2017 has been the year of the rookie 1st baseman

Phil Gurnee ♦ September 18, 2017 ♦ 1 Comment

Dodger fans know all about Cody Bellinger hitting 38 home runs and tying the NL rookie record for home runs but there have been a plethora of 1st baseman in 2017 who are hitting home runs at a staggering pace.

Rhys Hoskins is much like Cody Bellinger in that he’s a 1st baseman who has played a lot of outfield in 2017. He is also hitting a home run every 8.83 plate appearances. That would extrapolate to 63 home runs if he kept up the pace for a whole year.  Cody was on his own crazy pace of a home run every ten plate appearances but as the season wears on adjustments happen and he now sits at 13.05. I would expect the same to happen to Hoskins if was to get 500 plate appearances.

The one name that has really popped up in the last month is Matt Olson. The A’s traded Yonder Alonso and Olson stepped right into the breach and seems to be hitting a home run every night. Matt has only 192 plate appearances but already has 21 home runs.  Oakland 1st baseman have hit 44 home runs this year, Alonso with 25 and Olson with 18, not sure who hit the other home run but not going to research it because it is not important.

In a normal year, Josh Bell would be a rookie of the year candidate, as he has been the starting 1st baseman for the Pirates all year long and has produced all year long.

Trey Mancini is another rookie who goes under the radar but has put up solid to great numbers all year for the Orioles.

In 2017 eight rookie 1st basemen hit 169 home runs who played at least 10% of their games at 1st base.

In 2016 only four players using the same criteria hit more than 10 home runs totaling only 62 home runs.

Player         HR Year Age  Tm  PA  OPS    Pos
Tommy Joseph   21 2016  24 PHI 347 .813    *3H
Jefry Marte    15 2016  25 LAA 284 .790 375H/D
Dae-ho Lee     14 2016  34 SEA 317 .740  *3H/D
ByungHo Park   12 2016  29 MIN 244 .684  *D3/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/18/2017.

In 2015 it was 84.