Currently Historic: Juan Pierre

Hello out there in the land of number minutiae! This week, we start with a comment from Richard Chester, who points out that Derek Jeter just set the single-season record for homers by a shortstop in the I’m not 37 anymore club. Jeterino currently sits at 12 and still has five or six weeks to pad his total.

I don’t want this to become a weekly tracking of Adam Dunn’s TTO pursuits, but I do have a lot of interesting TTO stuff, so I’m going to keep rolling it out slowly (once again, thanks to Paul Golba for the research).

Dunner, as you may have heard, cracked homer 400 this week. But that is, frankly, the least interesting thing about Adam Dunn this year. His 36/89/177 TTO line still represent a major league triple crown, something that hasn’t been done by anyone other than Babe Ruth. He is now on pace for 233 strikeouts. That would be 10 more than the record. He is on pace for 397 total TTOs, which would also beat the old record by 10. He needs just 14 strikeouts to reach 2,000.

But this is all a prelude to the next neat number I have for you. Right now, Adam Dunn is finishing 57.5 percent of his plate appearances with a walk, a K, or a homer. That would be the second highest percentage ever among players with 500 plate appearances, trailing only Jack Cust and his remarkable 2007 season. Believe it or not, this will be Dunn’s first appearance in the top ten. His highest ranking before now was 2004, when he finished 51.2 percent of his PAs with a TTO. That currently ranks 16th, though it will move down a notch at the end of this season.

Given the recent exploits of Billy Hamilton, I thought it might be nice to talk a bit about major league steals. I’ve been tracking a few players making a push for their 400th steals this year. Bobby Abreu was sent down, of course. And Jimmy Rollins (395) and Jose Reyes (398) are still working on it. Something I hadn’t noticed until, literally, this afternoon, is that Juan Pierre, in addition to being the active leader, just moved into the top-20 all-time in steals. He’s also only one behind Maury Wills for 19th.

Now Juan Pierre is not a great baseball player, but being the 20th most prolific base stealer ever, in this era, is something. That he’s done is in only 13 seasons, is even more impressive. And he has a huge lead over the next active player (Ichiro Suzuki at 442). Carl Crawford (432) and Reyes are the two players with the best shot at the active-leader crown, but there are definite questions about both.

I don’t know how long someone will keep paying Juan Pierre to be fast, but if he hangs one a few more years, he’ll move up the ranks quickly (though entering the top-10 will be tough with Honus Wagner sitting pretty at 723).

Aroldis Chapman saw K/9 rate dip slightly down to 16.52. What a slacker. However, that’s still the best ever for a pitcher with at least 50 innings. Craig Kimbrel, meanwhile, has a 15.80 rate that would rank him fourth ever if he had five more innings. It will be interesting to see who finishes on top.

The Red Sox are keeping at it. They’re on pace for 367 doubles. That’s just 10 short of the record. We’re running out of time here, but that record is still very much in-play.

ARod is still rehabbing. Here’s your weekly, don’t-forget-about-him post: If Alex Rodriguez gets back on the field (no reason to think he won’t), he’ll pass Andres Galarraga for fourth all-time strike outs, Ty Cobb for seventh all-time in RBI, and Tris Speaker for 11th all-time in runs. Sure bets every one of those. He’s currently tied for 15th all-time in HBP.

Derek Jeter had a great week, but he slugged too much for our purposes and still needs four singles to catch Honus Wagner. In the midst of his slugging week, Jeter passed Craig Biggio and is now 14th on the all time runs scored list. Next up is Mel Ott, who’s only 13 away. He is still three HBP behind ARod and Kid Elberfeld. He also needs hit into six more double plays to be 20th all-time.

Derek Jeter now has only 11 men in front of him on the hits list. He’ll likely pass Willie Mays in a few weeks, but he still needs 60 to pass Eddie Collins for 10th. That will likely need to wait until next year. Still, holy cow. He’s leading baseball in hits and he’s 38. If he plays everyday for two more years, he’s a virtual lock to move into the top five.

R.A. Dickey slipped behind Stephen Strasburg and is now second in Ks.

Ryan Howard now needs six homers to get to 300. That’s still one a week.

Jamey Wright didn’t hit anyone and still needs three batters to enter the top-20 all-time.

Jason Giambi is still three HBP away from Andres Galarraga for 11th all-time.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Trip across something new that you think I should be tracking? Let me know in the comments.


Jason teaches high school English, writes fiction, runs a small writing program and writes about education and literature. He also writes for Redleg Nation and both writes and edits for The Hardball Times. Follow him on Twitter @JasonLinden, visit his website or email him here.
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David
11 years ago

If “the shutdown” happens to Strasburg, Dickey shouldn’t have a hard time re-taking the lead in Ks.

I’m interested to see what happens to Jeter next year.  He and Chipper Jones are strongly linked in my mind (and in the minds of many, I would guess):  players on the two 90s dynasties, left-side infielders, both had MVP-type seasons in 1999, Jeter’s cup-of-coffee was the same year as Chipper’s first full season, etc., etc.  Anyway, I find it really interesting that they’re both having renaissance-type years this year.  While I know that, in actuality, they have nothing to do with one another, if Jeter keeps producing next year while Chipper’s retired, I’m just going to have to wonder if Chipper shouldn’t have given it another go-round.

Skippy
11 years ago

Test Chipper. He’s on the same stuff as Jeter!

Drew
11 years ago

Dead cat bounce for Jeter.

MikeS
11 years ago

Adam Dunn currently has 36 home runs 38 and singles.  Near as I can tell, the only qualifying players to finish with more HR than singles are Barry Bonds (2001, 73/41), Mark McGuire (1999 65/58 and 1998 70/61) and Babe Ruth (1921 59/53).  McGuire also had 29/23 in 2001 but only had 364 PA.

gdc
11 years ago

Would have been nice to put up Pierre’s total (585) to save a click.  That Fangraphs link didn’t have CS, but BB-ref shows 195, tie for #7 all-time with Eddie Collins (741 SB).  #2 active CS is Omar Vizquel (166 vs 404 SB), then Abreu at 128.

jj
11 years ago

Check out Brett Jackson.  He is already over 30 strike outs in just over 60 PA.  Who was the fastest hitter to 50 and 100 Ks? I’m guessing 100 would be pretty hard to do by the end of the season, but he’s going to hit 50 in 2 weeks at this pace.

bob magee
11 years ago

Jason,

A couple of updates on doubles this season:

Chipper Jones now 25th alltime (currently tied with MannyBManny) with 547.  560 is next threshold, so he will most likely end up #25 when he retires

Alex Gordon is projecting to 56 doubles for season – which will yie for 13th best season alltime.  57 gets in top 10 and 60 top 6 (and 1st since since 1936 to reach 60 plateau).  His pace is slightly up since AS break, so it is possible…

Finally – a few seasons down road we will see Albert Pujols challenge for all time leader in both homers and doubles.

based on current rate he hits both at slightly above .25 per game (or 1 hr and 1 double every 4 games)  Assuming he keeps up that pace and averages 145 games per year (143 games in 2006 only time below that level)he will be PADDING those numbers in the final 2 years of his contract