DOWNTOWN -- Joe DiMaggio once struck out 13 times in a season.
Not a partial season. Not a season cut short by injury or interrupted by military service. Not a season when he appeared as a September callup or some kind of Cup-of-Mr. Coffee prospect. No, a full season. He struck out 13 times in a season when he 621 plate appearances, a league-high 125 RBIs, 30 home runs and an AL-best 348 total bases.
In 1941, DiMaggio had two uncanny numbers that defy logic: He hit safely in 56 consecutive games. He struck out 13 times.
No wonder he won the MVP.
DiMaggio's 13 in '41 was brought to my attention this past weekend in Kansas City by Albert Pujols. The St.Louis Cardinals' first baseman brought it up with a sense of awe, even reverance. His mention of it came with the implied question: How is that even possible?
Well, it's not. Not now.
But if there's a modern player who could come close, it's Pujols.
In his dissertation on batting, The Science of Hitting, Ted Williams describes a situation when he fell into a 3-2 count and managed to still drive a pitch for a home run:
As I usually did in those cases, I choked up and said to myself, "I'm not going to strike out now, I'm going to get some wood on that ball."
Williams did that a lot. The game's consummate hitter rarely missed, and even as he piled up the homers he remained allergic to strikeouts.
Colleague Joe Strauss and I talked about the 13-K DiMaggio season and he hit upon an intriguing prism through which to reorder the game's best home-run hitters. Strauss took all of the hitters in baseball history who have 400 or more homers and charted their career totals for strikeouts. He then calculated a comparison between homers and strikeouts by presenting HRs as a percentage of Ks. In other words, if a player had five strikeouts for every one homer he hit, his score would be 20.00% or 20.00. For example: Stan Musial hit 475 home runs in his 22-year career and he struck out 696 times. Take the 475, divide by 696 and his percentage is 68.24%.
Call it Musial's "Splinter Score".
DiMaggio didn't hit 400 in his career, so he wasn't part of the research project that Strauss put together yesterday afternoon. But taking his totals and comparing them to the third baseman the Cardinals will face this afternoon and it offers a stark view of the spectrum for Splinter Scores:
Joe DiMaggio ... 361 HR, 369 Ks ... 97.8 score
Mark Reynolds ... 107 HR, 663 Ks ... 16.1 score
DiMaggio had nearly a 1:1 ratio of homers to strikeouts. Reynolds has 6 1/4 strikeouts for every homer he hits.
Few modern players with 400+ homers crack the top 15 Splinter Scores. In fact, only one active player cracks the top 20 if you take all the 400+ hitters and reorder then by Splinter Score. Williams wouldn't be surprised. He wrote in his book that Babe Ruth struck out too much.
Where Ruth ranks, where Pujols ranks and just who sits atop the ranks seems like a good place to start today's 10@10 ...
1. Pujols, of course, has not to yet hit his 400th career home run. In last night's rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Pujols cranked Nos. 383 and 384. It's fitting that he did it in tandem because he struck out in his first at-bat against Dontrelle Willis. That actually, however slightly, kept his Splinter Score rather consistent. More on him in a minute.
If you take the 45 batters with more than 400 home runs, as Strauss did, and rank them by their Splinter Score, as I did to help, here is the top 10:
1. Ted Williams ... 521 HR ... 73.48 score
2. Stan Musial ... 475 HR ... 68.24 score
3. Lou Gehrig ... 493 HR ... 58.60 score
4. Mel Ott ... 511 HR ... 57.03 score
5. Hank Aaron ... 755 HR ... 54.59 score
6. Babe Ruth ... 714 HR ... 53.68 score
7. Vlad Guerrero ... 422 HR ... 47.15 score
8. Gary Sheffield ... 509 HR ... 43.46 score
9. Barry Bonds ... 762 HR ... 43.36 score
10. Willie Mays ... 660 HR ... 43.25 score
Guerrero, perhaps surprisingly, is the highest of the modern players with 400 home runs, and in fact the lower third of the 45 is chocked with modern hitters. Reggie Jackson, for example, ranks last with a 21.67 score and just ahead of him is Jose Canseco (23.79), Fred McGriff (26.19), Sammy Sosa (26.41) and Carlos Delgado (27.10).
2. Back a few years ago, Pujols had more homers than strikeouts briefly a month or so into the season. Such a year seems improbably in the modern game. Strikeouts are OK these days. Reynolds for example has set and reset the strikeout record in consecutive season and with 107 already this season he's on pace for a third consecutive 200-K season. We can debate this K Culture later*. Pujols defies it.
The Cardinals' first baseman has 384 career home runs against 611 caree strikeouts. That is a Splinter Score of 62.85. If he keeps up that rate all the way to hitting No. 400 -- which could happen later this season, mind you -- that would put Pujols snugly between Musial and Gehrig at No. 3 on the list. Elite company, to be sure.
He would be the only modern player with a score better than 50. Consider the rankings of players whose careers have overlapped with Pujols:
1. Albert Pujols ... 384 HR ... 62.85 score
2. Vlad Guerrero ... 422 HR ... 47.15 score
3.Gary Sheffield ... 509 HR ... 43.46 score
4. Barry Bonds ... 762 HR ... 43.36 score
5. Rafael Palmeiro ... 569 HR ... 42.21 score
6. Mike Piazza ... 427 HR ... 38.36 score
7. Frank Thomas ... 521 HR ... 37.29 score
8. Mark McGwire ... 583 HR ... 36.52 score
9. Ken Griffey Jr. ... 630 HR ... 35.41 score
10. Juan Gonzalez ... 434 HR ... 34.09 score
11. Chipper Jones ... 431 HR ... 34.07 score
* Though, I did recently hear a sabermetrician describe how the growth and popularity of sabermetrics in baseball has taken the taboo away from the strikeout and teams "aren't afraid of them" any more and better understand they ain't so bad. In the same breath, the pundit said that the increase in strikeouts may be a cause behind this Year of the Pitcher. Huh? How is the acceptance of strikeouts a positive then when it is also a reason for the dip in production? Isn't production the, you know, purpose of the game? Sorry for the tangent.
