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Just The Sports: American League Hitting Streaks

Just The Sports

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

American League Hitting Streaks

As of today, fifteen American League hitters (Chone Figgins-14, Dustin Pedroia-14, Jermaine Dye-14, Mike Lowell-14, Mike Napoli-14, Dan Johnson-15, Jorge Posada-15, Orlando Cabrera-15, Alex Rodriguez-18, Derek Jeter-19 & 20, Yuniesky Betancourt-20, Kevin Youkilis-23, Torii Hunter-23, Ichiro Suzuki-25, and Casey Blake-26) have strung together a hitting streak of at least fourteen games, or for the baseball history buffs out there, one-quarter of the way to DiMaggio's MLB record fifty-six game hitting streak. Yet, not every hitting streak is equal, a fact most media outlets ignore since they are still obsessed only with hits regardless of what kind they are, and these year's hitting streaks should be ranked in at least one locale.

Although Alex Rodriguez is not the possessor of the longest American League hitting streak this season, he has by far the most impressive overall hitting statistics of any of these hitters. In fact, the start he had in the first eighteen games of this season was historic, as he had a line of .400 BA/.453 OBP/1.053 SLG, giving him an otherworldly .467 GPA, most of that due to the fourteen home runs he hit in the eighteen-game span.

On the other side of the spectrum, it was Rodriguez's teammate, Derek Jeter, who had the least impressive hitting streak out of the fifteen hitters. Throughout his twenty-game hitting streak, Jeter hit a toothless, compared to the other players, .364 BA/.418 OBP/.466 SLG with a .305 GPA. Of course, this twenty-game hitting streak is not to be confused with what he did in nineteen straight games when he hit .417 BA/.517 OBP/.597 SLG with a .382 GPA, making that the streak he will probably remember more fondly.

As far as highest batting average during the respective batting averages, that honor goes to another Yankee, Jorge Posada. If it had not been for Rodriguez, Posada's batting line of .473 BA/.517 OBP/.764 SLG with a .423 GPA would have made him the leader in the hitting streak clubhouse, but instead he just places and does not win.

Dan Johnson and Derek Jeter both deserve honorable mention for reminding us all that a player can draw walks and still keep a hitting streak going. During Johnson's fifteen-game streak (.411 BA/.514 OBP/.714 SLG/.410 GPA) and Jeter's nineteen-game streak, each had an OBP at least .100 points above their batting averaging, showing that even when they were not hitting, they were still getting on base by other means.

Each of the other hitters should be given their due as well and their hitting statistics are as follows: Chone Figgins (.452 BA/.469 OBP/.516 SLG/.340 GPA), Dustin Pedroia (.462 BA/.482 OBP/.654 SLG/.380 GPA), Jermaine Dye (.333 BA/.339 OBP/.649 SLG/.315 GPA), Mike Lowell (.370 BA/.417 OBP/.667 SLG/.354 GPA), Mike Napoli (.354 BA/.411 OBP/.708 SLG/.362 GPA), Orlando Cabrera (.426 BA/.446 OBP/.590 SLG/.348 GPA), Yuniesky Betancourt (.368 BA/.402 OBP/.500 SLG/.306 GPA), Kevin Youkilis (.426 BA/.468 OBP/.733 SLG/.394 GPA), Torii Hunter (.372 BA/.394 OBP/.660 SLG/.342 GPA), Ichiro Suzuki (.411 BA/.445 OBP/.500 SLG/.325 GPA), and Casey Blake (.317 BA/.408 SLG/.606 SLG/.335 GPA).

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