The Major Baseball League (MBL) has pretty easy standards for qualifying for leading in an average category.
For batters: 502 plate appearances (PA), even for batting average (BA), which does not use PA as its denominator. Go figure.
For pitchers: 162 innings.
Jimmy Rollins set the record for PA in 2007: 778. Only 28 times have batters had at least 750 PA.
For a batter to qualify for BA leadership in each conference in the same season the batter would need at least 502 PA times 2: 1,004. That's very unlikely.
However, it is possible for a pitcher to qualify. Many pitchers in modern times have had 162*2 = 324 innings in a season. Since WWII (for the twitter intelligentsia, that's World War II (2): "since" would be after 1945) it's been done 27 times. For instance, Sandy Koufax had 335 innings pitched (IP) in 1965 and 323 in 1966, just one short.
Rk | Player | IP | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | HBP | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Wilbur Wood | 376.2 | 1972 | 30 | CHW | AL | 49 | 49 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 24 | 17 | .585 | 0 | 325 | 119 | 105 | 74 | 193 | 2.51 | 126 | 28 | 1490 | 7 |
2 | Mickey Lolich | 376.0 | 1971 | 30 | DET | AL | 45 | 45 | 29 | 4 | 0 | 25 | 14 | .641 | 0 | 336 | 133 | 122 | 92 | 308 | 2.92 | 124 | 36 | 1538 | 7 |
3 | Bob Feller | 371.1 | 1946 | 27 | CLE | AL | 48 | 42 | 36 | 10 | 5 | 26 | 15 | .634 | 4 | 277 | 101 | 90 | 153 | 348 | 2.18 | 151 | 11 | 1512 | 3 |
4 | Wilbur Wood | 359.1 | 1973 | 31 | CHW | AL | 49 | 48 | 21 | 4 | 1 | 24 | 20 | .545 | 0 | 381 | 166 | 138 | 91 | 199 | 3.46 | 116 | 25 | 1531 | 7 |
5 | Robin Roberts | 346.2 | 1953 | 26 | PHI | NL | 44 | 41 | 33 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 16 | .590 | 2 | 324 | 119 | 106 | 61 | 198 | 2.75 | 153 | 30 | 1412 | 2 |
6 | Steve Carlton | 346.1 | 1972 | 27 | PHI | NL | 41 | 41 | 30 | 8 | 0 | 27 | 10 | .730 | 0 | 257 | 84 | 76 | 87 | 310 | 1.97 | 182 | 17 | 1351 | 1 |
7 | Gaylord Perry | 344.0 | 1973 | 34 | CLE | AL | 41 | 41 | 29 | 7 | 0 | 19 | 19 | .500 | 0 | 315 | 143 | 129 | 115 | 238 | 3.38 | 117 | 34 | 1410 | 5 |
8 | Gaylord Perry | 342.2 | 1972 | 33 | CLE | AL | 41 | 40 | 29 | 5 | 1 | 24 | 16 | .600 | 1 | 253 | 79 | 73 | 82 | 234 | 1.92 | 168 | 17 | 1345 | 12 |
9 | Phil Niekro | 342.0 | 1979 | 40 | ATL | NL | 44 | 44 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 20 | .512 | 0 | 311 | 160 | 129 | 113 | 208 | 3.39 | 119 | 41 | 1436 | 11 |
10 | Robin Roberts | 336.2 | 1954 | 27 | PHI | NL | 45 | 38 | 29 | 4 | 6 | 23 | 15 | .605 | 4 | 289 | 116 | 111 | 56 | 185 | 2.97 | 136 | 35 | 1331 | 5 |
11 | Denny McLain | 336.0 | 1968 | 24 | DET | AL | 41 | 41 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 31 | 6 | .838 | 0 | 241 | 86 | 73 | 63 | 280 | 1.96 | 154 | 31 | 1288 | 6 |
12 | Sandy Koufax | 335.2 | 1965 | 29 | LAD | NL | 43 | 41 | 27 | 8 | 2 | 26 | 8 | .765 | 2 | 216 | 90 | 76 | 71 | 382 | 2.04 | 160 | 26 | 1297 | 5 |
