Something strange is happening in the National League … and it’s something that would have been a huge story a few years ago but is now going virtually unnoticed.
There’s a chance that nobody in the league will hit .300 this year.
This has never happened before. Famously, Carl Yastrzemski won the 1968 batting title with a .301 batting average — Yaz was the only player in the American League to hit .300 in the Year of the Pitcher. Crazily, nobody else even came all that close. Danny Cater finished second in batting that year at .290. Tony Oliva was third at .289.
But that year was bonkers in so many ways, and it led the league to lower the mound and tighten the strike zone, and when offense still didn’t come back the American League added the designated hitter.
This year doesn’t have quite that same vibe. Teams are scoring about a full run a game more than they did in 1968. The league-wide batting average is low (.246) but still significantly better than it was in ‘68 (.237). Home runs are flying out of the park. No pitcher has Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA, and no pitcher will win 30 games the way Denny McLain did.
But …
The National League really might not have a .300 hitter.
Right now, Freddie Freeman leads the league with a .301 average (well, technically, it’s .30068). Trea Turner’s average also rounds up to .301. Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick is hitting .299, and Will Smith is hitting .297. Will one of them likely end up hitting .300? Probably. Maybe even one of the others, like Ketel Marte (.293) or Manny Machado (.292), will get hot enough to push over .300.
But maybe not.
We all know that baseball has largely moved away from batting average as the statistic of choice. But for the league to not have even one .300 hitter would be bananas. And for it to possibly happen in the year that Ichiro is elected to the Hall of Fame just reaffirms how much the game has changed and is changing. There’s a long, proud line of players who made their mark as .300 hitters. They did other things, but it was that .300 batting average (and much higher) that marked them as stars — Clemente, Oliva, Rose, Carew, Brett, Oliver, Gwynn, Boggs, Ichiro, Mauer, Arráez
One thing you could count on: There would always be a .300 hitter on top of the batting leader chart. I don’t want that to end; we need somebody to get hot. In 2004, Ichiro had 50 hits in September — he went 50 for 132. If, say, Trea Turner could do that this year, he’d hit .317. That would be perfect.
📓 This is Joe’s Notebook.
Half-formed thoughts, instant reactions, and nonsense (usually baseball) in real time.
→ Like this? Sign up for the JoeBlogs newsletter — it’s totally free.
→ Already subscribed? Share this post with a friend.
