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Mosts of the Decade - Hitters

By Dave Fleming

November 19, 2009

You hear it sometimes: Richie Ashburn had the most hits during the 1950’s; Mike Schmidt had the most home runs during the 1980’s. You hear it with Jack Morris all the time.

So who are the leaders for the ‘Aughts? Which player had the most hits? Who is second in homeruns? Who is fourth in Runs Batted In? How many players totaled 1000 runs scored? Who grounded into the most double-plays?

That’s what we’re covering today: the ‘mosts’ of the decade. We’ll start with the hitters.

Games

1.	Miguel Tejada	1581
2.	Bobby Abreu	1574
3.	Orlando Cabrera	1533
4.	Alex Rodriguez	1524
5.	Carlos Lee	1512
6.	Derek Jeter	1500

As a general rule I’ll be listing the top-five in each category, just to keep things moving alone. I listed six here because there were six players with over 1500 games played, so I thought it was reasonable to throw Jeter on. I mean, he hardly gets any attention these days.

Tejada’s total is the second highest in history: only Pete Rose, who played in 1604 games during the 1970’s, has a total that bests Tejada’s mark. This isn’t the last time Miggy makes a list.

One thing that’s surprising (at least to me) is the number of shortstops listed above: four of the six names listed played shortstop for most of the decade. Just when did shortstops become durable? Is it Ripken’s fault?

Plate Appearances/At-Bats

	Plate Appearances			At-Bats
1.	Bobby Abreu	6932	1.	Miguel Tejada	6263
2.	Derek Jeter	6923	2.	Derek Jeter	6122
3.	Miguel Tejada	6827	3.	Ichiro Suzuki	6099
4.	Alex Rodriguez	6768	4.	Johnny Damon	6006
5.	Johnny Damon	6767	5.	Orlando Cabrera	5957

Listing these stats together.

Abreu and Rodriguez, two guys who draw a lot of walks, are knocked off the At-Bats list by Ichiro and Orlando Cabrera. Otherwise the lists are the same.

Runs Scored

1.	Alex Rodriguez	1190
2.	Johnny Damon	1115
3.	Derek Jeter	1088
4.	Albert Pujols	1071
5.	Bobby Abreu	1061
6.	Todd Helton	1017

The only six players with 1000 or more runs scored over the decade.

On seeing his name at the top of the list, I wondered how A-Rod fared against Rickey Henderson. It turns out Alex does quite well: Henderson scored 1122 runs over the decade of the 1980’s, and over his best ten-year period (1982-1991), Henderson score 1146 runs. A-Rod is ahead.

Johnny Damon has ten seasons of 100 or more runs scored, and only twenty players in history have scored more runs than Damon has at his age. All of those twenty are either in the Hall of Fame, or they will be when they become eligible.

Hits

1.	Ichiro Suzuki	2030
2.	Derek Jeter	1940
3.	Miguel Tejada	1860
4.	Todd Helton	1756
5.	Vladimir Guerrero	1751

Ichiro, despite not playing in 2000, managed to top 2000 hits over the decade. It’s a rare feat: he joins Rogers Hornsby, Sam Rice, and Pete Rose as the only four players to top 2000 over a calendar decade.

Ichiro and Sam Rice are similar players: contact hitters who don’t strike out or walk too much. Both men were fast runners and outfielders; both men batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Rose, a switch-hitter, was similar: he didn’t have the speed of Ichiro or Rice and he wasn’t the natural outfielder that the other two men were.

Doubles

1.	Todd Helton	431
2.	Bobby Abreu	408
3.	Albert Pujols	387
4.	Orlando Cabrera	371
5.	Mike Lowell	366

Another record: no player has posted more doubles over a calendar decade than Todd Helton did over the 2000’s. Just for fun, the most doubles per decade:

1900's	Honus Wagner	372
1910's	Tris Speaker	367
1920's	Rogers Hornsby	405
1930's	Charlie Gehringer	400
1940's	Lou Boudreau	339
1950's	Stan Musial	356
1960's	Carl Yastrzemski	318
1970's	Pete Rose	394
1980's	Robin Yount	337
1990's	Mark Grace	364
2000's	Todd Helton	431

One more sign that Tris Speaker’s career record for doubles is in jeopardy. Albert Pujols is currently 92 doubles ahead of Speaker at the same age. Of course, Speaker had a string of 50 double seasons in his early thirties, so Pujols needs to stay ahead.

