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The 300 Club

by John Brattain
November 16, 2007

There are a great many ways to evaluate offensive performance. Among the sabermetric crowd, there are BRAA, RCAA, OPS+, etc. Fans who are more traditional prefer, well, more traditional measures such as batting/on base/slugging average, runs and RBI. For myself, when I look at big-time production I have my own little system. It's my way of looking at middle-of-the-order hitters. I call it “The 300 Club” or the “triple-triple.”

It is pretty straightforward. In the interest of full disclosure, it is more a fun measure than a hard analytical system. The beauty is that you cannot have a triple-triple during a poor year. It requires a beast of a season offensively to accomplish it. A lot of baseball legends never enjoyed such a year—Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner and Frank Robinson are among them. A number of current greats like Ken Griffey Jr., Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Vladmir Guerrero are outside the 300 Club.

What is it? It is a season in which a batter hits triple digits in three offensive statistics: runs, RBI and base on balls. That is why it's the 300 Club: You need at least 100 in each of those categories. To have such a season generally requires that you get on base and hit with power. This is why it's best suited to examine a team's 3-4-5 hitters.

First, a little background. The 100/100/100 level wasn’t breached until Babe Ruth did it in 1919. During the dead-ball era, Ty Cobb came tantalizingly close when he scored 144 runs, walked 118 times and drove in 99 in 1915.

Ruth would be the only player to accomplish this until Lou Gehrig joined him in 1926, the year the Bambino was polishing off his sixth such season.

Since 1901, a player has reached the century mark in all three areas 175 times, with 68 players accounting for all of them. Since 1919, when Ruth first did it, there have been 26 seasons where nobody pulled it off. In that period, the longest drought was four years in—to nobody’s surprise—the 1960s (1963-66). In the 34 seasons spanning 1957-90, only 15 featured a triple-triple.

Since the strike, AKA the "silly-ball" era from 1995-2002 (prior to steroid testing coming into the game), 54 of the 175 300 Club seasons occurred. In other words, almost 31% of triple-triples achieved since the advent of the American League happened over an eight-year span. The three seasons from 1999-2001 had 30.

Not long ago it was fairly uncommon. From 1980-90 hitters were shut out in seven years, and save for 1987—when offensive totals spiked—only a single batter did it when it happened at all. In 1987, Jack Clark, Dale Murphy and Dwight Evans reached it; otherwise just Will Clark (1988), George Brett (1985) and Mike Schmidt (1983) enjoyed a triple-triple in that period.

Another note: Only once (1938), were there six or more 300 Club entries in a single season from 1901-1996. From 1996 to 2002, it happened five times.

Thirty-one players have accomplished the feat more than once. Almost half are 1B/DH types…

Babe Ruth (12 times, seven in a row 1926-1932).
Lou Gehrig (11 times, four year streak: 1929-32; five in a row: 1934-38).
Barry Bonds (10 times with a four-year run from 1995-1998).
Frank Thomas (nine times including eight in a row, two of them strike-shortened years).
Ted Williams (eight times including four straight from 1946-49).
Jim Thome (eight times with five straight years from 1999-2003).
Jimmie Foxx (seven times, three straight from 1934-36).
Jeff Bagwell (six times with five straight years from 1996-2000).
Ralph Kiner (five times including four straight from 1948-51).
Mel Ott (five times).
Mike Schmidt (five times).
Carlos Delgado (four times, consecutively from 2000-03).
Jason Giambi (four times, consecutively from 1999-02).
Edgar Martinez (three times, consecutively from 1995-97).
David Ortiz (three times, consecutively from 2005-07).
Gary Sheffield (three times).
Mark McGwire (three times).
Bobby Abreu (three times).
Adam Dunn (three times).
Mickey Mantle (three times).
Stan Musial (three times).
Dolph Camilli (three times).
Hank Greenberg (twice).
Charlie Keller (twice).
Eddie Matthews (twice).
Todd Helton (twice).
Lance Berkman (twice).
Jim Edmonds (twice).
Troy Glaus (twice).
Sammy Sosa (twice).
Harmon Killebrew (twice).

…and finally, once each: John Olerud, Chipper Jones, Albert Belle, Bernie Williams, Alex Rodriguez, Brian Giles, Rafael Palmeiro, Luis Gonzalez, Ryan Howard, Jason Bay, Travis Hafner Will Clark, Jack Clark, Dale Murphy, Dwight Evans, George Brett, Darrell Porter, Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn, Darrell Evans, Ken Singleton, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie McCovey, Frank Howard, Sal Bando, Norm Siebern, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Duke Snider, Al Rosen, Vern Stephens, George Selkirk, Harlond Clift, Charlie Gehringer, Mickey Cochrane and Hack Wilson.

The number of players reaching the triple-triple is dropping; in three of the past five seasons, three or fewer players have accomplished the feat. There was a spate of columns regarding Jim Thome’s Cooperstown unworthiness after he slugged his 500th home run. If the longball milestone no longer has any luster, well, how about the fact that only Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds and Frank Thomas have enjoyed more seasons in which they breached the century mark in runs, RBI and walks?

As I mentioned, it’s not an ideal tool for hard analysis, but instead another way of appreciating a player’s tremendous season or career. A year-by-year breakdown of the 300 Club can be found here.

Tune in every Wednesday at 4:40 PM EST on ESPN 1450's The Mike Gill Show and Fridays at 5:40 PM on “The Locker Room with Kevin Williams” on Fox Sports Radio 1310AM and 1160 WOBM-AM where I'm a weekly guest. For a distinctive Canadian flavour you can read my coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays (as well as other baseball matters) at Sympatico/MSN Sports. Also be sure to check out baseball’s hottest blog as mentioned by the voices inside my head: The Progenitor of Severe Gluteal Discomfort. Please forward all flames, complaints, whining, accusations about my mother, inferences of habouring an Oedipus complex, demands to engage in coprophagy before shuffling off this mortal coil, and anatomically impossible suggestions here.

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