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Hit or sit: guys who rarely do anything other than get a hit or make an out

Posted by Andy
"What?? Why should I bother walkin'
if sooner or later, the ball's gonna go right
through the first baseman's legs?"
- totally
fabricated quote from Mookie Wilson
Icon SMI
Most baseball fans have learned by now that a player's batting average is only part of the story. A good player needs to get on base by hit fairly often, but also needs to get on base by other methods. He can also help his team in other ways that don't show up as at bats.

The most common plate appearances that don't count as at bats are walks, hits-by-pitch, sacrifice bunts, and sacrifice flies.

In 2011, there were 7 players to qualify for the batting title with at least 20% more plate appearances than at bats (Joey Votto, Jose Bautista, Lance Berkman, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Carlos Pena, and Nick Swisher.) All of these guys had a lot of walks as well as a bunch of HBP and SF.

But occasionally we see a player who does very little of any of these things. Here are the players since 1901 who qualified for the batting title while accumulating no more than 4% more plate appearances than at bats:


Rk Player Year PA AB Tm G H BB SO HBP SH SF BA OBP
1 Ivan Rodriguez 2007 515 502 DET 129 141 9 96 1 1 2 .281 .294
2 Andres Thomas 1989 571 554 ATL 141 118 12 62 0 1 4 .213 .228
3 Andres Thomas 1988 627 606 ATL 153 153 14 95 1 0 6 .252 .268
4 Mookie Wilson 1983 663 638 NYM 152 176 18 103 4 2 1 .276 .300
5 Garry Templeton 1980 524 504 STL 118 161 18 43 0 1 1 .319 .342
6 Garry Templeton 1979 696 672 STL 154 211 18 91 1 2 3 .314 .331
7 Garry Templeton 1977 644 621 STL 153 200 15 70 1 2 5 .322 .336
8 Mickey Rivers 1976 613 590 NYY 137 184 13 51 3 2 5 .312 .327
9 Tommy Helms 1968 526 507 CIN 127 146 12 27 2 2 3 .288 .305
10 Don Mueller 1950 539 525 NYG 132 153 10 26 3 1 0 .291 .309
11 Virgil Stallcup 1949 589 575 CIN 141 146 9 44 2 3 0 .254 .268
12 Ted Kluszewski 1949 550 531 CIN 136 164 19 24 0 0 0 .309 .333
13 Don Kolloway 1946 500 482 CHW 123 135 9 29 0 9 0 .280 .293
14 Max Macon 1944 380 366 BSN 106 100 12 23 0 2 0 .273 .296
15 Gee Walker 1943 445 429 CIN 114 105 12 38 3 1 0 .245 .270
16 Al Todd 1937 534 514 PIT 133 158 16 36 1 3 0 .307 .330
17 Les Scarsella 1936 502 485 CIN 115 152 14 36 2 1 0 .313 .335
18 Jim Bucher 1935 487 473 BRO 123 143 10 33 0 4 0 .302 .317
19 Blondy Ryan 1933 543 525 NYG 146 125 15 62 0 3 0 .238 .259
20 John Leary 1914 552 533 SLB 144 141 10 71 3 6 0 .265 .282
21 Hobe Ferris 1907 583 561 BOS 150 135 10 56 0 12 0 .241 .254
22 Ossee Schrecongost 1906 351 338 PHA 98 96 10 13 0 3 0 .284 .305
23 Ossee Schrecongost 1905 429 420 PHA 123 114 3 24 1 5 0 .271 .278
24 Red Dooin 1904 367 355 PHI 108 86 8 25 1 3 0 .242 .261
25 Lave Cross 1903 577 559 PHA 137 163 10 17 0 8 0 .292 .304
26 Bill Coughlin 1903 490 473 WSH 125 116 9 57 5 3 0 .245 .267
27 Tommy Corcoran 1903 473 459 CIN 115 113 12 26 1 1 0 .246 .267
28 Billy Lauder 1902 504 490 NYG 127 115 10 53 0 4 0 .235 .250
29 Tommy Corcoran 1902 557 538 CIN 138 136 11 29 0 8 0 .253 .268
30 Erve Beck 1902 362 349 TOT 89 105 7 33 1 5 0 .301 .317
31 Candy LaChance 1901 564 548 CLE 133 166 7 20 2 7 0 .303 .314
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/5/2012.

There's a cap at about 25 for total BB + HBP + SH + SF for these guys. That's pretty amazing and results in very small gaps between BA and OBP.

There are several names on the above table that are new to me, but none more interesting that Ossee Schrecongost.

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