Falling on the Sword - The Season Dies Reds Style
No, I didn’t desert you, nor the game, nor the Reds.. I just stepped away. Never-the-less, here are some notes that help spread some of the teams blood around the scene of the carnage.
Brandon Phillips becomes the first Reds player since Dave Parker (1986) to have more then 700 plate appearances in a season.
Copping 700 PA’s in a season is quite a feat, one that in Reds history is held in a stranglehold by Pete Rose, who owns 44% of the times it has been accomplished.
CINCINNATI REDS SEASON PLATE APPEARANCES YEAR PA Pete Rose 1974 770 Pete Rose 1975 764 Pete Rose 1976 759 Pete Rose 1965 757 Pete Rose 1973 752 Tommy Harper 1965 745 Pete Rose 1977 731 Pete Rose 1978 729 Pete Rose 1972 729 Vada Pinson 1965 728 Pete Rose 1970 728 Pete Rose 1969 728 George Burns 1923 724 George Burns 1922 723 Bob Bescher 1911 716 Johnny Temple 1956 712 Frankie Baumholtz 1947 711 Johnny Bench 1974 708 Bill Werber 1939 707 Woody Williams 1944 707 Pete Rose 1971 707 Vada Pinson 1959 706 Vada Pinson 1960 706 Tony Perez 1969 704 Brandon Phillips 2007 702 Frank Robinson 1962 701 Pete Rose 1966 700 Jake Daubert 1922 700 Dave Parker 1986 700 Dain Clay 1945 700
Adam Dunn had 69 Extra base Hits, that puts him in a tie with Big Klu for 4th place in Reds history in achieving that feat.
EXTRA BASE HITS >= 65 Frank Robinson 7 Vada Pinson 4 Johnny Bench 4 Ted Kluszewski 3 Adam Dunn 3
BTW Dunn’s secondary average was a robust .496, giving him his third time above .495, only Joe Morgan with 5 times above .495 has done it more then Dunn and only the two of them have done it more then once and in case you’re wondering what the heck it is here’s a description.
Secondary Average. The stat measures those offensive components that are not measured in batting average. The formula is (TB-H+BB+SB)/AB
Alex Gonzalez finished the season with a .440 Slg % which is the 11th best in team history from the keystone position (400 PA’s Min) This chart is also dominated by a local Reds great
SLG YEAR SLG 1 Barry Larkin 1996 .567 2 Barry Larkin 1991 .506 3 Barry Larkin 1998 .504 4 Barry Larkin 1995 .492 5 Barry Larkin 2000 .487 6 Felipe Lopez 2005 .486 7 Eddie Miller 1947 .457 8 Barry Larkin 1992 .454 9 Barry Larkin 1993 .445 10 Joe Tinker 1913 .445
Jeff Keppinger finishes the year with a .402 OB%, this is quite the feat as well, looking at the Reds in the division era there has only been 17 guys to achieve the feat (250 PA’s Min) Even crazier is 13 of them occurred in the 1969-1981 period, with only four players doing it since 1982.
Well make that five.
1982-2007 OBA YEAR OBA PA Kal Daniels 1987 .429 430 Barry Larkin 1996 .410 627 Austin Kearns 2002 .407 435 Jeff Keppinger 2007 .402 278 Adam Dunn 2002 .400 676
Back to Brandon Phillips for a moment, his 30/30 season is the second time the Reds have had a middle infielder achieve that feat, the third overall (Eric Davis) however it also is a season that saw Brandon taking only 32 walks, making him only the 4th player in MLB history to have a 30/30 season and less then 40 walks.
WALKS YEAR BB HR SB Alfonso Soriano 2002 23 39 41 Joe Carter 1987 27 32 31 Brandon Phillips 2007 33 30 32 Alfonso Soriano 2005 33 36 30 Alfonso Soriano 2003 38 38 35 Sammy Sosa 1993 38 33 36
BTW In 1966 Pete Rose walked only 37 times in 700 trips to the dish, so Phillips holds the record for the fewest walks by a Red with over 700 PA’s in a season.
So that’s some of the hitting we saw this season, the pitching is not worth noting.. aside from the usual heroes.