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
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Today’s Sports Stat: March 3, 2018
Getting 100 RBI in a season is an important milestone in baseball. It not only signifies a player as a great run-producer, but 100 RBIs seems to be one of those stats that carry a lot of clout when we evaluate players.
There are, however, times when a player has fallen short of that 100-RBI season; in fact, there have been 91 times in MLB history where a player ended the season with 99 RBI falling one ribbie short of that magic milestone.
Last season, Cincinnati Reds slugger Adam Duvall ended the year with exactly 99 RBI, the only player to do so last season. He collected his 99th RBI in the fourth inning on the last day of the season and had two at-bats remaining in that game against the Cubs to get RBI #100. He had a bases-empty double in an at-bat in the sixth inning of that game, and then with a man on second in the eighth inning, he struck out, thus ending his quest for 100 RBI in 2017.
There have been six MLB players who had exactly 99 RBI in not only one, but two seasons. Jay Bruce is the last player to do so… he had exactly 99 RBI in 2012 and in 2016.
Here are the six players who have had two seasons in their careers with exactly 99 RBI. Also noted is how many 100-RBI seasons they have had in their careers.
Ty Cobb, 1915, 1922 (had seven 100-RBI seasons in his career)
Bibb Falk, 1924, 1925 (had one 100-RBI season in his career)
Lee May, 1975, 1977 (had three 100-RBI seasons in his career)
Kirby Puckett, 1987, 1995 (had three 100-RBI seasons in his career)
Sean Casey, 1999, 2004 (did not have a 100-RBI season in his career)
Jay Bruce, 20102, 2016 (has had two 100-RBI seasons in his career)
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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.
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