Tag: Craig Biggio

Hall of Fame Membership and Career Strikeout Rate Below 10%

Suffering through the post-season with little to do but monitor the Hot Stove League developments and the Hall of Fame ballot debates, I find myself thankful for Baseball Reference and its treasure of information. While perusing the Hall of Fame Batting Statistics, I was not surprised to see that Reggie Jackson leads all members with 2,597 strikeouts, but I was a little surprised to notice that Jackson recorded 13 more strikeouts in his career than he did hits: 2,584. This naturally led me to wonder which Hall of Famers had the lowest career strikeout rates.

After downloading the stats and adding a strikeout percentage per plate appearances column to the spreadsheet, I realized that I needed to limit the query to only those batters with at least 6,000 career plate appearances in order to omit the many pitchers who played in the pre-DH era. I also chose to limit the query to those players whose careers lasted until at least 1970 in order to focus on just those batters who have had to do battle against the modern science and strategies of major league pitching.

The following list of 49 Hall of Fame members is ranked from lowest to highest strikeout rate per plate appearances:

Rank Name PA SO SO %
1 Tony Gwynn 10232 434 4.24%
2 Ozzie Smith 10778 589 5.46%
3 Luis Aparicio 11230 742 6.61%
4 Wade Boggs 10740 745 6.94%
5 George Brett 11625 908 7.81%
6 Brooks Robinson 11782 990 8.40%
7 Bill Mazeroski 8379 706 8.43%
8 Al Kaline 11596 1020 8.80%
9 Joe Morgan 11329 1015 8.96%
10 Barry Larkin 9057 817 9.02%
11 Tim Raines 10359 966 9.33%
12 Rod Carew 10550 1028 9.74%
13 Hank Aaron 13941 1383 9.92%
14 Billy Williams 10519 1046 9.94%
15 Carl Yastrzemski 13992 1393 9.96%
16 Cal Ripken, Jr. 12883 1305 10.13%
17 Paul Molitor 12167 1244 10.22%
18 Roberto Alomar 10400 1140 10.96%
19 Robin Yount 12249 1350 11.02%
20 Gary Carter 9019 997 11.05%
21 Eddie Murray 12817 1516 11.83%
22 Ernie Banks 10394 1236 11.89%
23 Roberto Clemente 10211 1230 12.05%
24 Willie Mays 12496 1526 12.21%
25 Kirby Puckett 7831 965 12.32%
26 Joe Torre 8802 1094 12.43%
27 Rickey Henderson 13346 1694 12.69%
28 Frank Robinson 11742 1532 13.05%
29 Orlando Cepeda 8698 1169 13.44%
30 Ryne Sandberg 9282 1260 13.57%
31 Dave Winfield 12358 1686 13.64%
32 Frank Thomas 10075 1397 13.87%
33 Andre Dawson 10769 1509 14.01%
34 Craig Biggio 12504 1753 14.02%
35 Carlton Fisk 9853 1386 14.07%
36 Ron Santo 9397 1343 14.29%
37 Ivan Rodriguez 10270 1474 14.35%
38 Mike Piazza 7745 1113 14.37%
39 Johnny Bench 8674 1278 14.73%
40 Lou Brock 11240 1730 15.39%
41 Jim Rice 9058 1423 15.71%
42 Ken Griffey, Jr. 11304 1779 15.74%
43 Willie McCovey 9692 1550 15.99%
44 Jeff Bagwell 9431 1558 16.52%
45 Tony Perez 10861 1867 17.19%
46 Harmon Killebrew 9833 1699 17.28%
47 Mike Schmidt 10062 1883 18.71%
48 Willie Stargell 9027 1936 21.45%
49 Reggie Jackson 11418 2597 22.74%

The list of batters on the 2018 Hall of Fame ballot ranked in the same way:

Rank Name PA SO SO %
1 Omar Vizquel 12013 1087 9.05%
2 Gary Sheffield 10947 1171 10.70%
3 Vladimir Guerrero 9059 985 10.87%
4 Johnny Damon 10917 1257 11.51%
5 Barry Bonds 12606 1539 12.21%
6 Chipper Jones 10614 1409 13.27%
7 Edgar Martinez 8674 1202 13.86%
8 Larry Walker 8030 1231 15.33%
9 Jeff Kent 9537 1522 15.96%
10 Scott Rolen 8518 1410 16.55%
11 Fred McGriff 10174 1882 18.50%
12 Manny Ramirez 9774 1813 18.55%
13 Andruw Jones 8664 1748 20.18%
14 Sammy Sosa 9896 2306 23.30%
15 Jim Thome 10313 2548 24.71%

