This year’s LFGM Pride shirt with Sarah Wiener’s logo design is now available… and also we sent some to the fellas at 41 Seaver Way. Hope they enjoy them and wear them with, well, pride.
We’ve been over Pete Alonso’s torrid start with home runs, and he heads to Denver for the weekend with a major league-leading 19, a new Mets record for 51 games into a season. He’s got three dingers in nine career games there, for whatever it’s worth.
Alonso also brings with him to Denver, for the first time since his initial tear, an OPS of .900, while toting a .239 batting average. His strikeout rate is up a tick, but his BABIP is a mere .210, and that’s what going to Colorado can really help with, so we’ll see what happens there.
What’s interesting here, and the subject of today’s Stathead search, is the lowest batting averages with a .900-plus OPS for a full season, which we’ll cut off at .260 because it’s interesting and right before the next-lowest batting average this season for a guy with a .900 OPS, Juan Soto (.262/.917).
Mickey Tettleton, 1995 Rangers, .238/.906 (32 HR)
Harmon Killebrew, 1962 Twins, .243/.912 (48 HR)
Adam Dunn, 2005 Reds, .247/.927 (40 HR)
Ronald Acuña Jr., 2020 Atlanta, .250/.987 (14 HR)
José Bautista, 2015 Blue Jays, .250/.913 (40 HR)
Jason Giambi, 2003 Yankees, .250/.939 (41 HR)
Mike Schmidt, 1979 Phillies, .253/.950 (45 HR)
Giambi, 2006 Yankees, .253/.971 (37 HR)
Schmidt, 1983 Phillies, .255/.923 (40 HR)
Jack Cust, 2007 A’s, .256/.912 (26 HR)
Pat Burrell, 2007 Phillies, .256/.902 (30 HR)
Shohei Ohtani, 2021 Angels, .257/.965 (46 HR)
Killebrew, 1963 Twins, .258/.904 (45 HR)
Josh Donaldson, 2019 Atlanta, .259/.900 (37 HR)
Todd Hundley, 1996 Mets, .259/.906 (41 HR)
Alonso, 2019 Mets, .260/.941 (53 HR)
Bautista, 2010 Blue Jays, .260/.996 (54 HR)
Greg Vaughn, 1996 Brewers-Padres, .260/.903 (41 HR)
And for what it’s worth, the lowest batting average in a 60-homer season belongs to Roger Maris, who hit .269 in 1961 — his .993 OPS that year is the only sub-1.000 figure for a 60-dinger club member. Sammy Sosa had a 1.002 in 1999, for a 151 OPS+, the lowest in that category for a 60-homer season. Sosa was at 160 in 1998, while Maris had a 167 in 1961. Mickey Mantle’s was 206 that year. If we’d had advanced stats then, the conversation would’ve been insufferable.
We Can Pod It Out 120: Revolution