Sunday, April 7, 2013

MLB Trivia: Lefties with Lofty Averages

Among active MLB players, two of the top five career batting averages are by right-handed hitters: Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera. Can you name the three left-handed hitters who are also on that top five list?

5 comments:

Chairman said...

Man. Top lefty batting averages...

My first instinct is Joey Votto, since I'm a Reds fan. And definitely not Adam Dunn :-)

2nd player should be Todd Helton's still playing - he's gotta be .320 career.

3rd guess is Joe Mauer, who should be in that .320 neighborhood, as well.

Giambi had some huge numbers during the roid years, but also had some pretty low average years. Considered Lance Berkman, but he's switch. So probably not, given how you asked the Q. But most of the other guys were .270 hitters w/ lots of walks and lots of power...

Chairman said...

Hmmm... as I think a bit more, Ichiro should be on that list somewhere, as well, even if he's slipped a bit the last 2 seasons.

Greg McConnell said...

Chairman, per usual, your line of thinking is right on.

As of this writing, the top 6 career batting averages among active players are:

1. Albert Pujols .3243 R
2. Joe Mauer .3223 L
3. Ichiro Suzuki .3219 L
4. Todd Helton .3195 L
5. Miguel Cabrera .3181 R
6. Joey Votto .3156 L

Among active switch hitters, Lance Berkman is second on that list. Who's first? Victor Martinez.

Chairman said...

Wow. I would have bet that Berkman had a higher career average than V-Mart!

But it's interesting how we have so many players that are high OBP, but only .270 averages (or lower) - Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn are some glaring examples of guys with big holes in their swings, but draw enough BB so that you don't really care. Jim Thome's another guy who may be like a .400 OBP guy, but only a .270 hitter.

Greg McConnell said...

I just looked up the stats of the three guys you mentioned: Thome, Dunn, and Howard. If you look at their best years, those similarities are definitely there. But it's interesting to see how over time Thome has really separated himself from those guys.

Looking at this list of all-time OBP leaders, Thome comes in at .402, whereas Dunn is at .370 and Howard is at .363. And my guess is that both Dunn and Howard will keep dropping. Not a knock on Dunn or Howard, but a reminder as to how great Thome was in his 22 seasons.