Triples

1.	Jimmy Rollins	95
2.	Carl Crawford	92
3.	Christian Guzman	82
4.	Juan Pierre	79
5.	Jose Reyes	73

I though that this would be the first decade without a player with 100+ triples. I was wrong:

Decade	Leader	Total	Players over 100
1900's	Sam Crawford	167	7
1910's	Tyrus Cobb	161	10
1920's	Sam Rice	133	11
1930's	E. Averill/Gus Suhr	114	5
1940's	Stan Musial	108	1
1950's	Richie Ashburn	82	0
1960's	Roberto Clemente	99	0
1970's	Rod Carew	80	0
1980's	Willie Wilson	115	1
1990's	Lance Johnson	113	1
2000's	Jimmy Rollins	95	0

Since the 1930’s, it’s been pretty rare for anyone to collect over 100 triples in a decade.

I’ve sometimes wondered if we’ll ever see a player collect 200 triples in his career. The last 200 triplers, Cobb and Speaker retired in 1928, and since then no one has come particularly close to 200. Currently, Reyes and Crawford are our best bets: they have the speed to leg out triples, and enough talent to stick around for a long time. But frankly they’re a long way off, and time isn’t on their side. Crawford is already slowing down, and there’s no telling where the career of Jose Reyes is going.

Home Runs

1.	Alex Rodriguez	435
2.	Jim Thome	368
3.	Albert Pujols	366
4.	Manny Ramirez	348
5	Carlos Delgado	324

Alex Rodriguez’s total is the second-highest decade total ever, behind Ruth’s 467 during the Roarin’ Twenties.

Over the decade, twelve players topped 300 homeruns: the five above plus Bonds, Dunn, Guerrero, Berkman, Andruw Jones, Ortiz, and Giambi. That’s another record for the ‘Aughts. During the 1990’s, eleven players topped 300 homers.

Runs Batted In

1.	Alex Rodriguez	1243
2.	Albert Pujols	1112
3.	Manny Ramirez	1106
4.	Miguel Tejada	1046
5.	Carlos Delgado	1045

In total, nine players topped 1000 RBI during the decade: the five above plus Vlad, Berkman, Carlos Lee, and David Ortiz.

I don’t know where else to put this, but don’t you think that Alex Rodriguez’s turnaround during the 2009 baseball season was the most startling image fix-job in recent sports history?

Think about it: late last year the tabloids were all over Alex’s crumbling marriage, his affair with Madonna, and the Yankees inability to make the postseason. Come February, news that he had tested positive for steroids hit the airwaves up, culminating in the publication of a book-long hit job documenting the weirdness of A-Rod. There was his tearful, awkward apology to Peter Gammons on ESPN, and a long month when every sportswriter took turns talking about how much Alex Rodriguez had destroyed our collective innocence. After his annual hemming about which country he should play for, Alex bailed on the World Baseball Classic, went on the DL for hip surgery, and got a new agency, ICM, to represent him.

Coming off the DL, with the Yankees middling along at 13-15, Alex hit a home run on the first pitch he saw, ignited the Yankee offense and leading New York to the AL East Title with some dramatic clutch hits. He spent most of the season ducking the press, only occasionally uttering those boring platitudes about teamwork. He got in the habit of using ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’ He started dating Kate Hudson.

During the postseason, Rodriguez hit .365 over the postseason, with six homeruns and eighteen RBI. Moreover, he played like a man possessed: he was aggressive on the basepaths, chippy with the umpires, and as focused at the plate as he’s ever been. He erased the ‘chocker’ moniker: his postseason numbers are almost exactly the same as his regular season stats. And he won: he has a ring. Even the news about his ‘centaur’ painting hasn’t gotten much traction.

