Grand Slams

[Frayed Knot]

Triggered by a discussion during one of the recent games where an announcer (I think AJ Pierzynski) mentioned JD Martinez's GS total (8)
before adding, 'but he comes up with the bases loaded a lot'. So that got me wondering who made the most of their trips w/bases loaded.
Ventura always comes to mind as his total is up there among a bunch of guys who mostly have a bunch more HRs than him.

So I took the top 13 all time GS leaders, which translates to 16 GS or more, and compared that to the number of PAs he had with the
pillows (as Keith would say) full of teammates. And, yes, I used PAs rather than just ABs to account for all trips to the plate which
started with runners all around.

So who is the clutchiest GS hitter among the elites?
Why it's none other than David Arthur Kingman!!!, who HR'd in a little under one of every ten bases loaded PAs
Ventura, as it turns out, was smack in the middle of the pack within the group.

	GS	PA w/123	Pct
KINGMAN, DAVE	16	167	9.58%
McCOVEY, WILLIE	18	196	9.18%
LEE, CARLOS	17	207	8.21%
RODRIGUEZ, ALEX	25	310	8.06%
GEHRIG, LOU	23	292	7.88%
WILLIAMS, TED	17	220	7.73%
VENTURA, ROBIN	18	238	7.56%
RAMIREZ, MANNY	21	285	7.37%
BABE RUTH	16	224	7.14%
FOXX, JIMMIE	17	242	7.02%
MURRAY, EDDIE	19	302	6.29%
AARON, HANK	16	272	5.88%
PUJOLS, ALBERT	16	315	5.08%

Do I think the results of this 'study' says anything? No, not really. Random variation most likely.
Mostly I was just curious.

[DocTee]

I remember someone from the mid-80s--Pat Tabler? Tom Paciorek?---who had a ridiculous (like .450) BA with the bases juiced. Not sure how many HRs though

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I wanted to stick to elite type GS hitters as I'm sure there's somebody who HR's in what turned out
to be his only AB with the bags juiced in his career which would wildly throw off the numbers.


oe: I thought of Paciorek too, but it was Tabler who was the bags juiced monster.
109 [1-2-3] PAs with a slash line of: .489/.505/.693 // 1198 but just 2 HRs so less than a 2% GS rate
which is probably the best to expect from a guy with just 47 career HRs in 4,000+ PA

[batmagadanleadoff]

if I'm reading this correctly, Kingman's former Mets teammate, John Milner, hit 10 grand slams in 79 PAs with the bases loaded, a rate of 12.6%

[Frayed Knot]

Yup.
I had the idea to go as low as 10 GS but the easiest lists to find showed only those 13 players with 16 or more.
I think it's likely that we'd find several players with higher rates if more were included.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I think it's likely that we'd find several players with higher rates if more were included.

Agreed. Milner came to my mind right away because I remember he had a knack for hitting grand slams. So I looked up his situational splits on BR.

[Frayed Knot]

I didn't look but Ventura probably has the fewest overall HRs (294) of those on the above list
and still that's well over double Milner's total of 131.

[Edgy MD]

I remember someone from the mid-80s--Pat Tabler? Tom Paciorek?---who had a ridiculous (like .450) BA with the bases juiced. Not sure how many HRs though

While there's likely never been another player quite like Pat Tabler with the bases loaded, he manged two grand slams in 109 plate appearances.

Nothing to sneeze at, of course, but what made him remarkable wasn't his bases-loaded power, but just how insanely hard he was to get out, despite otherwise being about as league-average a hitter as there was in the league.

Team	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip
Career	109	88	80	43	6	3	2	108	0	0	11	9	.489	.505	.693	1.198	61	8	1	0	9	0	1	.477
Mets	3	2	1	2	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	1.000

He joined the Mets at the end of his 10th season, and you'd figure by then, the pattern would have revealed itself as the quirk it was, or, if it was somehow a product of a distinct approach he had, the league would have figured it out.

But there he is with the Mets, as perfect as you can ask, small as his his sample size is. And he continued to excel in those situations after that in his last two seasons with the Blue Jays.

It's a small wonder that baseball ever let him retire.

[Gwreck]

I didn't look but Ventura probably has the fewest overall HRs (294) of those on the above list

By a wide margin. Carlos Lee had 358, Kingman in the mid 400s, Gehrig 493, and the rest are all in the 500 club.

[Frayed Knot]

108 RBI for Tabler in his 109 bases loaded PAs!!

How many RBIs do the Mets get out of 109 sacks juiced PAs? ... 25, maybe 30?
And at least 15 of those are from BBs and/or HBPs. Those are our most reliable run scoring plays.



oe: 34 in 69 PA to date this season (4 BB, 2 HBP)* or right about half Tabler's rate
SIGN TABLER NOW!!!!



* also 3 Sac Flies, so in 60 official ABs w/bases loaded the Mets have managed to knock in 25 runs on 11 hits [.183] seven of them singles

[MFS62]

Gil Hodges hit 14 career grand slams & was the NL All Time leader in that category at the time of his retirement.
What was his frequency?

Later

[Edgy MD]

	GS	PA w/123	Pct
KINGMAN, DAVE	16	167	9.58%
McCOVEY, WILLIE	18	196	9.18%
LEE, CARLOS	17	207	8.21%
RODRIGUEZ, ALEX	25	310	8.06%
GEHRIG, LOU	23	292	7.88%
WILLIAMS, TED	17	220	7.73%
VENTURA, ROBIN	18	238	7.56%
RAMIREZ, MANNY	21	285	7.37%
BABE RUTH	16	224	7.14%
FOXX, JIMMIE	17	242	7.02%
>> HODGES, GIL	14	215	6.51%
MURRAY, EDDIE	19	302	6.29%
AARON, HANK	16	272	5.88%
PUJOLS, ALBERT	16	315	5.08%

[MFS62]

Thank you.
Later

[Frayed Knot]

Gil Hodges hit 14 career grand slams & was the NL All Time leader in that category at the time of his retirement.
What was his frequency?

I dunno. Ask Kenneth. Or Dan Rather.

[MFS62]

Please do.
Edgy understood what I meant.
Later

[ashie62]

Robin Ventura, I was at that game

[Frayed Knot]

Please do.
Edgy understood what I meant.

So did I.

[MFS62]

Please do.
Edgy understood what I meant.

So did I.

The why did you respond the way you did, saying "I dunno"?
Later

[Frayed Knot]

Because the question had already been answered so I decided to make a joke instead.

[MFS62]

Oh. I like your music and movie references. That one escaped me.
Later