There was once a time when hitting less than .260 suggested that you were a poor offensive player. In fact, it was only a decade ago that every Toronto Blue Jays hitter batted at least .245. At the moment, the 2012 Blue Jays as a team are hitting .239.
The Blue Jays are not the only franchise struggling to pick up hits. There are six teams that are batting worse than Toronto. It’s not as if it’s impossible to pick up a hit these days. Both of last year’s World Series teams are batting better than .280 and there are currently six batters hitting better than .350 and two players hitting better than .400.
On the other hand, there are 11 batters hitting less than .200. Toronto fans will have two of those batters on display this weekend as first baseman Ike Davis lugs in his .167 average for the New York Mets while recent MVP candidate Jose Bautista can’t buy a hit this season; his average is hovering around the Mendoza line at .199.
For those of you who did not grow up speaking baseball, the Mendoza line is a .200 average. The name comes from the former Pittsburgh Pirates, Mariners, and Rangers utility player Mario Mendoza who simply played because of his glove. He suffered five seasons with an average less than .200 and retired with a career .215 batting clip. His legacy is very much alive today.
The return of the sub-.200 hitter is somewhat new to baseball. We did not see a single batter fall below that mark from 2000-2009 after Ruben Rivera hit just .195 for the San Diego Padres in 1999. Then came 2010 and Carlos Pena and Mark Reynolds both suffered the indignity of a .196 and .198 batting average.
Rather than suffer much humiliation and land a spot on their team’s respective benches, both Pena and Reynolds remained every day players racking up 484 and 499 at bats. For Pena, the low batting average was tolerated because of his positive clubhouse presence, fine defense, and much-needed power. Reynolds is well below average on the field and he also set all sorts of records with his strikeouts. Regardless, the Baltimore Orioles kept him in the lineup because of his occasional round-tripper.
Last year only Adam Dunn fell below a .200 average. He wasn’t even close in what many consider the worst offensive season of all-time. The slugger who signed with the Chicago White Sox following seven straight seasons of 38 or more home runs was simply out of whack as he suffered through a .159 average with 11 home runs. This season Dunn has turned things around. Through less than a quarter of the season he has already surpassed last year’s home run total and the batting average is at a more respectable .241.
That brings us to this season and the vast confusion surrounding how so many batters can no longer hit. Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks was an all-star last year, now he’s the worst batter in baseball with a .154 batting clip. Ike Davis was supposed to be a star on the rise for the Mets, however, his average is down nearly 50 per cent from a year ago. Another major surprise is Royals phenom Eric Hosmer. He came in third last year in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, but now his average has declined from .293 to .174.
The Blue Jays have their own problems. Joey Bats went from a .302 average to .199, and Adam Lind was destined for a demotion with a .186 mark. Looking at the numbers it is fair to ascertain that we are very much in a pitcher’s era. However, it is also fair to note that we are very early in the season and by year’s end the dirty dozen hitting less than .200 will likely end up with more respectable averages once they regress to their usual performance.
The term no-hitters was supposed to identify a historic performance by a Major League pitcher. Now the term also relates to several batters earning Major League paychecks despite their inability to reach base via a hit.
Current Sub-.200 hitters
| Minimum 400 AB in all previous years, Minimum 100 AB this year | ||||||||
| Year | Name | Team | Position | AVG | AB | |||
| 2000-09 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 2010 | Carlos Pena | Rays | 1B | .196 | 484 | |||
| 2010 | Mark Reynolds | Orioles | 3B | .198 | 499 | |||
| 2011 | Adam Dunn | White Sox | 1B | .159 | 415 | |||
| 2012 | Rickie Weeks | Brewers | 2B | .154 | 130 | |||
| 2012 | Clint Barmes | Pirates | SS | .155 | 110 | |||
| 2012 | Ryan Raburn | Tigers | OF | .157 | 102 | |||
| 2012 | Ike Davis | Mets | 1B | .167 | 126 | |||
| 2012 | Nick Hundley | Padres | C | .167 | 108 | |||
| 2012 | Brent Morel | White Sox | 3B | .171 | 111 | |||
| 2012 | Eric Hosmer | Royals | 1B | .174 | 144 | |||
| 2012 | Danny Valencia | Twins | 3B | .190 | 100 | |||
| 2012 | Erick Aybar | Angels | SS | .190 | 126 | |||
| 2012 | Casey Kotchman | Indians | 1B | .196 | 112 | |||
| 2012 | Jose Bautista | Blue Jays | OF | .199 | 136 | |||