statistics That Do Not Make Sense

[Brownieand45sfan]

...but no one will ever probably bother to research.

Here is the first:

Why was Ted Kubiak fourth on the leaderboard for intentional walks in 1970? He hit .252 with only 40 RBIs! I mean there is Frank Howard, Powell, Killebrew, and then Ted Kubiak is fourth. Then it picks up again after a big drop off with Oliva, Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, Mincher, etc.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1970-batting-leaders.shtml

[Brooklyn]

...but no one will ever probably bother to research.

Here is the first:

Why was Ted Kubiak fourth on the leaderboard for intentional walks in 1970? He hit .252 with only 40 RBIs! I mean there is Frank Howard, Powell, Killebrew, and then Ted Kubiak is fourth. Then it picks up again after a big drop off with Oliva, Yastrzemski, Mincher, etc.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...-leaders.shtml

12 of his 16 intentional walks he was batting 8th. Guessing it is just a statistical anomoly where he happened to come up a number of times over the course of the season with 2 outs and a base open in a close game, and the opposing manager preferred the pitcher.

Personally, I prefer when they attack a week #8 hitter in that situation with the hope of having the pitcher lead off the next inning - I would be interested in which approach is statistically better

[Brownieand45sfan]

Here is another one: Tim McCarver, a catcher, leading the NL in triples in 1966. Over even Lou Brock.

[Jackaroo Dave]

Here is another one: Tim McCarver, a catcher, leading the NL in triples in 1966. Over even Lou Brock.

And Carlton Fisk led the AL in 1972. I guess they are the only catchers to lead their leagues in triples and play in 4 decades.

[RuthMayBond]

The immortal Spike Owens (career .341 SLG) got TWENTY-FIVE intentional walks in 1989, on a team that featured Larry Walker, Tim Wallach, Andres Galarraga, and Tim Raines

[dgarza]

The immortal Spike Owens (career .341 SLG) got TWENTY-FIVE intentional walks in 1989, on a team that featured Larry Walker, Tim Wallach, Andres Galarraga, and Tim Raines

This looks like another case of a man in the 8th spot.

[dgarza]

Here's a list of relatively weak hitters leading their league in IBBs:

                                                                       
Rk            Player Year IBB OPS+ Age  Tm Lg HR BB   BA  OBP  SLG  Pos
6         Wade Boggs 1992  19   96  34 BOS AL  7 74 .259 .353 .358  *5D
18   Garry Templeton 1984  23   79  28 SDP NL  2 39 .258 .312 .320   *6
19        Dale Berra 1983  19   88  26 PIT NL 10 61 .251 .327 .358   *6
27        Ralph Garr 1975  17   95  29 ATL NL  6 44 .278 .327 .384   *7
28      Bill Russell 1974  25   96  25 LAD NL  5 53 .269 .336 .351 *6/9
39      Leo Cardenas 1966  18   93  27 CIN NL 20 45 .255 .309 .419   *6
41    Bill Mazeroski 1962  16   95  25 PIT NL 14 37 .271 .315 .418   *4

[dgarza]

On the other end of the spectrum, these guys hit 40 HRs and were never IBBed, including Roger Maris in 1961 :

                                                    
Rk              Player Year IBB HR Age  Tm Lg RBI BB
1    Curtis Granderson 2011   0 41  30 NYY AL 119 85
2       Alex Rodriguez 1998   0 42  22 SEA AL 124 45
3          Roger Maris 1961   0 61  26 NYY AL 141 94

[dgarza]

Here's an odd one...

Slim Sallee won 21 games in 1919. On the way, he struck out only 24 batters and walked only 20. That leaves an awful lot of balls in play, especially for a 20 game winner.

                                                                                                                                                                         
Rk        Player Year  W SO BB Age  Tm Lg  G GS CG SHO GF L W-L% SV    IP   H  R ER  ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS PO BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str
                                                                                                                                                                         
1    Slim Sallee 1919 21 24 20  34 CIN NL 29 28 22   4  1 7 .750  0 227.2 221 63 52 2.06  136  4             893                      1  0                              0

[Jackaroo Dave]

Here's a list of relatively weak hitters leading their league in IBBs:

                                                                       
Rk            Player Year IBB OPS+ Age  Tm Lg HR BB   BA  OBP  SLG  Pos
6         Wade Boggs 1992  19   96  34 BOS AL  7 74 .259 .353 .358  *5D
18   Garry Templeton 1984  23   79  28 SDP NL  2 39 .258 .312 .320   *6
19        Dale Berra 1983  19   88  26 PIT NL 10 61 .251 .327 .358   *6
27        Ralph Garr 1975  17   95  29 ATL NL  6 44 .278 .327 .384   *7
28      Bill Russell 1974  25   96  25 LAD NL  5 53 .269 .336 .351 *6/9
39      Leo Cardenas 1966  18   93  27 CIN NL 20 45 .255 .309 .419   *6
41    Bill Mazeroski 1962  16   95  25 PIT NL 14 37 .271 .315 .418   *4

Pretty impressive. Who would guess that Dale Berra's league-leading stat was IBB? On the other hand, these are all low ob and slg lines, and in that situation[edit: except Boggs]--runners on, first base open, pitcher due up next--pretty much all that matters is the batting average. And none of these are open sores. I bet Wes Westrum, a better hitter overall, but with a lower average, didn't draw so many.