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Craig Biggio, Houston Astros, Hall of Fame

Craig Biggio was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015 after a 20 year career with the Houston Astros. According to Baseball Reference, his career Wins Above Replacement rating was 65.1. Biggio currently ranks 23rd on the all time hits list with 3,060, but Adrian Beltre (3,048) and Albert Pujols (2,968) may pass him soon. He is 2nd all time in the Hit by Pitch category with 285, just 3 short of the top spot, and he led the majors in this category 5 times. Chase Utley with 199 HBP is the only active player anywhere close to Biggio in this regard. Just so you know, Hughie Jennings is the all time HBP leader with 287 and played from 1891 to 1918, effectively making Biggio the modern era leader in this category.

Biggio won 4 Gold Gloves, 5 Silver Sluggers, and played in 7 All-Star games over the course of his career.

Here is a list of the Craig Biggio cards that I currently have in inventory. Send an email message to BigBubbo@yahoo.com about any cards you wish to purchase or talk trade. I personally collect Bob Gibson, Roberto Clemente, Tom Seaver, St. Louis Cardinals – especially from the 60’s, 1969 and 1986 New York Mets, and 1985 Kansas City Royals.

Related pages:

Biggio all star_

 

Topps 1990 All Star #404

 

 

 

 

 

 

craig-biggio-224

 

Fleer 1990 #224

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggio 2

Leaf 1991 Studio #173

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggio Score 91 Franchise

 

Score 1991 The Franchise

 

 

 

 

 

biggio score dream team 92

Score 1992 Dream Team

 

 

 

 

Biggio

 

Score 1992 #460

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Topps 1992 #565

 

 

 

 

 

 

biggio 1992 pinnacle

1992 Pinnacle #140

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggio 1994 Donruss

 

1994 Donruss #12

 

 

 

 

 

 

biggio 1998 donruss upclose

 

1998 Donruss Up Close & Personal #79

 

 

 

 

 

biggio skybox thunder 99

 

1999 Skybox Thunder

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for reading and please consider subscribing to my blog, liking my page on Facebook, and/or following me on Twitter: @Big_Bubbo.

It’s the World Series! Who is Rooting for the Astros?

The Houston Astros represented the National League in the 2005 World Series and were swept by the Chicago White Sox. In 2017, the Astros will represent the American League against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 2005 team were led by future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio and it was the last season for Jeff Bagwell, also a Hall of Fame inductee and both of whom were lifelong Astros. With the exception of big name free agent pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, the team was pretty much all home-grown.

According to Baseball Reference, Biggio is the all-time Astros career leader in 18 offensive categories including Games Played, At Bats, Plate Appearances, Runs, Hits, Doubles, Total Bases, and Extra Base Hits. Bagwell is the all-time Astros leader in Home Runs, RBI, Walks, Intentional Walks, Sacrifice Flies, and 8 other categories.

The 2017 Astros are also home-grown, a fine testament to the organization’s farm system, and a most exciting team to watch. Three of the current stars: Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and George Springer, are all under 28 years of age and their names already appear in the Top 10 Astros Career Statistics list for numerous categories. Altuve leads the current group with 15 Top 10 Career Stats lists including Hits (9th), Total Bases (9th), Doubles (6th), Stolen Bases (4th), and Extra Base Hits (9th).

Correa appears in 7 Top 10 Astros Career lists and currently stands at 8th on Astros career On-Base Percentage (.366), 5th in Slugging Percentage (.498), 4th in OPS (.863), and 9th in At Bats per Home Run (21.0). Springer appears in 4 Top 10 lists and currently stands 9th in Slugging (.478), 7th in OPS (.837), and 6th in At Bats per Home Run (18.9)! Here’s hoping that these three players spend their careers in a Houston uniform and set new standards in these and many more statistical categories as well as joining Biggio and Bagwell in the Hall of Fame.

Go to my Craig Biggio baseball cards page.