How Ryan Ludwick unseated newest Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson
TOWER GROVE — Newest first-ballot Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson will speed into Cooperstown as the all-time man of steal (no one is close), the all-time leader in runs scored (the chief goal of the game) and arguably the finest leadoff hitter in history. He will not however reach the Hall as the best single-season power hitter of the rarest breed of ballplayer — the bats-right, throws-left big leaguer.
Ryan Ludwick saw to that.
This afternoon’s announcement that Henderson will headline Cooperstown’s two-man Class of 2009 — an honor he received with 94.8 percent of this year’s vote — will loose a torrent of accolades for the former Oakland Athletics’ great and one of baseball’s great character.
Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson is arguably the best leadoff hitter ever and is certainly the best bats right/throws left player ever. (Source: SI.com)
The former American League MVP led the majors in steals a dozen times and his 1,406 stolens bases are half again more than Lou Brock’s 938, the second-most all-time. There isn’t an active player within 600 runs of Henderson’s 2,295. Henderson is king of many numbers, not the least of which come from a small, exclusive fiefdom defined by a line on their baseball cards:
Bats: Right Throws: Left
According to the nimble and essential Play Index available at Baseball-Reference.com, there have been 19 position players since 1900 who bat right/throw left and have played at least 200 games total in the majors. Only nine have 500 or more games, and Henderson — obviously the most accomplished and famous of the group — is the only with more than 2,000 games in the majors. He played 3,081, and his totals across the spectrum dominate this niche.
Nine of the top 10 highest totals of runs created in a season by a bats right/throws left player belong to Henderson. There are only five single seasons when a bats right/throws left player posted an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging) of better than .900, and Henderson has three of them.
“Runs Produced” is a raw statistic that subtracts home runs from the sum of a player’s RBIs and runs scored. Only six times has a bats right/throws left player had 160 or more runs produced in a single season, and Henderson did it three times. The top 12 single-season totals for a bats right/throws left player in terms of reaching base all belong to Henderson, from 238 to a career-best 301 in 1980.
Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick, in 2008, had the best power year ever by a bats right/throws left player.(Source: SI.com)
Henderson also was the first bats right/throws left player to hit 25 home runs, the first to slug better than .550 and the first to surpass 275 total bases.
However, he no longer leads in those single-season categories. Ludwick does.
Check out the the top single-season home run totals for a bats right/throws left player:
- Ryan Ludwick … 37 … 2008
- Rickey Henderson … 28 …1990
- Rickey Henderson … 28 … 1986
- Jason Lane … 26 … 2005
- Rickey Henderson … 24 … 1985
First explored this nook of the statistical universe back in August, when Ludwick was on the verge of becoming the first bats right/throws left player since 1900 to hit 30 home runs. There have been only seven seasons of 20-plus homers by a bats right/throws left player, and Henderson has four of them. He is the greatest bats right/throws left player of all-time. No doubt. But Ludwick, with his breakout year in 2008, elbowed Henderson out of the lead in the power categories.
Ludwick, the St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder, is the first bats right/throws left player to have more than 300 total bases in a season. He’s the first to have a single-season slugging percentage higher than .580 and he obliterated the previous record for extra-base hits by a bats right/throws left player.
Here is the new order in the bats right/throws left single-season rankings:
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE
1. Ludwick … .591 … 2008
2. Henderson … .577 … 1990
3. Henderson … .516 … 1985
4. Lane … .499 … 2005
5. Cody Ross … .488 … 2008
TOTAL BASES
1. Ludwick … 318 … 2008
2. Henderson … 285 … 1986
3. Henderson … 282 … 1990
4. Henderson … 282 … 1985
5. Hal Chase … 267 … 1915
EXTRA-BASE HITS
1. Ludwick … 80 … 2008
2. Lane … 64 … 2005
3. Henderson … 64 … 1990
4. Henderson … 64 … 1986
5. Chase … 59 … 1915
ON-BASE PLUS SLUGGING (OPS)
1. Henderson … 1.016 … 1990
2. Ludwick … .966 … 2008
3. Henderson … .935 … 1985
4. Henderson … .906 … 1993
5. Cleon Jones … .904 … 1969
RUNS PRODUCED (RBI + R minus HR)
1. Henderson … 194 … 1985
2. Ludwick … 180 … 2008
3. Henderson … 176 … 1986
4. Henderson … 162 … 1988
5. Henderson … 160 … 1982
6. Chase … 160 … 1906 (with the New York Highlanders)
RUNS CREATED
1. Henderson … 138 … 1985
2. Henderson … 137 … 1990
3. Ludwick … 121 … 2008
4. Henderson … 120 … 1980
5. Henderson … 118 … 1993
Clearly, Henderson is the runaway leader in this esoteric sorting of statistics, but Ludwick’s 2008 keeps Henderson from completely monopolizing the bats right/throws left genus and species. Perhaps most telling of all is how few of their ilk there has been. It’s “not the best route” to the majors, as Lane once said. One more full season for Ludwick and he’ll crack the top 10 as far as games played.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
With 2005 home runs in 2005, Jason Lane should totally be in first.
I should just give up on the photos.
Wow, three BRTLs active in 2007 (not counting pitchers). They made a big deal about Henderson being the only BRTL on the all-star ballot when he was playing in the ’80s. John Cangelosi, another outfielder known for stealing bases, was a BRTL in the minors until someone suggested he try batting left handed. He was a BSTL (BBTL?) by the time he made the majors.
Looking at one of Rickeys big years at the MLB.com historical stats page, I found something from another player:
Dale Murphy (BRTR) was 30-30 when 30-30 wasn’t cool (only once, in 1983). How could this guy not get even 12% of the vote? For a time, he had the second-longest active consecutive games streak, although he was nowhere near catching Gehrig. (Baseball reference won’t let me search for a consecutive games played streak.)
Wrong guy to ask about Murphy. He belongs. As silly as it sounds, I wonder what would have happened if he had just hit two home runs with Colorado. Just two.
Here is another great stat, that deals with players that BRTL, I stumbled across it at Baseball Reference:
Since 1901 there have never been three position players that batted right and threw left on the same roster to get a plate appearance in the same season. There have only been 9 occurences of TWO teammates that BRTL recieving a PA in the same season. The last time this happened was in 2000 when Henderson accomplished this with a teammate in Seattle.
Wow you must be running out of ideas.
That was one of the worst blogs I have read from you.
I bet someone who also bats: right and throws: left also unseated Rickey Henderson for the number of homeruns hitten when the sun is directly overhead on a leap year.
Get off Derrick’s back. It was a fun post. Is it a slow baseball day? Hello, it’s January and the Cards are keeping their powder dry. I wonder if Derrick will have any posts down the road that examine how well the Cards would have done if they had surrounded the best player of this generation with decent pitching…
Upon hearing the news, Ludwick said “Ricky Henderson was the symbol of great single-season home run hitting for a bats right/throws left player. But today, I’m the greatest of all time. Thank you.”
Derrick, any chance the combination of “throws right, signs left” is even more rare than batting right and throwing left? It always struck me odd that both Chris Carpenter and Darryl Kile signed autographs left-handed.
Fascinating question, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin with that research. I appreciate the suggestion, and may take a stab at it. Because honestly I ran out of ideas in 2007.