Inside-The-Park Homers And Triples

As a followup to my earlier post about inside-the-park homers

(and as a warmup for the first day of multiple regular-season games in the 2012 season) I present my research on the players with the most out-of-whack ratios of IPHRs and triples.

First up, let’s take a look at the players who stretched the highest percentage of their career triples into inside-the-parkers. This is only among players with at least 2 IPHRs (187 in all since 1950). I used what I call “Homer Stretch Rate,” which is simply: IPHRs / (3Bs + IPHRs). In words: if a player has already made it to third on a hit, it’s the percentage of times that he makes it home on the same play (without an error, of course).

For reference, the MLB average Homer Stretch Rate since 1950 is 1.8%. Here are the players with the 10 highest Homer Stretch Rates:

• Jim Hearn
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  , 50% (2 IPHRs, 2 triples)
• Gene Oliver
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  , 29% (2 IPHRs, 5 triples)
• Tim Bogar
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  , 25% (3 IPHRs, 9 triples)
• Dustan Mohr
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  , 25% (2 IPHRs, 6 triples)
• Ken Caminiti
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  , 19% (4 IPHRs, 17 triples)
• Hector Cruz
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  , 18% (2 IPHRs, 9 triples)
• Prince Fielder
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  , 18% (2 IPHRs, 9 triples)
• Ted Kazanski
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  , 18% (2 IPHRs, 9 triples)
• Harry Anderson
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  , 16% (3 IPHRs, 16 triples)
• Bill Pecota
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  , 15% (2 IPHRs, 11 triples)

You may remember a couple of these names from the earlier post. Jim Hearn’s triple total was so low because he was a pitcher; he had only 618 PAs in his career, which I’m fairly certain is the fewest of any player with multiple inside-the-park homers. As I mentioned in the other post, there have only been 9 IPHRs by pitchers since 1950, so Hearn’s feat is very impressive.

Another player mentioned in the earlier post is Dustan Mohr, the only player with 2 inside-the-park homers as a pinch-hitter. Mohr managed only 6 triples in his career, which was largely undistinguished aside from receiving a single point in the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year voting. Only Hearn and Gene Oliver had fewer career triples among players with multiple IPHRs.

Among the players on the list, I’m most surprised to find Ken Caminiti and Prince Fielder there. Both were / are burly, lumbering sluggers with no foot-speed to speak of. Yet Caminiti managed 4 inside-the-park homers (tied for 12th-most since 1950) and Fielder already has 2 in his relatively young career. Obviously, both benefited from some lucky bounces, misplays, and/or collisions, because otherwise I have no idea how they could get all the way around the bases without being thrown out, even in their youths.

As you can see above, Tim Bogar has the fewest triples (9) among players with 3 IPHRs, and Caminiti has the fewest triples among those with 4 IPHRs. Interestingly, only two players have hit exactly 5 inside-the-parkers in their careers, and both had exactly 58 career triples: Brian McRae

and Bob Skinner . That’s a Homer Stretch Rate of 8%.

Four players had 6 IPHRs: Amos Otis

, Roberto Clemente , Willie Mays , and Robin Yount . Of these, Otis had by far the fewest triples, with 66; all the others had at least 126. Otis’ Homer Stretch Rate was 8%.

Three players had 7 IPHRs: Dick Allen

, Willie Davis , and Lou Brock . With “only” 79 triples, Allen has easily the best Homer Stretch Rate of the three (also 8%). Only 1 player has hit more than 7 inside-the-parkers: Willie Wilson , who had 12 to go along with 147 triples. That’s another 8% Homer Stretch Rate. It seems like that 8% figure is just about the max for any player who “earned” his inside-the-park homers with speed, rather than just lucking into a few.

Finally, let’s look at the players who have hit the most triples without managing a single IPHR:

• Brett Butler
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  , 131 triples
• Lance Johnson
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  , 117
• Juan Samuel
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  , 102
• Cristian Guzman
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  , 89
• Minnie Minoso
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  , 83
• Phil Garner
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  , 82
• Jim Rice
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  , 79
• Tony Perez
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  , 79
• Ray Durham
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  , 79
• Alfredo Griffin
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  , 78

Brett Butler and Lance Johnson are two of the fastest players I’ve ever watched, so it is somewhat shocking that neither ever got an inside-the-park homer. It’s not like either was a stranger to daring baserunning plays. Butler stole home 4 times in his career, and Johnson did it twice. We can chalk it up to just bad luck, I guess.

My Braves will open their 2012 season within a couple hours, which Barring any other interesting developments, my next post here will be a revisit of last year’s look at Opening Day Starters

.