It was fun to watch. I’m not a big fan of Alex Rodriguez, but it’s been some turnaround for him. Has any other athlete gone from pariah to hero as quickly as A-Rod did in 2009?

Bases on Balls

1.	Barry Bonds	1128
2.	Bobby Abreu	1038
3.	Todd Helton	1001
4.	Jim Thome	973
5.	Lance Berkman	968

Bonds also topped 1000 last decade, (1146). I haven’t gotten around to checking, but he might be the only player to lead the majors in a counting stat over consecutive decades.

Intentional Walks

1.	Barry Bonds	390
2.	Vladimir Guerrero	213
3.	Albert Pujols	198
4.	Manny Ramirez	174
5.	Todd Helton	164

The ‘Fear Factor’ stat: I generally hate sentences that start with, ‘So-and-so was the most feared player of his generation’ (see: Jim Rice), but looking at intentional walks is a reasonable way to measure which hitters were the most feared during the decade.

Certainly, I can’t disagree with this list. I wonder if Vlad has ever swung at a pitch during an intentional walk.

Hit By Pitch

1.	Jason Kendall	159
2.	Jason Giambi	138
3.	David Eckstein	134
4.	Craig Biggio	132
5.	Carlos Delgado	126
6.	Alex Rodriguez	125

Okay…Kendall is a surprise. Kendell has been hit by 248 pitches in his career, far and away the most by any catcher in history (Carlton Fisk is a distant second, with 143 HBP).

Kendall is fifth on the all-time list, and is three or four seasons away from breaking Hughie Jennings’ mark of 287 times plunked.

Kendall is one of the most unique players in baseball history; a catcher whose offensive contributions look like those of a middle-infielder: his ten most comparable players, according to baseballreference.com, are all second basemen and shortstops.

Kendall is one of just eight catchers with 2000 or more hits: with another season he’ll move to fourth on the all-time list, behind Ivan Rodriguez, Ted Simmons, and Carlton Fisk.

Stolen Bases

1.	Juan Pierre	459
2.	Carl Crawford	362
3.	Ichiro Suzuki	341
4.	Jimmy Rollins	326
5.	Jose Reyes	301

Juan Pierre…I think in another era, Pierre would’ve been a star. As a hitter, Pierre’s seasons are Maury Wills seasons: singles hitter, a lot of steals, few walks and fewer strikeouts, a good batting average in the good years. During the 1960’s, Wills was a star: he made five All-Star teams and won an MVP award, and was credited with the ‘stolen base revolution. His name is often brought up in Hall of Fame discussions.

Pierre’s legacy is, I think, tied to how much sabermetric thinking has crept into the game. He’s become something of a target for those of us who preach the merits of on-base percentage over ‘speed.’ Had he been born ten years earlier, he would have spent a career hitting leadoff for one team or another.

I think three of the players on this list, Ichiro, Crawford, and Rollins, will collect 3000 career hits.

Crawford is 187 hits ahead of Pete Rose, which sound more impressive than it is. He’s 30^th on the hits list at Age 27, but there are plenty of guys above him who didn’t get anywhere near 4000 hits. Still, Crawford is well on his way to 3000. Ten more years and he’ll be knocking on the door.

Rollins, who turned 30 this year, is a little more than halfway there…he’s at 1615, and players who are fast and can play shortstop tend to stick around. The only thing that could stop Ichiro from getting to 3000 is a comet striking Seattle. Even then…

Caught Stealing

1.	Juan Pierre	155
2.	Luis Castillo	108
3.	Chone Figgins	96
4.	Bobby Abreu	90
5	Scott Podsednik	87

Hey…Juan Pierre again! And Scott Podsednik! I love these guys!

Moving along.

