Will there be a .400 hitter in 2020?

[madducks]

No player has hit .400 while qualifying (3.1 plate appearances per team game) for the batting title since Ted Williams in 1941.

How would you feel if someone hit .400 in 2020 while playing roughly 100 less games? Do they deserve to be on the same list along with Williams, Hornsby, Cobb, etc? Do they deserve a big asterisk next to their name?

What if they break the modern day record (.4265 by Nap LaJoie in 1901) for highest batting average in a season? Should it be recognized as the new record?

[Sour Masher]

Great accomplishment, but obvious asterisk. It should have its own column, but not be acknowledged as a full season record.

[revo]

I think the odds are pretty long against someone hitting .400 this season, even if it is only 60 games. Cody Bellinger was hitting .370 by Game 60 last season, for instance, and he was as hot as you can get. There was no BA leader over the last 20 years who was near .400 by Game 60.

That said, if someone does do it, no, it should not count in the record books.

[chancellor]

I'd vote yes and yes - names should go in the record books, and there should be an asterisk, assuming the season reaches scheduled 60-game completion.

[Gregg]

I'd vote yes and yes - names should go in the record books, and there should be an asterisk, assuming the season reaches scheduled 60-game completion.

Of course this is the correct answer, mostly because I agree with it.

I wonder if anyone in in the last 30 years had a .400 ave after 60 games?

[chancellor]

Of course this is the correct answer, mostly because I agree with it.

I wonder if anyone in in the last 30 years had a .400 ave after 60 games?

I'm pretty sure Garciaparra did in 2000; I think he was even at .400 until the AS Break, or very close. Chipper might have in '08 or '09, he started out on fire one of those two years.

[Ken]

I'm pretty sure Garciaparra did in 2000; I think he was even at .400 until the AS Break, or very close. Chipper might have in '08 or '09, he started out on fire one of those two years.

Chipper '08 is correct. Nomar, no, he was high .390s outside of a few days where he'd get over .400 and then go back down the next day.

[gcstomp]

Tony Gwynn says hi. Am I going back too far talking Gwynn in the 90s, who had like 3 or 4 seasons at 370ish and 1 just short of .400 deeeep into september. But Tony was empty ish stats, a slap hitter for the near .400 season. The greatest batting average season in my lifetime, by the all time great Brett, was that 1980 mvp season where he just led league in all the ratio stats, avg, obp, slg, ops, war, whatever. Chipper, Nomar, whoever, no one had a season to measure up to that until Bonds came on with a run of video game seasons.

[Sour Masher]

Looks like we are going to have 7 IP games too, so same question for no hitters and perfectos, potentially.

[Judge Jude]

Of course this is the correct answer, mostly because I agree with it.

I wonder if anyone in in the last 30 years had a .400 ave after 60 games?

per mlb.com

.400 BA through 60 team games, qualified hitters since 1942
Chipper Jones, 2008: .409
Tony Gwynn, 1997: .403
Larry Walker, 1997: .417
Paul O’Neill, 1994: .417
Rod Carew, 1983: .411
Hank Aaron, 1959: .402
Ted Williams, 1948: .412

"No active player has done it, but there are four active players to hit .400 over any span of 60 team-games within a single season, as a qualified hitter. Those hitters are José Altuve, in both 2016 and ‘17, Joey Votto in ‘16, Andrew McCutchen in ‘12 and Albert Pujols in ‘03.

Could one of them bat .400 in this abbreviated 60-game schedule? Could another player achieve the feat? Doing so this year could not be considered on par with Williams’ 1941, but it would be a fun novelty.

Even so, the numbers say not to expect it. According to research by MLB.com senior data architect Tom Tango, the likelihood that any qualified player would hit .400 this season is 3%. But that’s still far higher than the chances in a regular, 162-game season, which are 0.0012%."

fyi, the last position player hit .400 while being on an active 25-man roster all season - with no requirement of qualifying for the batting title - is Red Sox C Roger LaFrancois, who accomplished the feat in 1982.

and like Ted Williams, LaFrancois put his fabled .400 AVG at risk by starting and finishing the final game of the season.

LaFrancois also hit .400 for his entire MLB career.

[heyelander]

Brett in 1980 might have been below .400 at game 60, but he was over it well after that, all the way into Sept.

[Judge Jude]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...&t=b&year=1980

Brett went 2 for 4 in KC game 148 on Sept. 19 to get back to exactly .400. that was the last hurrah, as the fourth game of September that he finished at the fabled level.

he missed a month from mid-June to mid-July with an injury, and another 10 days in September.

his 515 PA barey qualified him for the batting title, as he missed 44 games.

[Sour Masher]

Of that list of guys at .400 or above 60 games in, Hank Aaron was the surprise for me. I had to look him up, because I always assumed he was a .270ish guy for his career, cuz I associate him as a masher. I didn't realize he his over .300 for his entire career, waning years and all.

[madducks]

Donovan Solano is going to give it a shot.

[Ken]

Donovan Solano is going to give it a shot.

For another week at most

That .485 BABIP has just a biiiiiit to fall