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Five fascinating Chuck Knoblauch facts @chuckknoblauch

Posted by Andy
This post is a blatant attempt to get Chuck Knoblauch to retweet.. Recently I realized that he follows High Heat Stats on Twitter so I'm hoping he'll retweet this post to his followers. You can help by retweeting this as well.

Without further delay here are five fascinating Chuck Knoblauch facts:


1. Knoblauch was by far the best second baseman in MLB over 1995-1996

Here are the the 2B with at least 200 games played over those 2 years:

Rk Player OPS+ Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Chuck Knoblauch 140 26-27 289 1330 1116 247 376 69 22 24 135 176 169 91 32 .337 .437 .503 .940
2 Craig Biggio 130 29-30 303 1396 1158 236 341 54 6 37 152 155 157 58 15 .294 .396 .447 .843
3 Roberto Alomar 124 27-28 283 1276 1105 203 348 67 11 35 160 137 110 47 9 .315 .385 .490 .876
4 Eric Young 102 28-29 261 1067 934 181 300 44 13 14 110 96 60 88 31 .321 .397 .441 .838
5 Luis Alicea 93 29-30 261 958 799 118 211 46 6 11 86 115 139 24 13 .264 .359 .378 .737
6 Carlos Baerga 91 26-27 261 1144 1064 146 304 56 2 27 156 56 58 12 3 .286 .326 .418 .744
7 Joey Cora 91 30-31 264 1070 957 154 281 56 8 9 84 72 63 23 12 .294 .348 .397 .745
8 Ray Durham 90 23-24 281 1156 1028 147 274 60 11 17 116 89 178 48 9 .267 .331 .396 .727
9 Mike Lansing 88 27-28 286 1207 1108 146 302 70 4 21 115 72 150 50 12 .273 .323 .400 .723
10 Mark McLemore 88 30-31 276 1153 984 157 272 43 9 10 87 146 140 48 21 .276 .369 .369 .738
11 Mickey Morandini 87 29-30 267 1156 1033 129 275 58 13 9 81 91 167 35 11 .266 .335 .374 .708
12 Bret Boone 81 26-27 280 1138 1033 119 258 55 5 27 137 72 184 8 3 .250 .301 .391 .692
13 Fernando Vina 80 26-27 253 940 842 140 231 26 17 10 75 60 63 22 10 .274 .337 .381 .718
14 Delino DeShields 77 26-27 281 1135 1006 141 239 30 11 13 78 116 207 87 25 .238 .316 .328 .644
15 Jody Reed 76 32-33 277 1083 940 103 235 38 1 6 89 118 91 8 9 .250 .336 .312 .648
16 Mark Lemke 72 29-30 251 1015 897 106 228 33 5 10 75 97 88 7 4 .254 .324 .336 .660
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/3/2011.

Knoblauch led by a lot in OPS+ and also led in hits, runs, doubles, triples, walks, stolen bases, batting average, OBP, and SLG. Yeah...he was the best. He didn't even get an All-Star selection in 1995!

2. Knoblauch posted a rare 140 OPS+, 10 triple, 10 homer season for a 2B.

Since 1901, very few second baseman have ever posted a season with at least 10 triples, 10 homers, and an OPS+ of at least 140:

Rk Player Year OPS+ 3B HR Tm
1 Roberto Alomar 2001 150 12 20 CLE
2 Chuck Knoblauch 1996 143 14 13 MIN
3 Jackie Robinson 1949 151 12 16 BRO
4 Snuffy Stirnweiss 1945 144 22 10 NYY
5 Bobby Doerr 1944 165 10 15 BOS
6 Charlie Gehringer 1936 142 12 15 DET
7 Tony Lazzeri 1929 159 11 18 NYY
8 George Grantham 1929 140 10 12 PIT
9 Tony Lazzeri 1928 145 11 10 NYY
10 Rogers Hornsby 1925 209 10 39 STL
11 Rogers Hornsby 1924 222 14 25 STL
12 Rogers Hornsby 1923 187 10 17 STL
13 Rogers Hornsby 1922 207 14 42 STL
14 Rogers Hornsby 1921 191 18 21 STL
15 Duke Kenworthy 1914 157 14 15 KCP
16 Larry Doyle 1911 154 25 13 NYG
17 Nap Lajoie 1901 200 14 14 PHA
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/3/2011.