Batting Average

1.	Albert Pujols	.334	6.	Barry Bonds	.322
2.	Ichiro Suzuki	.333	7.	Matt Holliday	.318
3.	Todd Helton	.331	8.	Derek Jeter	.317
4.	Joe Mauer	.327	9.	Manny Ramirez	.317
5.	Vladimir Guerrero	.323	10.	Magglio Ordonez	.316

The decade’s batting title was unbelievably close. Albert Pujols finished at .333657, while Ichiro finished a perfect 1-for-3 (2030-for 6090): .333333. The difference? Two hits. No other race for the decade’s batting title has been particularly close.

In case your wondering, every previous winner of the Decade batting title is in the Hall of Fame. From 1900 to 1999: Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Bill Terry, Ted Williams, Ted Williams again, Roberto Clemente, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn.

So Albert Pujols might be a Hall-of-Famer. Who knew?

On-Base Percentage

1.	Barry Bonds	.517	8.	Chipper Jones	.413
2.	Todd Helton	.436	9.	Joe Mauer	.408
3.	Albert Pujols	.427	10.	Bobby Abreu	.402
4.	Larry Walker	.421	11.	Nick Johnson	.402
5.	Manny Ramirez	.419	12.	Alex Rodriguez	.401
6.	Jason Giambi	.418	13.	Edgar Martinez	.401
7.	Lance Berkman	.413	14.	Brian Giles	.400

The fourteen players who posted on-base percentages over .400 this decade.

You know who the outliers here are? Joe Mauer: the only player on the left side of the defensive spectrum. All the other guys are corner infielders, corner outfielders, or DH’s. Okay…Alex wasn’t always a third baseman.

Nick Johnson and Brian Giles are the surprises, I suppose. Over his career, Brian Giles has the same adjusted OPS (OPS+) as Ken Griffey Jr., David Wright, and Mark Teixeira.

Slugging Percentage

1.	Barry Boinds	.724	8.	Todd Helton	.569
2.	Albert Pujols	.628	9.	Jim Thome	.563
3.	Manny Ramirez	.599	10.	Larry Walker	.562
4.	Alex Rodriguez	.587	11.	Lance Berkman	.559
5.	Ryan Howard	.586	12.	David Ortiz	.554
6.	Sammy Sosa	.570	13.	Carlos Delgado	.553
7.	Vladimir Guerrero	.569	14.	Prince Fielder	.550

The fourteen players with a slugging percentage over .550 during the decade.

Bonds’ on-base percentage and slugging percentages are records for any decade. Babe Ruth had a .488 on-base percentage and a .740 slugging percentage in the 1920’s. Ted Williams was .496/.647 during the 1940’s, .476/.622 during the 1950’s.

Well…Jose Mesa had a 1.000 on-base percentage over the 1990’s. Maybe we should put him on the list.

On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS)

1	Barry Bonds	1.241
2	Albert Pujols	1.055
3	Manny Ramirez	1.018
4	Todd Helton	1.006

Just being quick: the four guys over 1.000 in OPS.

An aside: for better or worse, I’d nominate OPS as the statistic of the decade. I don’t think it’s the best statistic of the decade, not by a long shot. But it’s had a significant impact, and it’s certainly caught on with the masses. And if the two players who led their leagues in OPS this year are announced the MVP’s, I’ll be happy about it.

Adjusted On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS+)

1	Barry Bonds	221	6	Lance Berkman	148
2	Albert Pujols	172	7	Chipper Jones	147
3	Manny Ramirez	160	8	Jim Thome	147
4	Alex Rodriguez	154	9	Vladimir Guerrero	146
5	Jason Giambi	152	10	Todd Helton	146

Adjusting for park and league contexts...Chipper Jones, who isn’t listed on either the on-base percentage or slugging percentages lists, suddenly shows up here.

Grounding Into Double Plays (GIDP)

1	Miguel Tejada	223
2	Paul Konerko	195
3	Vladimir Guerrero	191
4	Albert Pujols	180
5	Magglio Ordonez	174

Told you Miguel Tejada would make another appearance. Tejada, who is 105 double plays away from the record, would need about four full seasons to get to Ripken’s mark. He’s averaging about thirty a year right now, which is a terrificly terrible pace.

Much thanks, baseballreference.com for all the fun numbers. I’ll tackle the pitchers next.

