In 2006 and again in 2009, Albert Pujols had more homers, more RBI and a higher batting average than Carl Yastrzemski had in 1967.     Yaz won the Triple Crown and nobody has since, but on some level it is unarguable that Pujols’ Triple Crown numbers are better than Yastrzemski’s.    The disappearance of Triple Crowns is not due to the disappearance of players having Triple Crown numbers; rather, it is due to the abundance of players having Triple Crown numbers.

                Or not; we can debate that another time.   We can debate it better if we have a tool to determine objectively how good a player’s Triple Crown numbers are.    Comparing Mickey Mantle in 1956 and Joltin’ Joe in 1937, Mantle had six more homers (52-46) and a small edge in batting average (.353-.346), but the Clipper whomped Mantle bad in RBI (167-130).   Who had "better" Triple Crown numbers?    Are six homers and seven points in batting average more important than 37 RBI, or less?

                Comparing Manny Ramirez, 1999, with Barry Bonds in 2001, Bonds had far more homers (73-44), but Ramirez had far more RBI (165-137) and a slightly higher batting average (.333-.328).   Who has better Triple Crown numbers?    Comparing Willie Mays in 1955 with Mickey Mantle in 1961, Mantle had three more homers (54-51) and one more RBI (128-127), but Mays had a higher batting average (.319-.317).   Comparing Carlos Gonzalez and Josh Hamilton in 2009, Gonzalez had more homers (34-32) and RBI (117-100), but Hamilton’s average was 23 points higher (.359-.336).   Who had better Triple Crown numbers?    Or what about Joey Votto (37-113-.324); maybe he had the best Triple Crown numbers of the three? 

                Mr. Pudjells in 2006 had better triple crown numbers than Yaz in ’67, but did he have the best Triple Crown totals in the league (Pujols:  49, 137, .331; Ryan Howard:  58, 144, .313)?

                OK, we get the point, James.   Move on with your argument.

                A system to evaluate a set of Triple Crown numbers, it seems to me, should be simple, intuitive, and should correlate with a player’s chance to win the Triple Crown.    If Miggy has a Triple Crown score of 725 and Prince has a Triple Crown score of 750, Prince should have a better chance to win the Triple Crown than Miggy.   How do we make that happen?

                300 points for homers, 300 for RBI, 400 for batting average.  

                A player’s Triple Crown score is:

                Six times his home runs, up to a limit of 300, plus

                Two times his RBI, up to a limit of 300, plus

                Two for each point of batting average over .200, up to a limit of 400.

                There is no player in major league history who has hit .400 with 50 homers and 150 RBI—thus, no player with a Triple Crown score of 1000.   The highest Triple Crown Score ever is. . .. .oops, getting ahead of m’self there.

                There are 36 players in history who have hit more than 50 homers in a season.    There are 42 players who have driven in more than 150 runs in a season, and there are 27 players who have hit higher than .400 as a regular.    I point this out in case you are wondering how many players have off-the-charts accomplishments in the Triple Crown categories.   It’s about the same in each category—36, 42, 27.    How far you are above the standards is not very relevant for your chance of winning the Triple Crown, because once you get to 150 RBI, you’ve pretty much locked up the league lead, in most cases.   1930 was an exception, and we’ll deal with that when we get to it. 

                Of course you can set up the scales in some different way, but. . .this is the way I set them up.   OK, the highest Triple Crown Score ever is 956, by Babe Ruth in 1921.   Ruth hit 59 homers (300 points), drove in 171 runs (300 points) and hit .378 (356 points).   That’s a Triple Crown Score of 956, the highest ever, although Ruth did not actually win the Triple Crown.

                All of the highest scores ever were in the Babe Ruth era, 1920 to 1946.   The top 19 scores of all time are all in that era—in fact, all between 1920 and 1938.    These are the top 19:

                Six players account for those 19 seasons; four players—Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx and Hornsby—account for 17 of the top 19 Triple Crown Scores of all time.   The highest Triple Crown Score of all time that wasn’t from that era was by Todd Helton in 2000—42 homers, 147 RBI, .372.   The top ten Triple Crown Scores which are not from the Babe Ruth era:

                Six of those ten seasons are from the steroid era, so I’ll give you a list of the top ten Triple Crown Scores which are not from the Babe Ruth era and not from the steroid era, either:

                Mantle is the only one of those guys who actually won the Triple Crown, although several of the other guys just missed the Triple Crown by one home run or one hit.   Actually, that list is pretty interesting (to me, that’s who), so I’m going to pick that one up and show you numbers 11 through 60:

