To give him his due, Jose Reyes has managed to score 93 runs this year despite a dismal .303 OBP (to say nothing of the quality of the Mets’ #2 hitters and the disappointing production of Carlos Beltran). Alfonso Soriano has scored 99 runs with a .310 OBP.
Reyes, at least, still has an outside shot to be the first player to score 100 runs in a season with an OBP below .300 since Jake Beckley and Tom Brown in 1892, back when the average NL team scored 1.82 unearned runs/game (recall that reaching via error counts as an out in OBP); it was done 6 times between 1883 and 1892.
Five players since 1894 have scored 100 runs with an OBP below .310, all of them between 1984 and 1999: Juan Samuel twice, and Neifi Perez, Tony Armas and Devon White once each, with Armas’ .304 OBP in 1984 being the lowest, as well as the only example of a guy managing the feat mainly through power rather than speed. Thus, if Reyes scores 7 more runs without raising his OBP, he will have the lowest mark for a player scoring 100 runs in 113 years.
(List of players scoring 100 with a .309 or lower OBP here).
6 thoughts on “Making The Most of It”
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Having had the special privilege of living through the Tony Armas era in Boston I would like to point out that his 1984 OBP is officially listed at .300 (171 hits, 32 BB, 1 HBP in 679 ABs or .30044 to be more specific). Do not try to attempt to take the shine off of one of his many sucky accomplishments.
Renteria for Reyes? Anyone? Anyone?
I would definitely trade Reyes for a 22-year-old Edgar Renteria. Not for the current model.
I admire your glass half-full perspective: one could easily posit that a guy reaching scoring position 100 times under his own power (20 2B, 16 3B, 7 HR, 57 SB) should score a helluva lot more than 100 runs.
That said, Reyes is a remarkable specimen. If Willie had batted Wright second and Floyd third this year, Reyes might have gone over 100 already. If he can mature into a 1BB/10AB type hitter, you can pencil him in for 115+ runs a season til he hits his late 20s. Yet by that point, when he starts to lose some speed, he could be a 15-20 HR guy.
Of course, if he doesn’t master the strike zone, he’s got himself a one-way ticket to Samuelville.
Reyes has one considerable advantage over Juan Samuel, even if his plate discipline does not improve. That is, he is a fine defensive player at a key position, so there will always be a reason to keep him in the lineup. So he’ll either improve and be a good leadoff hitter, or he won’t, and will continue to be an excellent number eight hitter who is, unfortunately, still hitting leadoff.
Didn’t they do the sweep of Latin American ballplayers with fake ages already? How did Renteria avoid that? I swear to God that guy is like 40 years old. Did Tony LaRussa know this when they let him walk? Why else would you get rid of a guy who one year before hit .337 to replace him with the modern day Freddy Patek? Doesn’t 29 errors seem almost an impossible feat in Major League baseball? I thought Jose Offerman left us for the Mets (and a million other teams) long ago. Can you tell there are 10 games left and the Sox are 1 game down now?
Good point.