THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Times On Base v Hits

There have been 469 times a batter got at least 200 hits since 1901.  There have been 466 times that a batter reached base at least 278 times (thank you b-r.com).  Yes, I know, “278” is not as snazzy.  I’m only interested in showing the equivalent rarity.

n Player
13 Lou Gehrig

10 Babe Ruth
10 Stan Musial
10 Ted Williams

9 Barry Bonds
9 Pete Rose

8 Jimmie Foxx
8 Rogers Hornsby

7 Alex Rodriguez
7 Bobby Abreu
7 Frank Thomas
7 Paul Waner
7 Todd Helton
7 Wade Boggs

6 Charlie Gehringer
6 Jeff Bagwell
6 Mel Ott

5 Albert Pujols
5 Eddie Collins
5 Eddie Yost
5 Edgar Martinez
5 Ichiro Suzuki
5 Jason Giambi
5 Ty Cobb

Please, shove hits out the window.  Walks count.  Getting hit by a pitch counts.

Please, shove all the hits-only talk out the window.  Walks also count.  Getting hit by a pitch counts.  Hits count.  It’s about getting on base.  Yes, hits matter.  But, getting on base matters more.