13 | Phil Niekro | 334.1 | 1978 | 39 | ATL | NL | 44 | 42 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 19 | 18 | .514 | 1 | 295 | 129 | 107 | 102 | 248 | 2.88 | 142 | 16 | 1389 | 13 |
14 | Wilbur Wood | 334.0 | 1971 | 29 | CHW | AL | 44 | 42 | 22 | 7 | 2 | 22 | 13 | .629 | 1 | 272 | 95 | 71 | 62 | 210 | 1.91 | 189 | 21 | 1316 | 7 |
15 | Nolan Ryan | 332.2 | 1974 | 27 | CAL | AL | 42 | 41 | 26 | 3 | 1 | 22 | 16 | .579 | 0 | 221 | 127 | 107 | 202 | 367 | 2.89 | 118 | 18 | 1392 | 9 |
16 | Phil Niekro | 330.1 | 1977 | 38 | ATL | NL | 44 | 43 | 20 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 20 | .444 | 0 | 315 | 166 | 148 | 164 | 262 | 4.03 | 111 | 26 | 1428 | 8 |
17 | Robin Roberts | 330.0 | 1952 | 25 | PHI | NL | 39 | 37 | 30 | 3 | 2 | 28 | 7 | .800 | 2 | 292 | 104 | 95 | 45 | 148 | 2.59 | 141 | 22 | 1310 | 5 |
18 | Gaylord Perry | 328.2 | 1970 | 31 | SFG | NL | 41 | 41 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 23 | 13 | .639 | 0 | 292 | 138 | 117 | 84 | 214 | 3.20 | 125 | 27 | 1336 | 8 |
19 | Fergie Jenkins | 328.1 | 1974 | 31 | TEX | AL | 41 | 41 | 29 | 6 | 0 | 25 | 12 | .676 | 0 | 286 | 117 | 103 | 45 | 225 | 2.82 | 126 | 27 | 1305 | 8 |
20 | Catfish Hunter | 328.0 | 1975 | 29 | NYY | AL | 39 | 39 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 23 | 14 | .622 | 0 | 248 | 107 | 94 | 83 | 177 | 2.58 | 144 | 25 | 1294 | 5 |
21 | Mickey Lolich | 327.1 | 1972 | 31 | DET | AL | 41 | 41 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 22 | 14 | .611 | 0 | 282 | 100 | 91 | 74 | 250 | 2.50 | 127 | 29 | 1321 | 11 |
22 | Nolan Ryan | 326.0 | 1973 | 26 | CAL | AL | 41 | 39 | 26 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 16 | .568 | 1 | 238 | 113 | 104 | 162 | 383 | 2.87 | 123 | 18 | 1355 | 7 |
23 | Juan Marichal | 325.2 | 1968 | 30 | SFG | NL | 38 | 38 | 30 | 5 | 0 | 26 | 9 | .743 | 0 | 295 | 106 | 88 | 46 | 218 | 2.43 | 123 | 21 | 1307 | 6 |
24 | Gaylord Perry | 325.1 | 1969 | 30 | SFG | NL | 40 | 39 | 26 | 3 | 1 | 19 | 14 | .576 | 0 | 290 | 115 | 90 | 91 | 233 | 2.49 | 142 | 23 | 1345 | 11 |
25 | Bert Blyleven | 325.0 | 1973 | 22 | MIN | AL | 40 | 40 | 25 | 9 | 0 | 20 | 17 | .541 | 0 | 296 | 109 | 91 | 67 | 258 | 2.52 | 156 | 16 | 1321 | 9 |
Rk | Player | IP | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | HBP | |||
26 | Fergie Jenkins | 325.0 | 1971 | 28 | CHC | NL | 39 | 39 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 13 | .649 | 0 | 304 | 114 | 100 | 37 | 263 | 2.77 | 141 | 29 | 1299 | 5 |
27 | Denny McLain | 325.0 | 1969 | 25 | DET | AL | 42 | 41 | 23 | 9 | 0 | 24 | 9 | .727 | 0 | 288 | 105 | 101 | 67 | 181 | 2.80 | 134 | 25 | 1304 | 4 |
1 comment:
No one's come close to pitching 324 innings in a season since the AL and NL merged into the MBL, so seems pretty unlikely.
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