Oh yeah, I forgot about Ichiro. Ichiro wasn’t as good a hitter as Carew was but they were similar.
They were singles hitters, but they were great. Both Ichiro and Carew got on base and ran extremely well, and that’s an immensely valuable skill set. Carew led the league in OBP four times. A team of Rod Carews would score 1100 runs a year (at his career averages, not his peak.) I would much, much rather have Rod Carew than, say, Dale Murphy, Willie Stargell, or Andre Dawson, all more multidimensional players who didn’t get on base as much.
Remember when good players used to get called up in September, as a preview of coming attractions? No longer, since no team wants to lose a pre-free agency year on any young player who might actually be good.
Instead, we get September callups like Daniel Palka of the White Sox, who was a combined 1-for-45 in two stints with the parent club earlier this year. Since being recalled he has added a cozy 0-for-8, so he is now hitting 1-for-53 for an .019 average.
This got me to wondering about the lowest nonzero batting average of all time. Some half-assed googling reveals that Fred Gladding, a relief pitcher from 1961 to 1973, has the lowest nonzero career batting average at .016 (1-for-63).
But I am unable to locate the record for a single season. Does anyone know? (And if the record is held by a pitcher, what is the record for a position player?)
Since Gladding’s one hit was a single, and he never walked (!), he has the lowest lifetime nonzero OPS at .032, a record that seems like it would be really tough to beat.
Palka’s the guy, at least according to thisBaseball Reference search. I limited years back to 1920 and the player could not have played any innings at pitcher. Minimum 1 hit and all BA .030 or below. Adding pitchers bumps the pool from 11 guys to 74.
Doug Davis in 2004, is your guy at .016 if we count pitchers. 64 ABs, so he beats out Mark Redman in 2003, and Roger Craig in 1956, with 61 AB. Craig weirdly had 6 walks to go with his .016 average.
Looks like the .247 BA streak will end at 4 years for Khris Davis. It was looking good back in June/July but he has really fallen off. Davis is now at .218 for the year
Former St Louis Cardinal Dave Duncan loses his battle with brain cancer at 38. This one hits close to home for me. A good friend is fighting a glioblastoma. She was told before her surgery that , even with them removing all of it, she was looking at maybe 5 years.
Thanks, it’s good to know he’s chasing history. Or maybe I should say he’s already caught it, but he’ll almost certainly lose it. As a September call-up he’ll be up for the rest of the year and will almost certainly get additional hits.
He did however strike out as a pinch-hitter tonight (1-for-54), to keep the dream alive for another day.
Brian Moran finally makes it to the major leagues (the Marlins are technically still a major league team, right?) after 10 years in the minors. In his major league debut, he faces his brother Colin and strikes him out. It’s apparently the first time that a brother/brother match-up has taken place between a pitcher and batter.
I think, to be more precise, it’s the first time a brother vs. brother pitcher vs. batter match-up has taken place in the pitcher’s debut. And I believe his brother accounted for the very first batter the pitcher faced.
Right, George Brett would’ve faced his brother Ken several times in the mid seventies when Ken was pitching in the AL. And Joe Niekro had one big league home run…-against his brother Phil. I’m sure there are other examples of brother facing brother—just not in either player’s debut. (I think Colin was actually the second batter Brian faced btw)
I just happened across this story. The record for position players (minimum 50 ABs) is .056 by the St. Louis Browns’ Lyn Lary in 1940. He went 3 for 54.
I don’t think that’s the way that the announcers put it, I took it as the first time it’s ever happened period. But announcers can be wrong about stuff and my Google-fu isn’t good enough to find any other instances. It kind of makes sense to me, when I think about brothers that played in the MLB, most of them are position players. The Niekro and Reuschel brothers are about the only ones I can think of that were pitchers. It’s possible that one of those had a pitcher/batter matchup at some point.
The brother was actually the second batter he faced (the link didn’t show the AB from the first batter faced, but he got him out). But it was his first career MLB strikeout.
I forgot about the Brett boys, and now that you mention it that story about the Niekro boys rings a bell. That’s what I get for believing something I hear on TV.
