The Un-Triple Crown

The other day I off-handedly mentioned that Nolan Reimold gave Cesar Izturis a run for the "unbatting title" - even though he didn't really since Reimold didn't have enough plate appearances to qualify for such a thing - but it got me thinking. In baseball, of course, the Triple Crown (dormant since Carl Yastrzemski won in 1967, just a year after Baltimore's own Frank Robinson did in '66) goes to the hitter who leads the categories of batting average, home runs, and RBI all in a single season. Getting the Triple Crown is extremely difficult.

Getting the Un-Triple Crown? Also tough. Being dead last in RBI, HR, and batting average but still having enough plate appearances to qualify for the title is tricky. You have to be pretty bad with the bat, but good enough defensively (or be playing on a team somehow with no viable replacements) to stick for nearly the whole year. It's a tall order, though not as tall as the actual Triple Crown.

The last player to win a league Un-Triple Crown was Detroit's Ramon Santiago during their nearly-historically bad 2003. He hit .225 with 2 home runs and 29 RBI in 507 plate appearances over 141 games. To him I give a bravo, because the guy is still in Detroit (after a layover in Seattle) playing utility infielder, and he's actually gotten himself a decent, if humble, career going on.

In the NL, it's been 30 years since Chicago's Ivan DeJesus took home the Un-Hardware with a staggering .194 average, no home runs and 13 RBI in 460 PA during the 106 game season. This line also un-won DeJesus the most recent Major League Un-Triple Crown.

Hilariously, DeJesus was traded the following year to Philadelphia for Ryne Sandberg and Larry Bowa. No kidding. Maybe we should keep track of the Un-Triple Crown a little better?

Coming back to my original thought, in 2010 Cesar Izturis played in 146 games, getting 513 plate appearances for the Orioles. He finished second in the majors in fewest home runs (thanks Cliff Lee!), fourth worst in batting average, and second worst in RBI.

Joe Posnanski has written in the past that he'd prefer to move to a Triple Crown (and presumably an Un-Triple Crown) that judges players by batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. I'm not going to look up who last won Posnanski's Un-Triple Slash Crown (although I will tell you that it was neither Santiago in 2003 nor DeJesus in 1981), but 2010 Cesar Izturis was a finalist: 3rd worst in OBP and dead last in slugging.

And Dave Trembley batted Izturis leadoff in a game last year. At least he's speedy...?