hit .361/.545/1.051, with 24 home runs in only 165 PA, 117 AB.
I read some good stuff about Tony Oliva somewhere. Did he ever have a hot streak that deserves consideration?
Wade Boggs, May 20 thru June 30, 1987: 37 G, 63 hits, 37 runs, 11 doubles, 4 triples, 6 homers, 26 RBI, 33 walks, .450/.557/.714
Anybody else click all three links like I did? Damn, that’s tricky!
I think that Denise Richards/Neve Campbell scene in Wild Things might be close to the hottest anyone’s been.
oops, that’s not what we’re talking about.
It was pre-retrosheet, but I hear that Jod DiMaggio had one pretty good 56 game stretch in 1941
Although Ted Williams apparently had a higher batting average over that time…
Or, one of my personal favorites, Wade Boggs from June 9, 1985 through June 6, 1986, exactly one season’s worth of games:
162 G, 641 ABs, 257 hits, 50 doubles, 12 homers, 109 walks, .401/.489/.541.
Yes, he really did hit over .400 for a complete season, it just happened to be interrupted by a 6-month off-season between games 110 and 111.
From the perspective of a disgruntled season-ticket holder, here’s a possibility for the biggest aberration:
Mark Teahen, June 4 to Sept 2, 2006: 82 G, .323/.396/.580
Every other game in his career: 364 G, .259/.326/.389
(Sigh.)
Joe, please write a book about George’s 1980 season. Please! I promise you would sell at least one.
Here’s another nominee for biggest aberration ever:
During his 31-game hitting streak in 1980, Ken Landreaux hit .392.
In all the games that season that were not part of the streak he hit .242, and over an 11 year career he hit .268.
I have no idea how to get baseball-reference to neatly provide those numbers for me…
But offhand I think that Sammy’s month where he hit 20 (?) homers was pretty dang hot?
Actually, looking at it he hovered around .400 ish/.680 ish. Not bad, but not really all that special.
Fondly Wishing He Knew How To Manipulate Baseball-Reference To Do All This Neat Stuff,
Creston
How about Jay Bruce’s first 20 at-bats: .590/.690/1.000. Of course, that’s only 20 ABs so it doesn’t really belong with some of these other hot streaks. But, I think it is the best start of all-time. (“Start” defined as first 20 ABs.)
a couple of obvious ones…
Mickey Mantle:
1956, first 40 games – .430/.520/.879, 19 hr, 48 rbi
1957, May 28 – Jun 23 (28 games) – .431/.554/.882, 12 hr, 29 rbi
Stan Musial:
1958, Apr 17 – May 24 (31 games) – .482/.548/.798, 12 dbl, 8 hr, 25 rbi
Creston –
It’s pretty easy to manipulate the b-r.com pages. You go to a player’s game log for a certain year. You click on the first game in a streak that you want to highlight. It turns blue. Then, click on the last game and voila! you get the summary and an invitation to get a link to share.
b-r.com and the joepos blog. Why the Internets were created.
From the out-of-the-blue category:
Shane Spencer, 1998: 27 games, 67 ab, .373/.411/.910, 10 hr, 27 rbi
Chris Shelton, 2006: 13 games, 51 ab, .471/.500/1.216, 9 hr, 17 rbi
Shelton has a bit smaller sample size, but Spencer was white hot the last month of 1998.
@Creston – I just learned this today, but you just select a year from the game logs menu and then you can just click on individual games (a start and an end) and it’ll calculate everything automatically.
Sammy Sosa – 1998, May 25 – June 21 (22 games) – .352/.390/1.066, 21 hr, 43 rbi, 0 IBB. How do you hit 21 hrs in 22 games and not get intentionally walked? was there an edict from the commissioner for ‘98?
Thanks James!
And SBG!
Most over his head nominee? Willie Bloomquist’s September 2002 callup with the M’s:
.455 /.526 /.576 198 OPS+
This from a guy whose career numbers are
.256 /.312 /.322 71 OPS+
Was it the guys at U.S.S. Mariner who said, “only in Seattle can you get a cup of coffee this good?”
John Olerud in 1993- 32 games, .432/.539/.883
Larry Walker in 1999- 21 games, .519/.576/1.039 (yes, that SLG is correct). He had a 59 game stretch where he went .409/.475/.832
Jeff Bagwell in 1994- 45 games, .425/.510/.910
Andres Galarraga in 1993- 24 games, .495/.524/.835
Ichiro hit .480 for 45 games in 2004
Albert Belle in 1994- 27 games, .451/.545/.922
Norm Cash in 1961- 29 games, .426/.526/1.011 and 16 home runs in that time
Whoops, there’s already a James.
Can I have a write-in vote for the “Music City Miracle”
Some from my favorite team ever (2004 Cardinals)
Jim Edmonds :
July 6th – Aug 5th : .388/.509/1.000, 14 HR, 29 RsBI.