Dave Fleming is a writer living in Iowa City, IA. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions here and at dfleming1986@yahoo.com.

COMMENTS (12 Comments, most recent shown first)

jollydodger
As an opportunity to include those who may be left out by these decade-to-decade stats, could a 5s list be compiled? (1995-2005, 85-95, etc.)
7:39 PM Jan 3rd

Robinsong
Liked the article. I think it would be fun to do more lists on sabermetric stats like VORP and Win Shares for the decade. When it comes to "outliers", Bonds should get a least a nod - his lead over #2 in OBA, Slug, OPS, and Adjsuted OPS are far larger than between #2 and #10. He led walks and intentional walks by enormous margins despite playing less than 1000 games. I too remember 2002 being a turnaround year for Bonds' reputation (short-lived).
5:00 PM Nov 23rd

Kev
Dave,

A quick follow up to the H suggestion: Wouldn't the sum of OPS+ and H produce a stat which would illuuminate OPS+?
1:31 PM Nov 23rd

Kev
Dave,

Thanks for writing back (twice). What I am looking for is a stat which best shows a player's offensive worth. Bill says Runs Created, you suggest VORP, but neither addresses the random factor which has such a major influence on all phases of the game.

I wonder if a bold face H might be included under hitting, e.g.
RBI Jones 4 (26)
H Jones 2 (9)
HR Jones 1 (6) (off Houtteman)....if none were hit hard the absence of the H would suffice.
etc.
etc.
The H would simply mean Hit Hard. It could be liner, grounder, hit, out, DP, error, even just foul-just an H with no explanation. My feeling is it would give some meaning or framework to the other stats already mentioned. While it would do nothing to affect randomness(nothing could) it would add some clarity to a batter's performance in the game. In addition, its simpicity should attract readers and could become quite fascinating, and even sought out (as opposed to:
SB Jones 3 (30),off Konstanty/Seminick, 2; Church/ Lopata). As the season wore on, the line would read: H Jones 2(21). Easy on the eyes, but of significance.
I think the leaders in H's would be fun to track, as well as to measure against the owner's other stats. I dislike a 3-RBI check-swing looper that hits the chalk, and elicits the inevitable "well, they all look like line drives in the box score." That's just it, they shouldn't. And, they DON'T even out, at least no data has been offered to suggest that a phrase so trite yet so frequently employed has any basis in fact.
And thank you for not pointing out that my post to you stated "3 things", but blithely listed (and numbered) 1 through 4.

1:24 PM Nov 23rd

ScottHam
Dave,
Enjoyed the article a lot.

I don't mind representing offense and defense in the same statistic. To me, that depicts overall value which is definitely an important factor to consider.

Likewise, that's why we have more than one statistic. Looking at defensive weighted statistics when a player's offense is in question obviously skews the conversation. There's many flavors to choose from. Sometimes you get the neopolitan.
11:05 PM Nov 22nd

DaveFleming
As for favorite stat...I dunno...I like Value Over Replacement Player (VORP). I like it because it gives some weight to defensive position, particularly catcher. To me, it matters that Joe Mauer hits .350 as a catcher; that he's head-and-shoulders above the other guys playing the position.

Bill argues that a player's offensive and defensive contributions should be seperate: his belief (I think) is that it doesn't matter if you're a shortstop or an outfielder when you come to the plate.

I think that's right, except for catchers. Catching is unbelievably hard: it is more physically demanding than any other position on the diamond. I mean, catching hurts how a player hits: I'm certain that Mauer or Bench or Fisk would have all had far better offensive numbers had they played first base. Look at Inge this year: he stops catching, and even with two crumbling knees he turns in an All-Star season at third.

So while I think Win Shares is a terrific stat, (probably the best one), I think it undersells the catchers. I also like Positional Marginal Lineup Value, which is another stat at Baseball Prospectus, invented by David Tate and Keith Woolner.
12:36 PM Nov 22nd

DaveFleming
Kev,

Thanks for the kind words...on the Jeter thing: I don't hate Jeter. I actually kinda like him.

