Carlos Pena is Pulling a McGwire
Once against thanks to a helpful reader tip, I am here to present a possibly interesting nugget of baseball trivia. Three true outcome hitters are known for their high power and high totals in walks and strikeouts. Principally, the high strikeout and walk totals typically force them to carry low batting averages and their high power usually means a high number of home runs.
One interesting offshoot of that would be a player going so far to the extreme that he actually hits more home runs than singles. How extreme is this? Well, the complete list, as best as I can tell (Baseball-Reference’s Play Index makes me figure this out circuitously) of all such seasons since 1901 in which a batter appeared at least 200 times and had more, or at least as many, home runs than singles looks like this:
1995 Mark McGwire, 39 HRs, 35 1Bs
1998 Mark McGwire, 70 HRs, 61 1Bs
1999 Mark McGwire, 65 HRs, 58 1Bs
2000 Mark McGwire, 32 HRs, 32 1Bs
2001 Mark McGwire, 29 HRs, 23 1Bs
2001 Barry Bonds, 73 HRs, 49 1Bs
Remarkable. I searched far and wide and could not find a single other player to do it since the turn of the 20th century. A few, like Frank Thomas in 2005, managed it in small samples, or came close like Ken Griffey Jr. did in 2003 and Eddie Robinson in 1955.
Well, we have something to pay attention to for the rest of the season because entering play today, we have this:
2009 Carlos Pena, 37 HRs, 35 1Bs
As if you needed another reason to pay attention to an AL East team.
Matthew Carruth is a software engineer who has been fascinated with baseball statistics since age five. When not dissecting baseball, he is watching hockey or playing soccer.
Since when does FanGraphs copy Baseball Tonight?
Since the Baseball Tonight guys started following Fangraphs.
(And sending in helpful reader tips).
I remember McGwire doing this continually and being amazed. In 2001, he actually had more HR than all other hits combined. His 29 HR and only 4 doubles that year was pretty Eddie-Robinson-esque.
Bonds and Mac juiced. Kind of obvious. The way I see it, if all you do is hit home runs, you can’t hit situational singles and you strike out, you suck. That’s how Pena and Ryan Howard are sometimes. Home run or a strikeout.
pena hit a game winning single the other day
Seriously. Who would want a home run when you can get a single?
Pena also leads the league in walks, jabroni.
But yeah, why get Pena’s power threat and good OBP when I can watch Juan Pierre leg a single out? THAT’S Championship ball.
The sad thing is all pena has to do to get singles is bunt a pitch down third with that excessive shift, automatic hit.
And yet players that bring on those shifts rarely do this.
Edmonds. At Fenway. 2004 WS. Worked like a charm. Only thing that did that year…
Cust has done it a couple of times this season
Pena has done it this year… 2 or 3 of his singles are from bunts
Ortiz tried it last night…finally
Bonds was hardly a TTO hitter, while McGwire and Pena were/are.
As for Cust, the guy is not only smart to exploit the shift, he is actually a pretty decent bunter.
He’s also got a shot at more RBI than hits, which McGwire did a few times (I know Buhner either did it or was close also – anyone else who’s been relatively recent?).
Buhner came close in 1995 (123 hits and 121 RBI), but his future teammate, Paul Sorrento, actually did it that year (76 hits and 79 RBI). Giambi had 113 of each in 2006 if you want to include as many RBI as hits. McGwire did a few times as you say, but other than that, you have to go back to 1955 to find someone else who did it in at least 200 PAs (Eddie Robinson again).
the amazing thing is that, except for 2001, McGwire actually posted decent batting averages.
Good article… and exactly, JI. McGwire’s swing was so short and powerful for a period of time. Out of the roiders who hit tons of bombs, I wish he had finished on top. Because he was a far better homerun hitter than Bonds. A homerun every 10.6 at-bats, while Bonds second best homerun total was 49.
McGwire hit 49 as a rookie when he was a pitcher in college.
Ryan Howard had 146 RBI while only getting 153 hits last season. In 2007, he had 142 hits and 136 RBI. So yeah, that dude will eventually pull off that feat.
Well, his season is now over(broke two fingers) and he ended up having two more singles than homeruns.
I confirmed these numbers in the Lahman Baseball Database. I also found a few others that had less ABs and completed the feat.
1959 Neil Chrisley, 106 ABs, 6 HRs, 5 1Bs
1996 J.R. Phillips, 104 ABs, 7 HRs, 5 1Bs
2002 Bobby Estalella, 112 ABs, 8 HRs, 7 1Bs
2005 Frank Thomas, 105 ABs, 12 HRs, 8 1Bs