Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Great seasons...

Most of us know the great stat lines in baseball history, Gibson's 1.12 ERA, Bonds 73 HR, Cy Young 511 wins, etc. However, there are some lines that have been lost in the mix, whether it was a season that was overshadowed by another player, a college season, or a minor league stat. Here is a look at a few seasons that may be overlooked...

1) Tim Lincecum's career Minor League stats - 6-0 - 1.01 ERA - 7 ER in 62 IP with 104 K's. Not a real surprise because of how dominant he has been at the major league level, but still pretty daggum impressive.

2) Lance Berkman (1997 at Rice University) - .431 with 41 HRs and 134 RBI - Helped turn the corner at Rice in this season playing with Matt Anderson and Jose Cruz. Paved the way for one of the best moments in Rice sports history, the 2003 CWS Title.

3) Charley "Ole Hoss" Radbourn's 1884 season - 59 wins, 12 losses, and 73 complete games. Pitching for the Providence Grays, Radbourn was really a "hoss", starting and finishing the Grays last 29 games down the stretch and a victory in the 1st World Series. Charley's 59 wins are still a record, but according to wikipedia, he may have won 60.

4) Rod Carew in 1977 (.388/14/100) - Rod did win the MVP in '77, but his .388 average is somewhat overlooked since George Brett hit .390 just 3 years later. Carew set career highs with 14 HR and 100 RBI this year as well.

5) Rico Carty in 1970 (.366/25/101) - Probably the most overlooked season in Atlanta Braves history, Rico won the batting title and in only 136 games posted over 100 RBI for the only time in his career.

6) Freddy Garcia 2001 - Freddy went 18-6 with a league best 3.05 ERA in 238 innings. Probably overlooked due to Pedro and Randy being so dominant, but in the steriod era Freddy was pretty darn good in 2001.

7) Rickie Weeks 2002 @ Southern University (.495/20/96) - Rickie backed up this season by hitting .483 in 2003 before becoming a top pick of the Brewers.


Anyone else have any to add?

3 comments:

Beezbo said...

You forgot Frank Thomas had a great season with the Angels in 1998. Something like .538 with 90 HR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_Featuring_Ken_Griffey,_Jr.

@Doks_Daddy said...

That was a great season. Don't forget Womack had a MLB record 255 steals as well.

Mike said...

What about Todd Helton in '00?
.372/42/147, almost as many doubles (59) as K's (61)...and he finished 5th in NL MVP voting somehow