I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to do when looking at a baseball card is checking out the stats on the back. Every now and then, while doing so, you find a set of numbers that really jumps out at you. This ranges from the absurdly brilliant to the downright atrocious and all else in between. This is a look at some historical player season stat lines that have jumped out at me over the years for one reason or another. All stats quoted are from Baseball Reference by the way. Also, I have tried to avoid some of the more obvious ones unless there's something I really want to highlight.
Hack Wilson - 1930
56 HR, 191 RBI, 177 OPS+, .356 AVG
Serious baseball fans and historians will know that 1930 was perhaps the most offensive year of the pre-steriod era, but the accomplishments of Hack Wilson that season are astounding even by those standards. The most jaw dropping stat of course is the RBI total. It has yet to be surpassed or even approached since and probably never will be broken. To boot, the season was 154 games long back then, not 162. Wilson himself would never hit more than 23 homers or drive in 130+ runs again as his career declined with his worsening alcoholism. He retired in 1934 and passed away in 1948 at 48 years of age. He was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1979.
Enzo Hernandez - 1971
0 HR, 12 RBI, 549 AB, .222AVG, 33 E, 21SB
The Venezuelan shortstop set a since unsurpassed standard of futility in the clutch in 1971. In 549 at-bats he drove in a grand total of 12 runs. (NOT A TYPO!) To be fair, he was batting near the bottom of one of the weakest lineups in the majors during that 1971 season so there weren't too many runners to drive home but still, 12 RBI! To add insult to injury, his 33 errors led NL shortstops in 1971. His saving grace is that he finished 9th with 21 steals and would go on to steal 37 bases and drive in a career best 34 runs during his best season in 1974. He retired after the 1978 season.
Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn - 1884
73 GS, 1.83 ERA, 678.2 IP, 60-12, 216 R, 104ER
The 19th century wasn't exactly known for managers protecting pitchers' arms but this stat line is incredible even for this era. The reason why Charlie Radbourn started so many games down the stretch in 1884 is that the Providence's other starter, Bill Sweeney, had jumped the team to join a team in the short lived Union Association. Radbourn at the time was suspended for knocking a catcher out cold (Radbourn was famous for having a difficult personality) and offered to pitch the rest of the team's games in exchange for reinstatement and a small raise. He went on to lead Providence to the pennant and lead the NL champs to victory over American Association champs the New York Metropolitans by pitching and winning all three games there. His 60 wins and 678 innings will almost certainly never be surpassed. The fact that so many runs against him were unearned is testament to how common fielding errors were in that era due to lack of or low quality gloves and poor field conditions. Unsurprisingly arm issues crept up and forced him to retire in 1891. Radbourn died as a recluse in the back room of his saloon that he opened upon retirement in 1897. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939.
Jack Nabors - 1916
1-20, 3.47 ERA
I only included these stats because this is all I need to make my point. The 1916 season by Jack Nabors is bad luck on steroids. (pardon the word choice) For context future hall of famer Stan Coveleski, who debuted that same season had an only slightly better 3.41 ERA but he went 14-13. Nabors was the victim of the putrid run support that came with being on the 1916 A's who were a shell of the former glory that saw them largely dominate the American League from 1910-14. Connie Mack, pressed by financial issues had sold many of his stars. The second year player did get his first and only MLB win against the eventual champion Red Sox (who had a young pitcher named Babe Ruth) to go 1-1 at the time before his historic string of hard luck hit. He finished 1-25 for his career after two appearances in 1917 and died of tuberculosis at age 35 in 1923.
Chris Davis - 2018
.168 AVG, 49 OPS+, -3.6 WAR, .243OBP, 192 SO
The numbers above are staggeringly bad. Now what if I told you these were the numbers of a former 50 homer man and MVP making $23 million for that season? The 2018 season for Chris Davis was historically bad. From striking out well over a third of the time to putting up an OBP almost 100 points below league average, it's safe to say little went right for Davis. He was never known for high batting average but .168 over a full 162 is outright dreadful. What's most shocking though is the -3.6 WAR. He LOST you 3.6 games compared to a hypothetical average replacement. Just wow. To make matters worse, the pattern continued into 2019 and 2020. His career is almost certainly over after this season.
Bob Gibson - 1968
22-9, 1.12 ERA, 1.77 FIP, 5.8H/9, 11.2 WAR
1968 was known as the year of the pitcher. For context, Carl Yastrzemski won a batting title hitting just .301. Even in this context however, the numbers that Bob Gibson posted in 1968 are truly staggering. His 1.12 ERA is the lowest since the dead ball era and his 1.77 FIP and overall career suggest it was hardly a fluke. How good was Bob Gibson in 1968? He allowed less than 6 hits per 9 innings. And he didn't walk many either. Good luck scoring runs against someone putting up these kinds of numbers. Not surprisingly, he would put up a ridiculous 11.2 WAR before meeting his Waterloo in the form of Mickey Lolich in game 7 of that year's World Series. He retired in 1975 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981.
Ed Walsh - 1910
18-20, 1.27 ERA, 5 SV, 11.1 WAR
The all time leader in ERA unsurprisingly led the American League in that category in 1910, and lost 20 games. In what is easily the finest season by a 20 game loser Walsh was every bit as good as in his 40 win season of 1908, perhaps better. His 1.27 ERA is better than his 1908 clip of 1.42 and his 1910 WAR was 11.1 compared to 10.3 in 1908. However, his workload was heavier in 1908. To make his 1910 season even more amazing, he contributed a league leading 5 saves in an era where closers and relief specialists were not yet in vogue. He was both the Whote Sox bullpen ace and their rotation ace. His 18-20 record is more a testament to the historic futility of the White Sox offense. (.211 team BA is the all time lowest) He would retire in 1917 with a career 1.82 ERA and take his place in Cooperstown in 1946. He died in 1959.
Hugh Duffy - 1894
.440 AVG, 18 HR, 145 RBI, 15 SO, 1.196 OPS, .502 OBP
Closing off with one of the forgotten great seasons in baseball history, let us now explore Hugh Duffy's incredible 1894 season. Even if you take into account that hitting .400 was more common in that era his .440 average is still amazing. In fact, it's a single season record. He was also on base more than half the time! (.502 OBP) The diminutive Duffy, to whom Cap Anson had sneered "Where is the rest of you?", even added a then prodigious 18 HR to lead the league en route to a career best 145 RBI and 1.196 OPS which is among the highest ever, let alone of that era. How locked in was Hugh Duffy in 1894? In almost 600 AB, he struck out a grand total of 15 times! You will likely never see that in the modern age. Duffy would retire in 1906 and go on to become a respected coach. He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1945 and died in 1954.
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