Rookie mashers

♦ September 27, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

I should probably wait until the end of the year but I’m just blown away by the number of magnificent rookie home run hitters this year. It looked for a while that Aaron Judge had no chance to catch Mark McGwire’s historic rookie record of 49 home runs but Judge has gone crazy and blew by Big Mac.

Hoskins doesn’t even show up on my list because I set the criteria for 20 and he has only eighteen. Hoskins hasn’t hit a home run since Sept 14th and thus you stopped hearing of his daily most home runs in fewest games ever played. That has been taken up by Matt Olson who already has twenty-four home runs in just 216 plate appearances.

I’ll do more on Olson at the end of the year but the number of players in baseball history who have hit at least twenty home runs in less than 250 plate appearances is a very very very small list.

oh heck, let’s do it now. Below is the list of every single major league baseball player who has hit at least 20 home runs who ended the year with less than 250 plate appearances.

Player         HR  PA Year Age   OPS   Pos
Matt Olson     24 216 2017  23 1.003 *39/H
Gary Sanchez   20 229 2016  23 1.032   *2D

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/27/2017.

Told you is was a very small list. It should not be a surprise that each of them were rookies as the only way you could be on this list is if you were brought up late in the season, or started off hot and broke.

Below is the list of every single rookie in 2017 who has hit at least 20 home runs.

Player              HR Age  Tm  PA   OPS      Pos
Aaron Judge         50  25 NYY 661 1.040    *9/DH
Cody Bellinger      39  21 LAD 531  .948 *37/9H8D
Matt Davidson       26  26 CHW 432  .721    *D53H
Hunter Renfroe      25  25 SDP 463  .758    *9/HD
Paul DeJong         24  23 STL 425  .843    *64/H
Josh Bell           24  24 PIT 599  .790    *3H/D
Trey Mancini        24  25 BAL 571  .829  *73D/H9
Matt Olson          24  23 OAK 216 1.003    *39/H
Ian Happ            22  22 CHC 397  .832  847H9/5
Andrew Benintendi   20  22 BOS 642  .790    *78/H

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/27/2017.

I feel I know most of the baseball players who are going to impact a season and I had little idea that Paul DeJong, Trey Mancini, or Matt Olson would be having any impact much less the major impacts they have had on the season.

For context here is the list for 2016:

One seems different than the other.

Player                   HR  PA Age   OPS    Pos
Trevor Story (RoY-4th)   27 415  23  .909   *6/H
Corey Seager (RoY-1st)   26 687  22  .877   *6/H
Tommy Joseph             21 347  24  .813    *3H
Nomar Mazara (RoY-5th)   20 568  21  .739 *97H/D
Gary Sanchez (RoY-2nd)   20 229  23 1.032    *2D
Ryan Schimpf             20 330  28  .869 *45/H7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/27/2017.

How about 2015?

Player                    HR  PA Age  OPS       Pos
Kris Bryant (RoY-1st)     26 650  23 .858 *5/789HD3
Joc Pederson (RoY-6th)    26 585  23 .763       *8H
Justin Bour (RoY-5th)     23 446  27 .800     *3H/D
Carlos Correa (RoY-1st)   22 432  20 .857        *6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/27/2017.

One thing is the same. The Dodgers have had at least one rookie hit at least 20 home runs in each of the last three years.

3 Comments

  1. 68elcamino427
    September 27, 2017 – 10:06 am

    heh

    Heard on the street that the rules committee is going to replace the baseball with the
    Jai aili ball …

    The Jai Alai ball might be allowed to be constructed with a Superball center.

    I was in grade school when the Superball first came out.
    It was fun going in the back yard and bouncing the Superball off the cement patio and over the house into the front yard. Then when found bouncining the Superball on the street so it would go higher than the telephone pole.

    Like

    Reply
    • Phil Gurnee
      September 27, 2017 – 10:11 am

      Loved the Superball. Hey, you should read this about the danger your hummingbirds might be in specific with the feeder. Blew my mind because he have so many preying mantis in our yard.

      Like

      Reply
      • 68elcamino427
        September 27, 2017 – 12:19 pm

        This is a good one.
        The hills are literally just outside my backyard so we get many forms of wildlife showing up in the yard.
        I saw the first preying mantis this year a couple of weeks ago.
        Coincidentally, we found a deceased hummingbird next to the pool this morning.
        A very soaked hummingbird was on the feeder outside the kitchen window this morning too. My guess is the wet one on the feeder had been fighting with the dead one.
        Could have been the work of a mantlis hiding in the plumeria tree though!

        There are still about a dozen hummers hanging around.
        Maybe more. I have four feeders and they now require refilling just once every few days.
        Not daily as was the case when the flock was out in force a while back.

        On a side note, last year a striped racer snake was found poised and patiently waiting perched on a rose bush just below a feeder in the planter.
        No way of knowing how many meals he enjoyed before we discovered him and shooed the snake away.
        Striped racers are fast! He was over the wall and gone from sight very quickly.
        Never saw the snake again. It probably became a meal for hawk chicks.

        Like

        Reply

Leave a comment