The Diamondbacks lead the majors in triples with 31. That four more than any other team, the White Sox second at 27. Note that 31 is a lot. Since the lowering of the mound in 1969, the most triples hit by a team in a season is 79 by the 1979 Royals. (By coincidence, the top three totals correspond to the year. The Royals hit 77 in 1977 and the Pirates hit 70 in 1970.) Only 17 of the 1348 full team seasons in that time hit at least 60 triples. The Diamondbacks current total of 31 is the median for a team in that era.
Triples, unfortunately, are not tied to winning. Bill James, in one of his early Abstracts, correlated rank in a number of offensive statistics to rank in winning percentage, and found that triples were only ahead of stolen bases in value. That’s why over time, there is a steady decline in triples hit as a percentage of plate appearances. The triple, however, is an extremely exciting play. Often there is a play at the base. Often it will spark a discussion about going for it or not, especially if there is none or two outs.
The Diamondbacks are tripling across the board, led by Ketel Marte with eight. Five other players have at least three. A.J. Pollock tripled three times, and he missed half of the games the Diamondbacks played so far.
The Diamondbacks team record for triples in 56 in 2016. They might blow that one away.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2tZxUe4
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