FanPost

What dubious record does Kimera Bartee hold?

Mr. Bartee holds the highest batting average in a single season of any batter with 200+ at bats to have strikeouts greater than or equal to total bases in that season.* Kimera Bartee hit .253 in 1996 for the Detroit Tigers, producing 66 total bases against 77 strikeouts.

*I'm assuming he holds no other records; if he does and you know of it congratulations, I think?

While I'm on that topic, more fun with SO>=TB numbers. Like I said, this is for batters with 200+ AB in a season and it covers the period of 1901-2005. Also, it only covers a player's "stint" for a team in a given season; Jose Hernandez played for 3 teams in 2003, but only his Rockies stats show up. Fair? Probably not, but he should have hit better. Presumably someone could have done so horribly in a stretch of less than 200 at bats to push their season total onto the list, but I don't have those numbers, sorry. It would appear to take essentially a singles hitter with an awful contact rate to make the list though there are some exceptions.

Kimera Bartee doesn't hold the OBP record though; that honor goes to one Lance Blankenship of the 1993 Oakland Athletics who got on base at a .363 clip. You may notice he has the same number of strikeouts as total bases and if that bothers you, you'll have to be content with Jack Clark's .350 in 1992. The slugging record belongs to, who else, Rob Deer for his .386 in 1991. That low number makes sense since these guys aren't exactly hitting a lot of home runs (Deer hit 25 that year, by far the highest on the list - Reggie Jackson in 1983 and Dave Nicholson in 1964 were the only others to reach double-digits).

Only two players, Bill Bergen and Billy Consolo, accomplished the "feat" before 1960. Bergen did it in 1911 and Consolo did it in 1954 and again during his time with Washington in 1959. Consolo belongs in a select group with Darrel Chaney, Ray Oyler, and Gary Pettis as the only multiple offenders. Cheney pulled it off in 1969 & 1973, Pettis did it in 1987 & 1991, and Oyler holds the frequency record with three seasons: 1966, 1968, and 1969. Actually, Mark Bellhorn joins the list if you include 2006, as he did it in 2005 and that season. I'm not sure who else did it last year (though I strongly doubt anyone but Bellhorn did), however, and no one else on my list through 2005 played enough to qualify for my at bat criterion. If you go by strictly SO>TB, then Cheney and Consolo can be dropped off the list since their 1973 and 1959, respectively, featured SO=TB.

Only 45 (including Bellhorn and no one else in 2006) stints in baseball history since 1901 are on the list -- with the multiple players, that means 39 different players have made the list. As previously mentioned, Lance Blankenship, Darrel Cheney and Billy Consolo had seasons of SO=TB, but Larry Parrish for Texas in 1988 and Steve Scarsone in 1996 did that too. Bobby Bonds in 1980 and Dick Tracewski in 1968 both had one more strikeout than total bases. On the opposite end of the spectrum sits Darrel Cheney's 1969 when he had 26 less total bases than strikeouts. Perhaps more distressing is the fact that Gary Pettis managed to reach -22 (TB minus SO) over 394 at bats in 1987. His OPS+ that year was 53, and that was the year he didn't even win a Gold Glove (kick a man when he's down much?). The most at bats record is 448 belonging to 1991 Rob Deer; Benji Gil managed to top 400 AB in 1995 with 415 placing him second on the list. The least strikeouts on the list was 42 for Bill Bergen in 1911. His 26 singles, 3 doubles and 1 home run resulted in 35 total bases, for a paltry .154 slugging average.

I thought this might be interesting to be some people. If you want to know more or want the Excel file, drop me an email (just click on my name on here for my address).

P.S. Additional wacky tidbit: Kimera Bartee was traded straight up for Chone Figgins back before anyone knew who Chone Figgins was. He also managed to be traded by Baltimore and then picked by them in the Rule 5 draft within three months.

Update [2007-6-1 15:1:18 by TheJay]: I figure I should probably just add the whole list of players:


Bill Bergen................1911
Billy Consolo..............1954
Billy Consolo..............1959 (only with Washington)
Jerry Kindall..............1963
Ernie Fazio................1963
Dave Nicholson..........1964
Don Zimmer..............1965
Chris Cannizzaro.......1965
Ray Oyler.................1966
Jerry Zimmerman......1967
George Scott............1968
Dick Tracewski..........1968
Al Weis....................1968
Ray Oyler.................1968
Ray Oyler.................1969
Darrel Chaney..........1969
Darrel Chaney..........1973
Jim Mason................1975
Leroy Stanton...........1978
John Hale.................1978
Bobby Bonds............1980
Tom Donohue...........1980
Reggie Jackson.........1983
Gary Pettis...............1987
Larry Parrish............1988 (only with Texas)
Jody Davis...............1989
John Shelby..............1989
Jeff Kunkel...............1990
Rob Deer..................1991
Hensley Meulens.......1991
Gary Pettis...............1991
Jack Clark................1992
Andujar Cedeno........1992
Lance Blankenship....1993
Benji Gil...................1995
Billy Ashley..............1995
Steve Scarsone........1996
Kimera Bartee..........1996
Mark Johnson...........1997
Archi Cianfrocco.......1997
Ryan McGuire...........1998
Greg Vaughn............2002
Jose Hernandez........2003 (just with Rockies)
Mark Bellhorn...........2005
Mark Bellhorn...........2006