                Those are more interesting because those are mostly memorable seasons, many of them MVP seasons—as contrasted with the steroid era, when so many players had eye-popping numbers that we were all left with no eyeballs.    A few notes (quite a few, actually):

                a)  By the method I established (and believe in), Frank Robby’s Triple Crown numbers are more impressive in 1962, when he didn’t win the Triple Crown, than in 1966, when he did.   He hit ten more homers in 1966 (49-39), but drove in 20 more runs and hit for 26 points more in batting average in 1962. 

                b)  Mark McGwire in 1998 had the greatest Triple Crown numbers ever for a player who didn’t hit .300—70 homers, 147 RBI, .299.

                c)  Hugh Duffy in 1894 had the greatest Triple Crown numbers ever for a player who didn’t hit 20 homers—18 homers, 144 RBI, batting average still being calculated. . ..somewhere in the .435-.440 range.

                d)  Ed Delahanty in 1899 had the greatest Triple Crown numbers for a player who didn’t even hit 10 homers—9 homers, 137 RBI, .410.

                e)  Ted Williams in 1957 had the greatest Triple Crown numbers for a player who didn’t drive in 100 runs—38 homers, 87 RBI, .388. 

                f)  Mike Piazza in 1997 had the greatest Triple Crown numbers ever for a catcher—40 homers, 124 RBI, .362.   Roy Campanella in 1953 had the best combo for a catcher not in the steroid era.

                g) An All-Star team of the greatest Triple Crown numbers:   C—Piazza, 1997 (40, 124, .362); 1B—Gehrig, 1927 (47, 175, .373); 2B—Rogers Hornsby, 1922 (42, 152, .401);  3B—Al Rosen, 1953 (43, 145, .336); SS—Alex Rodriguez, 2001 (52, 135. .318);  LF—Babe Ruth, 1921 (59, 171, .378); CF—Hack Wilson, 1930 (56, 191, .356);  RF—Chuck Klein, 1930 (40, 170, .386).  Ruth has a higher score than Klein in several seasons in which he played right field, but is not considered eligible at two positions.   Also, A-Rod in 2007 has a higher number at third base than Al Rosen in ‘53.

                h)  Captain Obvious Department:  Very few seasons have an actual Triple Crown winner, but some player has the best Triple Crown numbers in every league every year.    Thus, by this method, we can nominate a Triple Crown winner for every league.

                i)  Captain Obvious, Note 2:   If a player actually wins the Triple Crown, he will always, by definition, also have the best Triple Crown numbers in his league.

                j)  There is also, by this method, a worst Triple Crown score in each league each season.  We’ll get to some of those at the very end of the article.

                k)  For the purposes of this exercise, I am going to consider Jimmie Foxx in 1932 as having won the Triple Crown.   You can argue whether he did or whether he didn’t, but it is my opinion that it is more accurate to say that he did than that he didn’t.    This makes 16 Triple Crown winners in history.

                l)  There are 16 players in history who have had Triple Crown Scores of 900 or better, of whom 5 actually did win the Triple Crown.   This is 31%.

                m)  There are 63 players who have had Triple Crown Scores of 800 to 899, of whom 3 won the Triple Crown.    This is 5%.

                n)  There are 237 players who have had Triple Crown Scores of 700 to 799, of whom 6 won the Triple Crown.   This is 3%.

                o)   There are 617 players who have had Triple Crown Scores of 600 to 699, of whom one (Ty Cobb in 1909) won the Triple Crown.   This is one-sixth of one percent.

                p)  There are 1528 players who have had Triple Crown Scores of 500 to 599, none of whom won the Triple Crown.   However in 1878, when National League teams played only 60 games apiece, Paul Hines won the Triple Crown with a Triple Crown Score of just 440. 

                q)   Like Frank Robinson, many players won Triple Crowns in what were not really their best Triple Crown seasons.    Ty Cobb won the Triple Crown in 1909 in what was really his fifth-best Triple Crown season.   Gehrig has better Triple Crown numbers in 1927, when he didn’t win, than in 1934, when he did.   Chuck Klein won in 1933 with his fourth-best Triple Crown combination.   Ted Williams won with his third-best and seventh-best Triple Crown totals.     On the other hand, Foxx and Hornsby won the Triple Crown twice each, both times with their best Triple Crown seasons, and Mantle, Medwick and Yastrzemski, among others, won the Triple Crown with their best numbers.

