BP Unfiltered

The Justin Ruggiano Club

by R.J. Anderson

Printer-friendly

Contact Author

Justin Ruggiano is having one of the league’s most surprising seasons. He entered Sunday with 245 plate appearances, a .324 batting average, and strikeouts in 25.3 percent of his plate appearances. Intuitively, we all know striking out more than a quarter of the time makes it tough to be a productive hitter, and nearly impossible to post a high average. Yet Ruggiano is angling to join an exclusive club of players with more than 250 plate appearances in a season, a strikeout rate above 25 percent, and a batting average of .300 or better:

Player	Season	PA	SO%	BA
Ryan Howard	2006	704	25.7%	.313
Josh Phelps	2002	287	28.6%	.309
Chris Johnson	2010	362	25.1%	.308
Bobby Bonds	1970	745	25.4%	.302
Wily Mo Pena	2006	304	29.6%	.301
B.J. Upton	2007	548	28.1%	.300

For fantasy and trivial purposes, the table below shows how those players hit the next year:

Player	Season	BA
Ryan Howard	2007	.268
Josh Phelps	2003	.268
Chris Johnson	2011	.251
Bobby Bonds	1971	.288
Wily Mo Pena	2007	.253
B.J. Upton	2008	.273

Were Ruggiano to follow the trend, he would not hit .300 again. He would, however, hit better than his .226 career mark entering this season.

R.J. Anderson is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @r_j_anderson
Click here to see R.J.'s other articles. You can contact R.J. by clicking here

Related Content: Justin Ruggiano, Ryan Howard, B.j. Upton, Chris Johnson, Bobby Bonds, Josh Phelps

1 comment has been left for this article.

<< Previous Article
Baseball Prospectus Ne... (08/31)

<< Previous Column
BP Unfiltered: Ichiro ... (08/31)

Next Column >>
BP Unfiltered: Nick Ma... (09/04)

Next Article >>
Baseball ProGUESTus: W... (09/04)

RECENTLY AT BASEBALL PROSPECTUS Playoff Prospectus: Come Undone BP En Espanol: Previa de la NLCS: Cubs vs. D... Playoff Prospectus: How Did This Team Get Ma... Playoff Prospectus: Too Slow, Too Late Playoff Prospectus: PECOTA Odds and ALCS Gam... Playoff Prospectus: PECOTA Odds and NLCS Gam... Playoff Prospectus: NLCS Preview: Cubs vs. D...
MORE BY R.J. ANDERSON 2012-09-06 - Painting the Black: September Roster Rules C... 2012-09-05 - Painting the Black: Chipper, Loyalty and the... 2012-09-04 - Transaction Analysis: October on Their Minds 2012-09-02 - BP Unfiltered: The Justin Ruggiano Club 2012-08-30 - Transaction Analysis: Does the Wolf Solve Pr... 2012-08-28 - Painting the Black: The Breakout Hero of the... 2012-08-27 - Transaction Analysis: L.A. Consequential More...	MORE BP UNFILTERED 2012-09-05 - BP Unfiltered: The Correlation Between Heigh... 2012-09-04 - BP Unfiltered: Throwing A Pitch In Anger: A ... 2012-09-04 - BP Unfiltered: Nick Maronde's Debut 2012-09-02 - BP Unfiltered: The Justin Ruggiano Club 2012-08-31 - BP Unfiltered: Ichiro Suzuki, Mountains, and... 2012-08-31 - BP Unfiltered: 'The Anthony Molina Incident' 2012-08-30 - BP Unfiltered: Is Stephen Strasburg Wearing ... More...