Power Mix

There seems to be very little news in the world of baseball today. On days like this, I like to think about triples. So who hit the most triples in the last ten years? Here is the list of everyone with at least 40 doubles in that time. That’s 26 players, with Jose Reyes leading the pack with 81. Just eight triples a season! I would have thought with offense down a bit during the last decade, maybe players might start stretching more doubles into triples, but that does not seem to be the case.

Looking at the list, it is clear that home runs and triples don’t mix well. In fact, there are only three players on the list with at least 200 doubles, 40 triples, and 200 home runs, Curtis Granderson, Hunter Pence, and Ryan Braun. Granderson may have the best power mix in this time span, with 245 doubles, 76 triples, and 266 home runs.

Note also that the trio represents 3/4 of the players on the 40 triples list who struck out at least 1000 times. Triples hitters tend to make contact. Michael Bourn is the outlier here with over 1000 K, but a very low home run total, just 36. Bourn likely could have put up much higher averages if he concentrated on contact.

At the other end of the spectrum are the big doubles and home runs hitters. Only ten players collected at least 300 of each in the last ten seasons, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, and David Ortiz. They combined to hit well over 1900 doubles + homers, but only 21 triples. Note also that they appear to be smart base runners, as Cabrera and Pujols posted good stolen base percentages, while Ortiz was successful more times than he was caught. I suspect they only went for the third base on a hit when they absolutely could make it.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2jEZ8yE