[RuthMayBond]

This looks like another case of a man in the 8th spot.

I guess, but it's not like the AL pitcher was batting behind him

[dgarza]

I guess, but it's not like the AL pitcher was batting behind him

Do you mean because it was the NL pitcher batting behind him?

[dgarza]

Double digit IBBs w/ 0 HRs

                                                                         
Rk          Player   BA IBB HR OPS+ Year Age  Tm Lg RBI BB  OBP  SLG  OPS
1    Roger Metzger .210  10  0   66 1976  28 HOU NL  29 52 .286 .270 .556
2        Jose Lind .235  12  0   55 1992  28 PIT NL  39 26 .275 .269 .544
3       Doug Flynn .237  10  0   62 1978  27 NYM NL  36 30 .277 .289 .567
4       Bill Almon .252  10  0   80 1978  25 SDP NL  21 33 .308 .309 .616
5       Doug Flynn .255  14  0   70 1980  29 NYM NL  24 22 .288 .312 .600
6    Don Kessinger .262  18  0   73 1973  30 CHC NL  43 57 .327 .310 .637
7     Tim Flannery .264  10  0   85 1982  24 SDP NL  30 30 .317 .330 .646
8      Ozzie Smith .280  13  0   98 1986  31 STL NL  54 79 .376 .333 .709

[dgarza]

Double digit IBBs - lowest AVG

                                                                             
Rk              Player   BA IBB HR OPS+ Year Age  Tm Lg RBI BB  OBP  SLG  OPS
1         John Bateman .190  11  2   45 1967  26 HOU NL  17 17 .245 .250 .495
2           Bobby Wine .190  10  2   48 1967  28 PHI NL  28 29 .249 .267 .516
3         Steve Yeager .193  11  4   64 1978  29 LAD NL  23 36 .301 .276 .577
4         Curt Blefary .200  11 15   89 1968  24 BAL AL  39 65 .301 .322 .623
5      Brooks Robinson .201  10  6   58 1975  38 BAL AL  53 44 .267 .274 .541
6           Alan Ashby .202  10  2   51 1979  27 HOU NL  35 26 .262 .277 .538
7          Hank Foiles .205  10  8   79 1958  29 PIT NL  30 45 .322 .348 .670
8           Don Buford .206  10  5   76 1972  35 BAL AL  22 69 .326 .267 .593
9         Chris Snyder .207  10 15   86 2010  29 TOT NL  48 52 .320 .376 .696
10     Mike Fitzgerald .207  12  5   69 1985  24 MON NL  34 38 .297 .288 .585
11     Alfredo Griffin .210  11  1   44 1990  32 LAD NL  35 29 .258 .254 .512
12       Roger Metzger .210  10  0   66 1976  28 HOU NL  29 52 .286 .270 .556
13      Billy Williams .211  15 11   98 1976  38 OAK AL  41 58 .320 .339 .659
14          Greg Brock .212  16  6   80 1988  31 MIL AL  50 63 .329 .310 .640
15        Kevin Elster .214  12  9   75 1988  23 NYM NL  37 35 .282 .313 .594
16         Ed Herrmann .214  12 11   86 1971  24 CHW AL  35 44 .317 .347 .664
17    Johnnie LeMaster .216  10  2   51 1982  28 SFG NL  30 31 .267 .266 .533
18   Fernando Gonzalez .217  11  9   72 1979  29 SDP NL  34 18 .258 .359 .617
19      Rafael Santana .218  12  1   52 1986  28 NYM NL  28 36 .285 .254 .539
20       Randy Hundley .218  10  5   52 1972  30 CHC NL  30 22 .261 .294 .555
21         Clete Boyer .218  11  8   58 1964  27 NYY AL  52 36 .269 .304 .573
22       Mike Scioscia .219  11  5   70 1982  23 LAD NL  38 44 .302 .296 .598
23           Jerry May .219  12  1   72 1968  24 PIT NL  33 41 .293 .272 .564
24      Roy Campanella .219  15 20   88 1956  34 BRO NL  73 66 .333 .394 .727

[milladrive]

I'm just gonna reply to the thread title with one or two off the top of my pointy little head.

I think one of the statistics that doesn't make sense is a rule that allows a run to be considered unearned despite no error being scored (such as, for instance, a run scoring on a passed ball; not an error yet unearned at the time of the play). Makes little sense to me.

I also think balks should be considered errors, but that seems like the opposite of what the thread is after. Even so, it's a non-statistic that, to me, doesn't make sense.