Most “Cup Of Coffee” Seasons

Arizona infielder Cody Ransom

has made 30 plate appearances this season. That’s notable because it’s practically a full season’s worth for him; this is his 10th MLB season and he’s never had more than 86 PAs. That’s a lot of cups of coffee.

If we define a “cup of coffee” season for a hitter as one with 100 or fewer PAs, then Ransom currently is tied for the second-most such seasons in the modern era (since 1901):

At the moment, only Tom Prince

has more cup-of-coffee seasons than Ransom, but the way Ransom has hit so far (.308 / .400 / .654), he’d have to get hurt or go into a very severe (and immediate) slump to not get 70 more PAs in the season’s final 5 months. Obviously, Ransom’s not as good as that slash line, but he’s worked up a store of goodwill with that hot start. Plus, he can play a lot of positions, so it’ll be easy for the Diamondbacks to keep him around. If they do, he’ll likely end up back at 9 cups of coffee.

Ransom is also currently tied with Matt Sinatro

for the most cup-of-coffee seasons without ever sticking around beyond 100 PAs. Matt Alexander has the 3rd-most, with 9, while Charles Gipson , Jorge Velandia , & Ken Silvestri each had 8 cups of coffee without ever exceeding 100 PAs in a season.

But what about pitchers? Subbing in 100 batters faced for 100 PAs as the maximum, here are the pitchers with the most cups of coffee:

Nobody on this list threatens the record held by Tom Prince, which makes sense. For one thing, pitchers have made up a minority of MLB rosters for most of baseball history, so there are just going to be fewer marginal pitchers than marginal hitters. For another thing, it only takes 4-5 starts for most starting pitchers to reach 100 batters faced, so this standard is perhaps more stringent for pitchers than for hitters. Unsurprisingly, the players on the list above pitched mostly in relief.

Dennis Lewallyn

is the pitching leader for most seasons without ever getting more than a cup of coffee, with 8; Jeff Kaiser is in second, with 7 seasons.

Finally, let’s look at which players had the most consecutive cups of coffee; in other words, this is a list of the players with the most consecutive years in which they were A) in MLB at one point and B) did not have more than 100 PA/BF.

9 Consecutive Cups of Coffee

Hitter: Alexander (1973-81)

8 Consecutive Cups of Coffee

Hitters: Rob Ducey

(1987-94), Charlie Silvera (1950-57), and Gipson (1998-2005).

Pitcher: Lewallyn (1975-82)

7 Consecutive Cups of Coffee

Hitters: Paul Phillips

(2004-10), Tim Tolman (1981-87), and Ralph Houk (1947-54)

6 Consecutive Cups of Coffee

Hitters: Prince (1987-92), Sinatro (also 1987-92), Ransom (2007-12; 30 PA & counting this year), Corky Miller

(2003-08), Tim Spehr (1993-98), Junior Noboa (1987-92), Andy Tomberlin (1993-98), Dann Howitt (1989-94), Tom Lawless (1985-90), Doug Baker (1985-90), Tim Nordbrook (1974-79), Ike Hampton (1974-79), and John Powers (1955-60).

Pitchers: Dwayne Henry

(1984-89) and Clay Rapada (2007-12; 32 BF & counting this year)

Here’s hoping that Ransom (and Rapada) both manage to stick around long enough this year to break that pesky 100-PA/BF barrier for the first time–and then some. It’ll hurt their places in the junk-stat record book, but I’m pretty sure they’d rather have the extra playing time.

Thanks to reader “Burly” for the idea for this post.