August 16, 2012

BP Unfiltered

Because No One Else Would Drive Them In

by Geoff Young

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In our earlier look at players who were immune to scoring runs, reader blocher asked about guys who hit a lot of home runs but otherwise didn't score much. He mentioned Andre Dawson's 1987 campaign, in which Dawson hit 49 homers but scored only 90 runs.

That is a 1.84 HR/R ratio, which is low, but not one of the 10 lowest in history among batting title qualifiers since 1901:

A few observations:

• All of these hitters accomplished the feat in the so-called Expansion Era.

• McGwire's ratio is ridiculous, especially considering that he drew 101 walks that year. We have to drop to a minimum of 300 plate appearances to find a lower ratio (more on that in a moment).

• Two of these guys had an OBP better than .400: Bonds (.515) and Ryan Howard (.425).

• Two had an OBP worse than .300: Kingman (.284) and Pepitone (.284).

• Mark Trumbo is threatening to crack this list in 2012. Through August 15, he had scored 56 runs while knocking 29 homers, for a 1.93 R/HR ratio. Trumbo is the only qualifier this season with a ratio lower than 2, although Adam Dunn (2.00) and Billy Butler (2.05) are close.

Here are the career “leaders” among players with at least 2,000 plate appearances:

*Also appears in single-season list

To the bullet points:

• How awesome would it be to see a footrace with these guys in their prime?

• The career leader, Balboni, doesn't crack our single-season list because he qualified for the batting title just twice in his career.

• Balboni also is the guy with a lower ratio than McGwire's 1.48. In 1990, Bye-Bye scored 24 runs while hitting 17 homers, for a 1.41 ratio in 307 plate appearances.

• The one active player, Ryan Howard, would need to hit 80 home runs without scoring on any other play to beat Balboni's career mark.

• No seriously, a footrace would be awesome.