Aug 24th – Sep 12th : .429/.507/1.071, 10 HR, 22 RsBI.
Scott Rolen :
April 5th- April 21st : .387/.409/.839, 8 Hrs, 25 RsBI.
May 22nd – June 9th : .414/.478/.862, 7 Hrs, 22 RsBI.
Albert Pujols :
May 20th – June 11th : .429/.526/.905, 8 Hrs, 17 RsBI.
Aug 21st – Sept 11th : .391/.487/.828, 6 Hrs, 15 RsBI.
Basically, they (almost) constantly had one of their 3,4, 5 guys OPS’ing ~1.300 – 1.500 for the entire season. That’ll get you to 100 wins!
Ryan Howard from August 25-Sep. 23, 2006-
27 games, .430./.589/1.000
Ryan Howard, 2006, Aug 23-Sep 22:
28 G, .413/.559/.978. 22 of 38 hits for extra bases.
That’s the best non-Teddy I could find, I think. That one seems to even rival the already listed Bonds hot streaks.
For 58 games, between May 22, 1980 and August 20, 1980, he hit .468//517/.768
Very impressive.
Except Barry Bonds, for the entire *season* of 2001 hit 318/515/863…
Then, for the *entire* season of 2002, hit 370/582/799…
And then, for the *entire* season of 2003, hit 341/529/749…
And then, to top it off, for the *entire* season of 2004, hit 362/609(!)/812.
So this very impressive little 58 game streak by George Brett was eclipsed by 4 full seasons by Barry Bonds.
I think I may have found one to beat that Ted Williams “hottest ever” streak :
In 1994, from May 1st to June 4th (28 games), Frank Thomas went
.473/.614/1.011 with 13 homers and 30 RsBI.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?share=1&n1=thomafr04&year=1994&t=b#555:582:sum
“So this very impressive little 58 game streak by George Brett was eclipsed by 4 full seasons by Barry Bonds.”
I think Bonds is kind of being ignored because of the amount of steroids ingested during his four Playstation years.
I don’t even get to give my homer pick of Chalmers’ three in the poll? The best Senior year any KU can student could ask for and I can’t submit that?
Consider this a write-in vote.
And yes, I know that invalidates Sosa’s month too
I’m kind of torn to mention him, because of the stupid ballpark that he plays in, (otoh, MLB approved it, so…)
Todd Helton, from April 28th to May 21st 2000 went .548/.622/1.097 with 8 homers and 18 ribbies. That was only 17 games though. He then went 0 fer for 3 games, before getting 15 hits in his next 7 games.
The total of that would come to .505/.590/1.021
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?share=1&n1=heltoto01&year=2000&t=b#369:395:sum
And finally, before I go home, Jeff Bagwell in 1994 from July 15th to August 9th :
.461/.555/.978 with 12 homers and 34 ribbies.
I think Frank Thomas’ 05/01/94 – 06/04/94 is the hottest ever.
David Schoenfeld wrote something similar on page 2 recently
Admittedly its divided by month, but still, some of those lines on the sidebar… wow.
I play a version of fantasy baseball we call ‘Powerball’. No pitching, start 9 players, one at each position and a DH and you get one point for every run scored, rbi and total base. It is a head to head league and you get a win or loss each week. We’ve been playing this game for 20 years and the player with the highest weekly score is Shawn Green. I remember because I owned him and I almost benched him that week because he was off to such a crappy start. It was the week of May 21st, 2002 and Mr. Green did this: 27 AB, 14 R, 16 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 17 RBI, 78 points. This is even more impressive because Green only had 6 games that week. I think the next highest total for any player is 65 points. So for the last 20 years I’m pretty confident Shawn Green has had the ‘hottest’ week of any player.
Mikey said “If you made a list of the 50 hottest stretches ever, who would be the guys that would make you say Where the heck did THAT come from?”
I don’t remember much else about it contextwise, but I remember Bernie Williams getting a hit in twelve straight plate appearances in . . . 2003? 2002? 2004?
Anyway, it was beautiful to watch. Three gripping days of summer.
As a DBacks fan thought I would throw this one out there as an unexpected hot streak. In 2003, Junior Spivey went down with an injury (don’t remember what) and they called up Matt Kata. Kata did OK his 1st 6 games going 4-17 with an 879 OPS but starting on June 23rd and ending July 11th, Kata went:
17 games, 387/439/627 1066 OPS with 4 HRs and 11 multi-hit games including a 5-hit game
That single stretch of games kept Kata in the majors for the rest of the season (and really for a few years after that) since his season-long numbers from that point continued to look outstanding but his career #s were: 242/296/381 and his minor league numbers were/are: 279/330/408
Sampling through b-ref (and avoiding the high-profile names):
Pedro Guerrero, 1985, Jun 7-Aug 9, 46 games, 401/500/904, 22 HR, 46 RBI, 54 runs
Here’s a fun one:
Rocky Colavito, 1958, Apr 27-May 27, 22 games, 174/318/203 followed immediately by May 28 – Jun 27, 29 games, 389/451/759
I’ll never forget this one…
Glenallen Hill, July 20-Aug. 21, 2000 — .448/.500/1.138, 26-for-58, 12 HR, 21 RBI, 4 dbls
As it turned out this was tainted by the Mitchell Report, but I can’t remember a bigger no-name having a better month. This included his last game with the Cubs and then his first bunch with the Yankees.
