10 highly unlikely batting champions

Posted: July 6, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Baseball, MLB | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some may argue OBP or even OPS, but batting average is the true test of the best hitter.

Here are baseballs 10 most unlikely batting champs:

1. Norm Cash, Tigers, 1961, .361 – Cash never came within 75 points of his magical season, and finished with a career .271 BA. His 41 homers and 132 RBIs that year were overshadowed by the great Maris-Mantle home run chase.

2. Snuffy Stirnweiss, Yankees, 1945, .309 – A second baseman with a .268 lifetime average, Stirnweiss won the AL batting title in the final year of World War II while many stars were still in the service.

3. Michael Cuddyer, Rockies, 2014, .331 – Cuddyer never hit higher than .284 until his breakout season last year, 53 points above his lifetime .278 average.

4. George Stone, Browns, 1906, .358 – Stone played just seven seasons, six with the Browns, yet managed to win an AL batting title. Ty Cobb would go on to win 11 of the next 13.

5. Debs Garms, Pirates, 1940, .355 – A singles hitter, Garms had a career year with Pittsburgh. He batted .293 lifetime with just 17 home runs.

6. Ferris Fain, A’s, 1951, .344; 1952, .327 – Fain, a journeyman first baseman who played nine years with four AL teams, won back-to-back batting titles for Philadelphia. He wound up a .290 career hitter.

7. Bubbles Hargrave, Reds, 1926, .353 – Bubbles, whose real name was Eugene, broke a run of six straight batting titles by the great Rogers Hornsby, who hit .400 three times in four years before Hargrave stole his crown.

8. Derrek Lee, Cubs, 2005, .335 – Lee had a career year in 2005 when he led the NL in batting, hits, doubles and slugging percentage. But lifetime he hit just .281.

9. Alex Johnson, Angels, 1970, .329 – Johnson played for eight teams during a 13-year career and hit .288 lifetime, yet edged out Carl Yastrzemski to win a batting title.

10. Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox, 1968, .301 – Yaz is a Hall of Famer who won three batting titles. But he managed to win one of them with the lowest average for a batting champion in baseball history.