                r)  The best Triple Crown Season of the 1960s was not by Robinson or Yaz, but by Norm Cash in 1961 (41 homers, 132 RBI, .361).

                s)  The best Triple Crown Season of the 1970s was by George Foster in 1977 (52 homers, 149 RBI, .320). 

                t)  The best Triple Crown Season of the 1980s was by George Bell in 1987 (47 homers, 134 RBI, .308).

                u)  The best Triple Crown Season of the 1990s was by Larry Walker in 1997 (49 homers, 130 RBI, .366).  

                v)  The best Triple Crown Season of the 2000s was by Todd Helton in 2000.   The second-best was by Helton in 2001. 

                w)  The best Triple Crown Season so far this decade was by Miguel Cabrera in 2010.   Kemp in 2011 had almost identical Triple Crown numbers to Cabrera, just a tick less impressive.  

                x)  Although Mickey Mantle had very good Triple Crown numbers many times in his career, 1956 was the only time that he led his league in the Triple Crown Score.   On the other hand, although he never won a Triple Crown, Henry Aaron led the National League in Triple Crown Score five times—1957, 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1971.  

                OK, let’s look at the year by year league leaders.  1900-1909:

                The dominant players in this era were Wagner, in the National League, and Lajoie and then Cobb in the American—Lajoie, early in the decade, Cobb at the end of the decade.    The best Triple Crown season of the decade was by Lajoie, in the American League in the expansion season of 1901.   

                There were few home runs in this era—thus, no scores which are historically impressive.   Sam Crawford led the American League in 1906 with a Triple Crown Score of 381—the lowest league-leading figure since 1900.     Harry Steinfeldt (1906) is an interesting name on the list; he was the third baseman with Tinker to Evers to Chance.  Let’s also track the number of times players have led the league:  Honus Wagner 7, Ty Cobb 3, Nap Lajoie 3.   The 1910s:

                Cobb is the dominant Triple Crown player in the American League in these years, no one in the National League.   Ty Cobb, 8, Honus Wagner, 7, Nap Lajoie, 3, Sam Crawford, 2, Home Run Baker, 2, Gavy Cravath, 2, Edd Roush, 2.    Ty Cobb’s 702 in 1911 was the highest figure of this decade; he led the league in Batting Average and RBI, but was out-homered 11-8 by Home Run Baker.  Roush’s 421 in the war-shortened 1918 season is the lowest figure to lead the National League since 1900, and scores in this era remain very low because of the shortage of home runs.    The "MVP" column is mostly blocked out because there were no regular MVP Awards from 1915 to 1920.   The 1920s:

                These are the highest Triple Crown Scores of all time—956 by Babe Ruth in 1921, 952 by Hornsby in 1922 (when he actually did win the Triple Crown), numerous others over 900.   Ruth is the dominant Triple Crown candidate in the American League, Hornsby in the National.  Running totals:  Ty Cobb, 8, Rogers Hornsby, 8, Babe Ruth, 8, Honus Wagner, 7.   The 1930s:

                The numbers in the 1930s are still very high, although not as high as the 1920s.    The best Triple Crown Score of the 1930s was 928, by Jimmie Foxx in 1932.   Foxx did win the Triple Crown in 1932, sort of.    A player named Dale Alexander out-hit Foxx by 3 points (.367 to .364), but Alexander had only 454 plate appearances as a result of a dispute with a water heater.   As late as the late teens, there were no "official" batting champions.   Who won the batting championship was left to the discretion of the press, and different sources would occasionally name different people as batting champions.  By the early 1930s the American League was honoring a batting champion, in the sense that it was issuing a press release saying who it regarded as the batting champion, and the previously-stated standard for eligibility was playing 100 games.   Alexander had played 124 games, thus could be considered eligible for the award, but the American League office sent out a press release naming Foxx as the batting champion before backing off and saying it should have been Alexander.   It probably should have been Foxx.    

                The dominant players are Foxx in the American League and Chuck Klein/Mel Ott in the National League.    I fudged on the 1930 National League.   Chuck Klein has a Triple Crown Score in 1930 of 912; Hack Wilson, of 911.   However, Wilson outhomered Klein by 16 (96 points) and drove in 21 more runs (42 points), so he would beat Klein easily were it not for the category caps of 300 points in each category.    It’s the only time in history that happens, and it’s an irrational result caused by the fact that the league norms are historically exceptional.   Since I’m more interested in getting the answer right than in being faithful to the method, I decided to ignore the system and recognize Wilson as the leader.   Running counts:  Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Honus Wagner, 7; Jimmie Foxx, 3; Lou Gehrig, 3; Chuck Klein, 3; Mel Ott, 3; Hack Wilson, 2; Joe DiMaggio, 2; Joe Medwick, 2.    The 1940s:

                Ted Williams is the dominant Triple Crown player in the American League, no one player in the National.   The highest score in the decade was 862, by Ted Williams in 1941; Williams led the American League that year in home runs and batting, but missed by five of leading in RBI.  