It’s shorter, but Brett’s final week of 1985, considering the context, may be the greatest week a hitter’s ever had. In 7 games, Brett went .478/.517/1.261, with 5 HR, 11 Runs, 13 RBI, as the Royals fought down to the wire and won the Division by one game, and his RBI providing the margin of victory in many of the games, during which they went 5-2 to clinch.
For your consideration:
George Brett, first half 1990: .267/.341/.350 (12 doubles, 2 homers, 302 PA)
George Brett, second half 1990: .388/.433/.673 (33 doubles, 12 homers, 305 PA)
Bo Jackson, 6/26-8/30/1990: 13 HR and 35 RBI in 88 PA (.324/.386/.919)
Granted, there was a DL stint from 7/17 to 8/26. If you go from 6/26 to 7/17 then you get a .279/.347/.836 line with 10 HRs and 28 RBI
I really want to see Bonds’ 2001-2004 adjusted for the 1930 Baker Bowl now
I’m not sure if there are any official records for most 3 hit games in a row, but beginning on May 8th, 1976, George Brett had three hits in a game for 6 consecutive games during which he hit a softball guy like: .692/.714/.846 1.560 OPS
I know, I know, small sample size and all that, but still…
JeffSol pointed out one of my all-time greatest pet peeves:
Brett deserved the MVP in 85 over Mattingly.
There numbers were comparable, but without Brett’s performance down the stretch, the Royals wouldn’t have even made the playoffs, let alone win the W.S.
Strangely, I never see/hear this topic debated.
Albert Belle – 15 game stretch in July 1998
29-59, 12 HR’s, 25 RBI’s
.492/.538/1.153
I remember that year as the one where Belle broke all of Frank Thomas’ single-season records while playing for a crap team, then left us and signed with Baltimore. What a turd.
Sidebar about that White Sox team from 1998: they may have had the worst starting staff of all time that year. 7 guys started at least 10 games and the best OPS+ of any of them was 95. Their best pitcher gave up 255 hits in 211 innings and as a team, they gave up 211 HR’s. Oddly enough, their bullpen wasn’t bad with a young Keith Foulke, Bob Howry, Chad Bradford, and Bill Simas before his arm fell off. But that starting staff – holy geez!
Correction – ERA+
But you knew that. Okay I’m done.
1968, “The Year of the Pitcher”: Frank Howard hit .371 / .430 / .853. with 19 HR in 38 games from April 26 to June 6 . Smack dab in the middle of these games was a 6 game streak where Hondo hit 10 HR in 20 AB. One of these was one of only two to clear Tiger Stadium in LF. He homered against Mickey Lolich (3), Sam McDowell (2), Dave McNally (2) and Denny Mclain among 15 total pitchers.
Brett’s 6 consecutive games with 3 hits is the best since 1956.
Here’s one:
Killebrew, 6/11/61 – 7/2/61, 22 games, 464/545/988, 12 HR, 32 RBI, 23 runs
What about Joe Dimmagio’s 1941 season when he had his 56 game hit streak. When he started the streak the Yankees were in last place and when it ended they were in first place. Do not know the stats exactly but that is pretty impressive.
J.D. Drew so far this June, since David Ortiz went out with his injury:
11G, 15R, 18H, 10BB, 6HR, 15RBI, 12XBH, .500/.604/1.194
He’s increased his AVG from .289 to .324 over that span.
Rod Carew 6/2/77-7/1/77
28 G .487/.531/.788
That man could rake.
And yes Brett should have won MVP in 1985 and the reason you don’t hear about it is because a freaking Yankee won the award.
What about that time Sammy Sosa hit 20 HR’s in June? He probably had a great OBP & OPS that month.
Here is an impressive streak involving my favorite player Freddie Patek:
8/7/71-8/29/71
23 G .423/.451/.536
Freddie hit just .242/.309/.324 for his career although he did finish 6th in MVP voting in 1971.
And some fellow by the name of Duane Kuiper had an 18 game stretch in 1978 where he hit .425/.440/.534, no home runs though.
Bonds 5/17/01 – 6/7/01
19 games
17 HR, 26 RBI, 23 R
.410/.570/1.279
How about Doug Mientkiewicz April 14 – May 14 2001
27 games .429/.514/.747. He carried the twins the first half of the year.