3. With the win last night, Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright became the first Cardinal to grab his 11th victory before the All-Star Game since Kyle Lohse in 2008. Wainwright has two more starts before the break, so he could match the 13 wins that Chris Carpenter had at the break in 2005. He will, however, know by then if he's off to Anaheim for his first All-Star Game. The rosters for the 81st All-Star Game will be announced Sunday, and the Cardinals have several pitchers who are candidates. Both Wainwright and Carpenter have the added boost of finishing third and second, respectively, in last year's NL Cy Young voting. That brings us to today's poll, which you can find in the upper left-hand corner.
4. Wainwright extended Tuesday night his MLB record to 23 consecutive home games with at least a quality start. There was a time a few years ago when Wainwright said the only goal he set for himself each year was pitching 200 innings. "There's no reason I should stop there," said the righthander who led the league with 233 innings last season. Wainwright was asked about his consistency from start to start and the righty said he felt he's been the same pitcher "since making some adjustments last season." Those adjustments, you'll recall, were made after a video session with Carpenter. The two discussed how Wainwright's arm slot had shifted and how if Wainwright remained diligent -- he found himself "out of whack" this past week -- he could keep the same arm slot that made himself successful ... and consistent.
On May 10 of last year, Wainwright allowed seven hits and four runs in six innings against the Cincinnati Reds. The start before he had allowed seven runs. His starts weren't awful, but they weren't consistent and he long, rickety innings. That was when Carpenter pulled him aside. Here is Wainwright's pitching line since: 43 starts ... 26-12 ... 2.33 ERA ... 8.45 K/9.
5. Pujols hit a 3-0 pitch for a double Monday night to raise his average to 2-for-3 on 3-0 pitches this season. (He has three at-bats in those situations and 32 plate appearances.) In his career, he's a .489 hitter on 3-0 counts with 12 extra-base hits and 18 RBIs. Here are some other deep-in-the-box-score splits from Pujols in 2010:
1st pitch ... .417 BA, .708 SLG, 2 HR
Pitcher ahead ... .291, .544, 5 HR
Late & close ... .415, .659, 1 HR
5th inning ... .481, 1.037, 4 HR
2nd time facing SP ... .238, .413, 3 HR
Vs. groundball pitcher ... .423, .519, 1 HR
To infield ... .060, .070, 0 HR (of course)
To outfield ... .578, 1.052, 16 HR
6. Rookie reliever Fernando Salas pitched two scoreless innings in relief Tuesday night against Arizona. That run his streak to five appearances without giving up a run this season. He's pitched 6 1/3 innings, and he's garnered some plaudits from the manager.
"He'll misfire a pitch, and we saw it in spring training, he's a little young, excited," Tony La Russa said. "Here he misfires, and he collects himself. He's made a good impression."
7. FARMNIK REPORT: Check the related links for the daily summary of action from Tuesday's minor-league affiliates. Also of note is the news: Daniel Descalso was injured Monday.
8. HIT THE LINKS: The biggest thing to happen to chat since chit is going on today at StlToday.com: JSL!!! (follow the link). ... Joey Votto pulled a Pujols, but without all of that October drama and, you know, winning result. The Phillies rallied to save Brad Lidge and throw the Cardinals back into first place. Read the account in this morning Philadelphia Daily News. ... The Civil Rights Game, born in Memphis and relocated by MLB, will move to Atlanta for the next couple seasons, per this Associated Press report. ... Cliff Lee continues to roll through the American League, with another complete-game victory, this time against the New York Yankees last night. That means the Seattle Mariners can start counting the prospect haul they're going to get in return for the lefty, writes Larry Stone in The Seattle Times. Sure, it's going to have to be worth more than two first-rounders. ... The Diamondbacks wouldn't say Tuesday whether Dontrelle Willis will make his next scheduled start, writes Nick Piecoro in this morning's Arizona Republic. ... MLB.com Cardinals beat writer Matthew Leach goes all columnist this week and argues for baseball's middle men.
9. I understand the RSS feed is down on Bird Land and I know the that new format hasn't quite connected with the old address. Please be patient as we work our way through the format change. In the long run I think it will be beneficial. In the meantime, pardon our dust and trust that the 10@10 will be here ...
10. The Arizona Diamondbacks are promoting a righthander all the way from Class AA to make today's start. Barry Enright will make his major-league debut this afternoon at Busch, and he brings a 4-1 record with a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts with Double-A Mobile. He also packs some Kryptonite -- the unknown. The Cardinals have annually done poorly against pitchers they are seeing for the first time. Some connect that to the team's reliance on video and how newcomers don't have the amount of video (if any) for the Cardinals to dissect. The Cardinals, however, will have a written report on Enright and here are some of the stats they'll also see:
Rights hit .254 against him, lefts .221
He has 44 strikeouts against lefthanded batters and 36 hits allowed.
About the second time hitters see him, they bat .310.
He's just about an even pitcher with 38 percent of the balls in play going on the ground and 41 percent going into the air as fly balls.
"We haven't done real well against guys we haven't seen before," La Russa said, rather bluntly Tuesday afternoon. "Of course, we've seen Dan Haren several times and it hasn't helped with him."
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