The wartime baseball was "dead" due to a shortage of rubber, the inner core of a baseball being wrapped in rubber, so home run totals dropped, so RBI counts dropped.    Johnny Mize led the National League in 1942 with a score of just 586, the lowest league-leading total since 1919.   Rudy York then led the American League in 1943 with a score of 583.    Indian Bob Johnson then led the American League in 1944 with a score of 562—the second straight native American to lead the league, as York was part Cherokee.   The joke about him was that he was one-eighth Cherokee and one-eighth first baseman.   He looked more like a Cherokee than he did like a first baseman.   Anyway, Johnson’s 562 was the lowest figure to lead a league since 1918, and then Vern Stephens in 1945 led the American League with a score of just 500.   Running counts:  Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Honus Wagner, 7; Ted Williams, 5; Joe DiMaggio, 3; Johnny Mize, 3;  Hank Greenberg, 2; Bill Nicholson, 2; Stan Musial, 2; Ralph Kiner, 2.    

                Regular MVP votes began in 1931.   From 1931 to 1950 there were 38 MVP selections, of which 14 went to the player with his league’s highest Triple Crown score.   That’s 37%.   The 1950s:

                I was very surprised that Mantle does not dominate the American League Triple Crown scores in this era, as he does dominate the league in overall value.    Mantle’s 865 in 1956 is by far the highest number of the decade, but other than that Ted Williams remains more the dominant figure in the Triple Crown categories, leading the American League three times.

                I believe that Walt Dropo in 1950 is the only rookie to have the best Triple Crown score in his league.

Ted Kluszewski’s 829 figure in 1954 may be the most under-appreciated season of the 1950s.   The MVP debate that year was between Snider and Willie Mays.  Snider and Mays have very, very high Triple Crown Scores—782 and 756—but Kluszewski in the same horse race had the highest Triple Crown Score in the National League between 1949 and 1977—49 homers, 141 RBI, .326.  Kluszewski was no one-year fluke, either; he was a good player for several years.   Championship totals:    Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Stan Musial, 4; Al Rosen, 2; Al Kaline, 2; Duke Snider, 2; Hank Aaron, 2.   Duke Snider led the National League in 1956 although he had his lowest total since 1952 by almost a hundred points.   His scores in those years go 775, 782, 741, 643.     The 1960s:

                In the years 1931-1950, 14 of 38 MVP selections went to the player with the best Triple Crown numbers.   In the years 1950 to 1969 only 12 of 40 MVP selections went to that player—down from 37% to 30%.    Beginning really with the selection of Rizzuto in 1950, MVP selections in this era went very often to shortstops and catchers who were well down the list of the league’s top sluggers—Rizzuto (1950),  Berra (1951, 1954 and 1955), Campanella (1951, 1953 and 1955),  Nellie Fox (1959), Dick Groat (1960), Maury Wills (1962),  Elston Howard (1963) and Zorro Versalles (1965.   Fox was actually a second baseman, and two MVP selections also went to a shortstop who did have strong Triple Crown numbers, Ernie Banks in 1958 and 1959.)   In the years 1951 to 1965, more notably than any other era, sluggers did not dominate the MVP selections.   In the late 1960s this began to shift, with Triple Crown leaders taking 5 of the last 10 MVP awards.  

                Rocky Colavito led the American League in 1965 with a score of just 625, the lowest league-leading score since World War II.   Maris led the American League in 1960, but not in 1961.  Harmon Killebrew led the American League three times in the 1960s without ever hitting .300, and led in 1962 when he hit just .243, the lowest ever (48-126-.243).    Prior to Killebrew, the lowest batting average by a Triple Crown leader was .270, by Hank Sauer in 1952.    The 1960s are like the teens; in the teens you could lead the league in the Triple Crown Score with 2, 3 or 4 homers, because there just weren’t any players who hit a lot of homers, and in the 1960s you could lead the league in Triple Crown Score with a .250 batting average, because batting averages were so low.   Running counts: Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Hank Aaron, 4; Willie Mays, 3; Harmon Killebrew, 3; Rocky Colavito, 2; Frank Robinson, 2; Willie McCovey, 2.   The 1970s:

                Thurman Munson was the American League leader in 1976 with a score of just 516—the lowest since 1945--and George Foster was the only player of the 1970s to post a score over 800.    Dave Kingman, a Killebrew type, led the National League in 1979, although his batting average was a respectable .288.   Johnny Bench won the MVP in 1970 and 1972, when he finished second in the Triple Crown Score to Billy Williams, then led the league in 1974 but finished fourth in the MVP voting.      Running totals: Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Hank Aaron, 5; Carl Yastrzemski, 2; Dick Allen, 2; Jim Rice, 2; Billy Williams, 2; George Foster, 2.   The 1980s:

                The dominant Triple Crown players of the 1980s were Mattingly and Schmidt.   Schmidt managed to post a Triple Crown score of 601—a fairly normal league-leading figure—even in the strike-shortened 1981 season, with a third of the season missing.   In the 1970s and 1980s, 18 of 40 MVP Awards went to the player with the best Triple Crown Score, or 45%.   The Triple Crown numbers dominated the MVP discussion in this era to a greater extent than in any other era. 

                Throughout history many players have won MVP awards that they probably did not deserve by doing well in the Triple Crown categories.    Among the Triple Crown leaders who won probably undeserved MVP Awards:  Jim Bottomley, 1928; Dolph Camilli, 1941; Hank Sauer, 1952; Jeff Burroughs, 1974; George Bell, 1987; Andre Dawson, 1987; and Sammy Sosa, 1998.   There are others I wouldn’t have voted for; I wouldn’t have voted for Mattingly in ’85, and I wouldn’t have voted for Kevin Mitchell in ’89.   But the 1987 MVP selections of George Bell and Andre Dawson can stand for the high water mark of the belief that Home Runs, RBI and Batting Average are the marks of an MVP.   Playing in good hitter’s parks and eschewing the outdated custom of accepting a walk, Bell and Dawson had the best Triple Crown stats of the 1980s—Bell the best of the decade in the American League, Dawson the best in the NL.   Still, to be honest, neither of those guys—and they were both good men and good players—but neither one of them should even have been in the MVP discussion.   The MVPs in 1987 were Trammell and Raines.  Running totals: Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Hank Aaron, 5; Jim Rice, 3; Don Mattingly, 3; Mike Schmidt, 3; Dave Parker, 2; Dale Murphy, 2.   The 1990s:

                Barry Bonds, like Mantle, walked too much to be a great RBI man; Ted Williams overcame that to a greater extent, but then Williams had very good table-setters in front of him, like Dominic DiMaggio and Billy Goodman.   The dominant players of the decade, in Triple Crown numbers, were Frank Thomas and whoever was batting cleanup for Colorado.

                By the mid-1990s the top Triple Crown scores were back in the 800s, the highest they had been since the 1930s.  The figures of Bell and Dawson in ’87 no longer look impressive to us now, dimmed by the contrast with the slugging figures of the 1990s.    Running totals:    Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Hank Aaron, 5; Frank Thomas, 4; Albert Belle, 2; Larry Walker, 2.

                We come, then, to the 21^st century:

                Since 1990 fifteen of forty-four MVP Awards have been won by the player with the best Triple Crown numbers, or 35%.    The dominant players have been A-Rod and Pujols, with Cabrera now the King of the Hill in these categories.   Pujols is the first player since Henry Aaron to lead his league five times.  Running totals: Babe Ruth, 10;  Ty Cobb, 8; Rogers Hornsby, 8;  Ted Williams, 8; Honus Wagner, 7; Hank Aaron, 5; Albert Pujols, 5; Alex Rodriguez, 4; Carlos Delgado, 2; Manny Ramirez, 2; Miguel Cabrera, 2; Todd Helton, 2; Barry Bonds, 2.

                Let’s transition now to the issue of standards.   I’d summarize the standards this way:

                If a player’s career best—not in a fluke season; let’s say the third-best figure of his career.   If a player’s third-best career figure was 900, that would put the player at the level of Babe Ruth.    The only players in history who had three seasons scoring above 900 were Ruth and Gehrig.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 800, he was still be an obvious and certain Hall of Famer, unless there was a steroid issue.    Ted Williams’ third-best Triple Crown Score was 803.   Albert Pujols’ third-best is 807.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 700, he would still be a presumptive Hall of Famer, unless there was a serious issue of some kind.    Jim Rice’ third-best figure was 702; Mike Piazza’s was 699.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 600, he would generally be a Hall of Fame candidate, and it would be about 50-50 whether he would make it or not.   Dolph Camilli’s third-best figure was 600; Pedro Guerrero’s was 601.   Del Ennis’ third-best season was 595; on the other hand, so was Dave Winfield’s.   Rocky Colavito’s third-best figure was 592; on the other hand, so was Ron Santo’s, and Tony Perez’s.   Al Kaline’s third-best figure was 604.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 500, he would still be a very good player, but he would most often not be a Hall of Famer.  He certainly would not be selected unless he did something else very well, something not measured in home runs, RBI or batting average.   Johnny Callison, Tim Wallach, Cesar Cedeno, Mark Grace, Ben Oglivie and Melvin Mora all had their third-best Triple Crown score around 500.   On the other hand, so did Wade Boggs, Carlton Fisk and Joe Morgan.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 400, he would ordinarily not be any kind of a Hall of Fame candidate, unless he was an exceptional defensive player who had a long career.  Jay Gibbs, Al Cowens, Al Martin and Ray Knight all had third-best figures around 400.   On the other hand, so did Lou Boudreau and Pee Wee Reese.

                If a player’s third-best figure was 300, the player might have a modestly successful career if he did some other things well.   Fernando Vina, Juan Pierre, Marty Barrett, Cookie Rojas and Marco Scutaro would be examples of players whose third-best Triple Crown Score was around 300.

                A player with a Triple Crown Score of 200 has no power, and would ordinarily spend most of his career as a bench player.  Jerry Royster, Duane Kuiper and Darren Lewis would be among players whose third-best score was around 200.

                For a player to last three seasons as a regular with Triple Crown Scores around 100 would be almost impossible in modern baseball, although there were some players who did that before 1920. 

                One more thing, and then I’ll shut up.  As each season now has a Triple Crown Score winner, so each season now has a player with the worst Triple Crown Score, among the regulars.   In some of the early seasons in baseball history we don’t have RBI counts or don’t have complete RBI counts, so we can’t find the all-time worst.  It seems likely that the all-time worst score, if we had more complete data, would be some 19^th-century player, as there were some 19^th-century players who held onto regular jobs despite meager offensive contributions.  

                Since 1900, the worst Triple Crown Score for a regular player is 26, by Charlie Jamieson in 1918—a war-shortened season.  Jamieson hit .202 with no homers, 11 RBI.   Also at 26 is Ivan DeJesus in 1981—a strike-shortened season.  DeJesus hit .187 with no homers, 13 RBI.   Both DeJesus and Jamieson played for last-place teams.

                Not counting war-shortened and strike-shortened seasons, the worst Triple Crown numbers ever were by Bobby Byrne Baby Byrne, in 1908, also for a last-place team losing 105 games.   Byrne hit .191 with no homers, 14 RBI—a Triple Crown Score of 28.

                Since 1908 the worst Triple Crown Score for a regular is 42, by Herbie Moran of the 1915 Boston Braves (0 homers, 21 RBI, .200).    Moran was not a middle infielder (he was a right fielder) and his team did not finish last (they actually finished second).  Moran drew 66 walks, giving him a decent .320 on base percentage. 

                Since Moran, the worst Triple Crown Score by a regular is 52, by Eddie Joost in 1943 (.185, 2 homers, 20 RBI.)

                Since Joost and not counting strike seasons, the worst Triple Crown Score by a regular is 66, by Hal Lanier in 1968 (.206, 0 homers, 27 RBI.)

                Since 1968, the worst Triple Crown Score is 68, by Enzo Hernandez in 1971 (.222, 0 homers, 12 RBI.) 

                Since 1971, the worst Triple Crown Score is 75, by Nick Punto in 2007 (.210, 1 homer, 25 RBI.) 

                Over the last ten years, the regular players with the worst Triple Crown Scores have been Neifi Perez in 2002 (3-37-.236, score 165),

Ramon Santiago in 2003 (2-29-.225, score 120),

Craig Counsell in 2004 (2-23-.241, score 140),

Jeremy Reed in 2005 (3-45-.254, score 216),

Brad Ausmus in 2006 (2-39-.230, score 150),

Nick Punto in 2007 (1-25-.210, score 75),

Michael Bourn to Run in 2008 (5-29-.229, score 146),

Emilio Bonifacio in 2009 (1-27-.252, score 163),

Cesar Izturis in 2010 (1-28-.230, score 123), and

Jason Bartlett in 2011 (2-40-.245, score 183).  

                Thanks for reading,

                Bill James