How would you like your name sandwiched between Alomar and Jackie Robinson? Not bad. Lotsa HOFers on this list aside from those two: Doerr, Gehringer, Lazzeri, Hornsby, and Lajoie.

The one guy you've probably never heard of is Duke Kenworthy, who appeared in what we consider the major leagues in just 4 seasons, and was in the Federal League in 1914.

3. Knoblauch had 4 multi-homer games

Despite hitting only 98 career homers, Knoblauch had 4 multi-HR games:

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI WPA BOP Pos. Summary
1 2001-09-22 NYY BAL L 2-11 4 4 2 2 0 0 2 2 -0.026 1 LF
2 1998-08-03 NYY OAK W 14-1 5 5 3 3 1 0 2 5 0.167 1 2B
3 1996-07-06 MIN KCR L 5-8 4 4 2 3 0 0 2 4 0.152 1 2B
4 1994-06-05 MIN DET L 3-5 4 4 2 2 0 0 2 2 0.297 1 2B
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/3/2011.

Amazingly, his team lost 3 out of 4 of those games.

4. Knoblauch crushed the team he finished with, the Royals.

Over his career, Knoblauch hit the Royals hard. He performed the best against them out of all the teams he played at least 100 games against:

I Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip tOPS+
Anaheim Angels 106 472 405 69 121 15 2 4 41 .299 .394 .375 .769 152 .334 97
Baltimore Orioles 126 554 492 93 142 36 1 7 48 .289 .360 .409 .768 201 .309 96
Boston Red Sox 132 597 529 87 149 27 9 8 59 .282 .352 .412 .764 218 .311 95
Chicago White Sox 125 552 469 85 130 22 5 3 39 .277 .379 .365 .743 171 .300 90
Cleveland Indians 126 593 514 89 145 26 3 4 48 .282 .367 .368 .734 189 .311 88
Detroit Tigers 124 575 488 95 154 24 4 10 56 .316 .407 .443 .850 216 .333 117
Kansas City Royals 113 505 424 83 137 18 13 7 52 .323 .427 .476 .903 202 .346 130
Oakland Athletics 108 503 424 84 133 25 3 13 63 .314 .397 .479 .876 203 .315 123
Seattle Mariners 104 481 424 74 106 18 4 7 35 .250 .331 .361 .692 153 .277 76
Texas Rangers 118 528 457 91 137 25 4 11 40 .300 .385 .444 .829 203 .309 111
Toronto Blue Jays 128 572 497 78 144 30 7 4 36 .290 .378 .402 .780 200 .330 99
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/3/2011.

Check out that tOPS+ of 130--pretty stilted.

It's too bad that Knoblauch joined the Royals at the end of his career, because it wasn't Kaufman Stadium that produced his good numbers--it was his performance against the Royals' pitchers. At Kaufman Stadium over his entire career, he had just a .737 OPS and 88 tOPS+

4. Knoblauch had four infield triples.

I Split G GS PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI
To Infield 1380 2701 2681 308 13 3 0 92
To Outfield 1422 2897 2841 1516 307 61 98 503
Ball In Play 1606 5615 5539 1742 322 64 1 451
Not in Play 1119 1770 827 97 0 0 97 164
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/3/2011.

From the "weird but true" file, Knoblauch hit 3 infield triples. I have no idea how that happens.

Note, too, that he had 98 homers on balls hit to the outfield, but only 97 homers on balls out of play. That means he must have hit one inside-the-park homer.

5. Opposition should never have let Knoblauch hit twice against a relief pitcher.

Like every other player, Knoblauch hit a bit below his career averages the first time facing a relief pitcher in a game (since this includes a lot of plate appearances against closers). But check out his stats the second time facing a reliever in a game:

Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip
vs. RP, 1st 1238 1911 1584 277 423 74 19 13 192 260 206 .267 .381 .362 .743 574 .296
vs. RP, 2nd 180 182 148 30 52 14 2 4 23 26 10 .351 .462 .554 1.016 82 .353
vs. RP, 3rd+ 8 8 7 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .429 .500 .429 .929 3 .429
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/3/2011.

Yowza.