There was a terrific article that came out in the NY Times: it said that about two years ago Jeter, wanting to play shortstop as long as possible, asked what he could to improve his defense. It was discovered that he had the most trouble going to his left, which is a common problem for right-handed throwers/hitters. So Jeter spent the last two offseasons trying to strengthen his left side; doing all this insane drills to get better at his defense.

Here's the amazing thing: the stats show the change. On John Dewan's system, he went from a -26 runs saved in 2007 to -8 in 2008 and +4 in 2009. He fixed it: he's gotten much better on defense.

I mean, you gotta respect something like that. He didn't need to do that; he didn't need to go and figure out where his game was lacking and then bust his butt to fix it. But he did.

And not to harp on, but my comment wasn't about Jeter - it was about attention the media gives Jeter. I was directing my comment EXACTLY where you want me to direct such comments.

To borrow from Quentin Compson at the end of "Absalom, Absalom!": I don't hate Jeter. I don't him. I don't.
12:20 PM Nov 22nd

monahan
As far as the SB thing, Ricky had 463 in the 90's, but Otis Nixon had 478. Other notables are Lofton 433, DeShields 393, Grissom 381, Bonds 343, Knoblauch 335, Biggio 319, Alomar 311, Lance Johnson 297, Coleman 280, Larkin 266.
5:12 AM Nov 22nd

Marinerfan1986
Your question about when did shortstops become durable? Whell Everit Scott held the consective games pladed record BEFOR "Columbia Lou" so I would guess shortstops were durable long befor Ripken was born much less before he plaed.
7:45 PM Nov 21st

evanecurb
Dave:

Thanks for putting this together. This is fun stuff. With respect to counting stat leadership in one category for two decades, you inspired me to go and look up Rickey Henderson's 1980s and 1990s stolen base totals. But then I realized I don't know how to find out who the other leaders were for the decade (Raines and Coleman in the 80s of course, but who in the 90s? Lance Johnson? Otis Nixon?) Anyone else want to take a shot at it?
4:03 PM Nov 21st

Kev
Three things:

1. Would you pleaase stop the anti-Jeter crap, and direct it where it belongs: the fawning media adulation for which Jeter is not responsible. He does not promote
himself. But you are in danger of turning into the opposite of Michael Kay. It only took you seven lines and one chart to get in a cute dig at Jeter.

2. You've decided to ignore the steroids thing, and accept its contribution to the decade since that's how baseball was played at the time. You (and everyone else who cares )are caught in the unpleasant web of listing fraudulent facts (but facts just the same) because "Baseball" has seen fit to do so, and so what else could you have done? The appreciation and awe that some numbers evoke is tempered by the PED issue--they don't thrill like .406, the 26-innning Spahn-Marichal classic, or 56-straight. The perpetraters have deprived an entire segment of the population of some of the joy of the game.

3. This was a tremendously enjoyable piece. Everything laid out. I think it's a splendid article, and will probably find myself referring to it often. Thanks.

4.You said OPS is not the best stat. Which then would you nominate to assume that title? I consider very heavily the randomness of the game, and therefore find it impossible to be satisfied with anything so far. Bill claims Runs Created as the best measure of a player's offensive worth, and he's probably right as far as it goes, but the randomness cur is not sated, and as arcane a stat's formula, the more difficult it is to use in everyday discourse. I like OPS+ which implies, but doesn't factor speed. What's your choice of an admittedly difficult group? And please do the same for pitcher's best stat as well. Thanks.
Looking forward to your pitching article--it can't come too soon.

3:16 PM Nov 21st

ventboys
Barry Bonds, in 2002, looked like he was going to erase most of his negative percentions. He set several records in the postseason, and only a miracle comeback by the Angels (thank you Dusty Baker) kept him from getting his ring. He was starting to joke around in interviews, and I remember writing that he was on his way to making a Ted Williams style transformation. I had/have always compared his personality to Teddy Ballgame, so it was a natural thing to notice.

Then the steroids thing happened....
11:10 PM Nov 19th

Mosts of the Decade - Hitters

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