Today’s Sports Stat: June 27, 2018
Houston’s Jose Altuve leads the American League (and all of baseball) with a .345 batting average. Should the Astros’ second baseman finish atop the A.L. batting leaders at the end of this season it would be his third consecutive batting crown and his fourth in five years.
Altuve, with three batting title already, is among some pretty elite company. He is one of only 20 players to win three or more league batting titles. If he gets his fourth, he would become the 12th player to do so.
Following are the players who have won three or more league batting titles (includes from 1901 to current season).
12: Ty Cobb
8: Tony Gwynn, Honus Wagner
7: Rod Carew, Rogers Hornsby, Stan Musial
6: Ted Williams
5: Wade Boggs
4: Miguel Cabrera, Roberto Clemente, Harry Heilmann, Bill Madlock
3: Jose Altuve, George Brett, Nap Lajoie, Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva, Pete Rose, Larry Walker, Carl Yastrzemski
Altuve could also become the ninth player in MLB history to win three straight batting titles. Both Tony Gwynn and Ty Cobb won three of more batting crowns twice in their careers.
Here are the eight players who won three or more consecutive batting titles.
Wade Boggs: 1985-88
Miguel Cabrera: 2011-13
Rod Carew: 1972-75
Ty Cobb: 1907-15 and 1917-19
Tony Gwynn: 1987-89 and 1994-97
Rogers Hornsby: 1920-25
Stan Musial: 1950-52
Honus Wagner: 1906-09
Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat: November 21, 2017
Last week Major League Baseball announced its MVP recipients for the 2017 season. In the National League, Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton was selected, while in the American League, Jose Altuve won the award. Both were first-time winners.
Stanton was the first Marlins player to ever win an MVP Award. That leaves the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets as the only N.L. teams without a league MVP honor. Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt finished third in this year’s voting; the Mets did not have a player in the Top 20 of this year’s voting… Yoenis Cespedes finished eighth in the N.L. MVP balloting in 2016.
Altuve became the second Houston Astros player to win the MVP Award, although he is the first Houston player to win the American League MVP honor. Jeff Bagwell won the N.L. MVP Award in 1994 as a member of the Astros when the team was in the National League.
The Tampa Bay Rays are the only A.L. team without a player winning the A.L. MVP. The Rays did not have a player finish in the Top 20 of the A.L. MVP voting this past season; the Rays’ Evan Longoria finished in 19th place in the voting in 2016.
Stats on Tapp
Today’s Sports Stat: September 28, 2017
Houston Astros’ second baseman Jose Altuve collected his 200th hit of the 2017 campaign last night in Houston’s 12-2 win over Texas. It is the fourth consecutive season that Altuve had 200 hits in a season.
Altuve’s became the 36th player in MLB history to have four or more seasons with 200 or more hits in a career. Ichiro Suzuki and Pete Rose top the list, each with 10 200-hit seasons. Ty Cobb had nine.
Since 2000, Altuve’s four 200-hit seasons ranks in a tie for fourth. Suzuki has 10 200-hit seasons this century while Michael Young and Derek Jeter are tied for second with six each. Altuve and Juan Pierre each have four.
Altuve made his MLB debut in 2011. Since that season, he has 1,246 hits. That is second behind Robinson Cano who has 1,298 hits since 2011. Miguel Carbrera is the only other player with 1,200 or more hits since 2011; he has 1,236.
StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat-August 18, 2017
Here’s a trio of baseball stats for today:
- Brewers’ fans may notice a couple of familiar names atop the American League RBI list. Nelson Cruz and Khris Davis are 1-2 in RBIs in the A.L.; both made their MLB debuts as Brewers. Cruz, who is now with the Seattle Mariners, leads the A.L. in ribbies with 96. He made his debut with the Brewers in 2005 playing eight games and going one-for-five. He was traded in 2006 to Texas along with Carlos Lee for Francisco Cordero, Kevin Mench, Laynce Nix and a minor leaguer. Davis, who is with Oakland, has 86 RBIs this season. He made his MLB debut with the Brewers in 2013. He had 60 HRs and 160 RBIs for the Brew Crew in three seasons before his trade to Oakland in 2016 for a pair of minor leaguers.
- It appears that Houston second baseman Jose Altuve will win his third A.L. batting crown this year. He is hitting .362 this season, 42 points higher than his closest competitor. If he wins the A.L. batting title this season, he would become the 12th player to win three or more batting titles in the A.L. The others: Wade Boggs, George Brett, Miguel Cabrera, Rod Carew, Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Nap Lajoie, Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva, Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski. Of the 11 players listed above, all are in the Hall of Fame except active players Cabrera and Mauer, and Oliva. It’s interesting to note that the last player other than Altuve and Cabrera to win the A.L. batting title was Josh Hamilton in 2010.
- The Brewers had the day off yesterday and begin a road trip out west to take on three N.L. West opponents (Colorado, San Francisco and Los Angeles). The Brewers are 8-4 this season in games following a day off… that’s the good news. As the road team against N.L. West opponents, the Brew Crew is 4-3 this season. In the past two seasons the Brewers were 5-11 in 2016 and 6-10 in 2015 as visitors versus N.L. West teams… the not-so-good news for this upcoming road trip.
StatsonTapp
Today’s Sports Stat-August 1, 2017
Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve batted .485 (48-for-99) in the month of July. Of all batters with a minimum of 80 at-bats in the month of July in in a season in MLB history, Altuve’s .485 average is the sixth highest all-time. The others: Ty Cobb (.521 in 1918), George Brett (.494 in 1980), Ty Cobb (.489 in 1922), Tris Speaker (.489 in 1923) and Rogers Hornsby (.488 in 1923).
Since 2000, there have been six players (now seven with Altuve) who batted .430 or above in the month of July (again, minimum of 80 at-bats in the month to qualify for the list). The six:
Andrew McCutcheon (.446 in 2012)
Larry Walker (.438 in 2002)
Johnny Damon (.436 in 2000)
Gerardo Parra (.435 in 2015)
Delmon Young (.434 in 2010)
Ichiro Suzuki (.432 in 2004)
A quick note about Parra… he hit .435 in July, 2015 with the Brewers. After finishing with that average for the month, he was promptly traded on August 1 to the Baltimore Orioles for current Brewers pitcher Zach Davies.
StatsonTapp
Sports Stats 'on Tapp' 