Dudes,
Any play that ends a game has a huge advantage. It’s about leverage. In a playoff or championship game is even better.
I’d want a play where both the offense and the defense were great. I’d want a play that was not just freaky, but rather a superb example of how the sport should be played.
The Tackle won the SuperBowl.
It was legal. It was a great play on the offensive’s part and on the defense’s part.
In a “game of inches,” these were the inches that determined the champion. The offense was great, and the defense was just great enough to stop the score. The defense is just a tiny bit less great and football history is different.
The Greatest Show on Turf becomes the Coryell Chargers.
McNair’s status is totally different. Jeff Fisher’s status is totally different.
The Tackle is the great play of all time.
Joe Mauer from May 19-June 10 2006:
.519/.573/.759
That’s gotta be up there for a catcher. Especially that .519
Dan Uggla had a pretty good stretch earlier this year – May 2-May 26: .416/.500/1.026 for an OPS of 1.526. He hit 12 homers and 11 doubles in 22 games, scoring 27 and driving in 26.
The hottest I remember any Jay being in the last 10 years was Tony Fernandez in 1999. He was hitting .414 as late as June 21st. The best stretch I can cherry pick is May 20-June 21, 27 games, in which he went 47 for 100 and hit .470/.522/.640 – only 3 homers though. Tony was 37 at the time as well and a career .288 hitter.
Can you neutralize Pedro’s ‘99 or ‘00 seasons to 1968?
I think any Bonds season from 2001 thru 2004 should be disqualified because it’s really not fair. Those entire seasons stack up against anyone else’s week or month stretch.
In 2004, Barry’s OBP was only below .600 at the start of 8 different games. And 7 of those came prior to April 17th. That’s bleeping insane. There will be no other season that will compare to Barry’s 2004.
One of my favorite ever “not quite good enough” teams was the 2001 Cubs. (They finished 88-74, 5 GB behind Houston). I remember Sammy carrying that team for several weeks at a time, even more than in 1998, to keep them in the race. Try this one on:
August 4- August 22, 2001 (18 games): .471/.525/1.200(!), 33 H, 3 2B, 3 3B (seriously), 14HR, 28 RBI, 1 IBB (only 1?),
Here’s some that are a little out of nowhere (and very revealing about where I live), and one that I’m surprised no one else has mentioned.
Paul O’Neill 4/4/94-5/29/94 (40 games) – .456/.562/.779 10 hr, 35 rbi
Benny Agbayani 5/11/99-6/7/99 (23 games (70 PA)) .429/.486/.905 8 hr
Derek Bell 4/12/00-5/21/00 (36 games) .404/.467/.610 6 hr
Bob Hazle 8/4/57-9/7/57 (28 games) .452/.523/.753 6 hr
Bob Hazle came up in the pennant race for the Braves, after having only 6 games to his resume, from 1955, and went on a tear to help them win the pennant. He pinch hit once, had a 1/4, and then exploded. He actually hit over .500 for 20 games or so. I almost with I hadn’t learned how to do this on baseball-reference, now I’m never going to leave that site!
And there was another streak Paul O’Neill had, but I haven’t found it yet. He had one horrible slump in the beginning of one of the Yankee Championship years, and then tore out of it pretty good.
Also…
Frank Robinson 7/4/61-7/28/61 (23 games) .455/.505/1.023 12 hr 31 rbi
or expand it to 40 games, 6/18/61-7/28/61 .442/.511/.952 18 hr 50 rbi
I wish I could do this for Greenberg and Gehrig and Ruth, and all the old timers. Expand the databases!
Chipper Jones from 6/13/07 to 6/12/08:
153 games, 684 plate appearance, 219 hits, 40 doubles, 32 homers, 116 ribbies, 119 runs, 97 walks, 73 strikeouts, and a triple slash of .391/.477/.645.
One of the best career cappers was Will Clark’s for the Cardinals, taking the place of the injured Mark McGwire:
Aug. 23 – Oct. 1, 2000: 353/441/716 with 8 HRs in 118 plate appearances
“Can you neutralize Pedro’s ‘99 or ‘00 seasons to 1968?”
You can do this on baseball reference by clicking the “Neutralize Stats” link above the actual stats, then pick “1968 Dodgers”.
Here’s Pedro pitching in Chavez Ravine in ‘68:
1999: 21-4, 229 IP, 336 K, 28 BB, 1.14 ERA
2000: 22-3, 230 IP, 301 K, 24 BB, 0.98 ERA
Prediction for Ethegolfman:
Matt Kata = Mike Aviles
I humbly submit Russel Branyan, 2008.
in 21 games:.306/.405 /.855/1.260
Fernando Tatis: April 23, 1999, third inning
2 Grand Slams- 2 AB 2HR 8RBI
1.000/1.000/4.000