Chicks dig the long ball per strikeout
29 January 2010 5:45 pm
A friend of mine was watching Nolan Ryan’s seventh no-hitter, broadcast today on MLB Network. One of the color guys – Tommy Hutton or Fergie Oliver – mentioned that the current Ranger hitter, Gary Pettis, was close to the all-time record for most seasons with 100+ strikeouts and a small handful of home runs. I don’t think the announcer clarified the number of home runs, but my friend sent me an email asking about such a record.
I pulled up ye olde Baseball Databank, one of the best resources around, and plugged in a query to show the players who put up seasons of at least 100 strikeouts and no more than ten home runs. Pettis indeed leads the bigs with six such seasons, actually passing the previous record holder, Omar Moreno, in 1990, the year before Ryan’s no-hitter. So it was all in the books by the time it was brought up on the air, but nevermind. What a glorious little record.
Five active players show up with two seasons meeting the criteria: Michael Bourn, Chone Figgins, Akinori Iwamura, Mark Teahen, and Michael Young.
| Name | Year | HR/SO |
|---|---|---|
| Gary Pettis (6) | 1985 | 1/125 (.0080) |
| 1987 | 1/124 (.0081) | |
| 1989 | 1/106 (.094) | |
| 1984 | 2/115 (.0174) | |
| 1990 | 3/118 (.0254) | |
| 1986 | 5/132 (.0379) | |
| Omar Moren (5) | 1978 | 2/104 (.0192) |
| 1980 | 2/101 (.0198) | |
| 1982 | 3/121 (.0248) | |
| 1977 | 7/102 (.0686) | |
| 1979 | 8/104 (.0769) | |
| Royce Clayton (4) | 2005 | 2/105 (.0190) |
| 1995 | 5/109 (.0459) | |
| 2004 | 8/125 (.0640) | |
| 1997 | 9/109 (.0826) | |
| Bobby Knoop (4) | 1968 | 3/128 (.0234) |
| 1964 | 7/109 (.0642) | |
| 1967 | 9/136 (.0662) | |
| 1965 | 7/101 (.0693) | |
| Lou Brock (4) | 1968 | 6/124 (.0484) |
| 1973 | 7/112 (.0625) | |
| 1971 | 7/107 (.0654) | |
| 1963 | 9/122 (0.0738) |
All of these guys with the exception of Knoop are speed guys: Brock you may have heard of, and Moreno, Pettis, and Clayton have 1,072 stolen bases among them.
Michael Bourn had a breakthrough season in 2009 with 61 steals in 73 attempts and 678 plate appearances, solidifying himself by May 21 as the Astros lead-off guy. Given that he also struck out 140 times and hit only three home runs, he stands the best chance of moving up this dubious list should he keep the pace.
To illustrate the depths of their futility vis-à-vis the longball, the average HR/SO ratio for people hitting more than ten home runs breaks down per decade like so:
| Decade | HR/SO |
|---|---|
| 2000s | .234 |
| 1990s | .241 |
| 1980s | .243 |
| 1970s | .253 |
| 1960s | .258 |
| 1950s | .346 |
| 1940s | .357 |
| 1930s | .402 |
| 1920s | .453 |
| 1910s | .247 |
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