Trivia: Mr. Consistency?
 

For 7 consecutive years these were my average stats per year

Games Played 153

Plate Appearances 654

WAR 2.4

Runs scored 76

Hits 172

Doubles 27

Triples 3

Home Runs 16

Bases on Balls 36

Strike Outs 47

Batting Average .283

Slugging Average .416

I only played for one team.

For 7 years none of my stats varied very much.

Looking for two answers

1. Who am I?

2. Is there any regular player in major league history with a more consistent 7 year consecutive span? I don't know of one.

My first thought...just based on the stats you shared...without doing any checking - was Bobby Doerr, but answer must be someone during 162-game seasons...right?

Fred Lynn?

Probably not close but for some reason his name came to mind

I don’t know the answer but being a Cardinals fan I remember Ozzie Smith had exactly 50 RBIs every year for about 20 years

Khris Davis hit .247 4 seasons in a row.

Robin Yount , Paul Molitor ?

Harvey Kuehn

Bobby Doerr - no

Fred Lynn - no

Ozzie - no

Khris Davis - no

Robin Yount - no
Paul Molitor - no


Harvey Kuenn - no


So far seven incorrect guesses.

Please note that I gave enough data to assure that there would not be more than one.

I do not know if there is someone more consistent (with different numbers over a seven year span) than the Mr. Consistency in this thread.

That's such an average stat line, I can't even begin to think who it might be.

Jose Cruz?

Tom Tresh?

Cruz and Tresh are #8 and #9 in the "no" column.

Roy White?

Number 10 in the no column

I think Khris Davis was mentioned as perhaps a challenge to the crown.

Not a 7 year run, but his 3 year run from 2016 to 2018 has to be in the running for most consistent 3 year run I've ever seen.

Not just batting average, but almost identical across the board in nearly every category.

Bill Freehan?

I'm going with a late career George Brett or a late career Kirby Puckett. The 172 average hits and one-team career seem like the biggest clues.

Khris Davis has an admirable 3 year run. I'll check to see if mu guy can come close, but 7 years should trump 3 years regardless, don't you think?

Bill Freehan is 11th no.

Brett is the 12th no, followed closely by Kirby Puckett the 13th.

Even though my stat line was considered "average", I participated in 6 consecutive All-Star games.

Bobby Grich?

Hmmm. Must be a glove guy with sneaky pop.

Frank White?

Key clue.

I don't think Brooks Robinson averaged 172 hits over a 7-year period, but I'll guess him.

Most of the guys I've thought of like Brooksie, Whitaker, Trammell....their WAR is gonna be too high.

Maybe we have a challenger here for consistency. Stumbled upon this fella. He's not your guy, but he's got a 10 year run that doesn't deviate very much at all. Bonus points if anybody guesses who it is. He also played for the same team his whole career.

Dave, thanks for contribution and this contest may be closer than we both think. Your guy's eighth year is clearly an outlier in multiple columns. So I would call him a 7 year man in terms of consistency.

My guy's career was not limited to 7 years. I'm guessing one of his eighth years (before or after the seven shown) would compare favorably to your example, but this is what I was looking for in terms of other players who were noted for consistency, if nothing else.;)

14th no

15th no

16th no

17-19th nos

Dave, My guy's eighth year is a better fit to his streak, than your unnamed entry. I will put you in 2nd place though (so far).

Bernie Williams?

#20 - no

Nope.

It’s surprising how little this guys name comes up nowadays. Not a superstar, but a solid player.

His Rookie card was slightly hot for a minute or two.

Dave and Peter,

Bernie was an excellent choice and would likely be on the Top Ten Consistency list, if one existed.

How about his teammate Derek Jeter?

To avoid confusion, Frank informed me that the player he is looking for did play for a second team at the end of his career.

Jeter makes #21 no

Gabby Hartnett did play in six straight All Star games and played for the Giants his last year but he definitely didn't average 153 games a year.

Frank Malzone

Frank Malzone -


BINGO

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...alzofr01.shtml

I don't see six CONSECUTIVE all star games. 4, then 2.

Peter,

Frank was in 8 AS tilts

1957 *
1958 (3B)
1959-1 *
1959-2 (3B)
1960-1 (3B)
1960-2 (3B)
1963 (3B)
1964

The highlighted 6 were consecutive.

As you may not recall in 1959 and 1960 there were two AS games in each of those summers.

If I ever knew that I have forgotten. What was the deal there, that's odd.

delete - replied to something that was already replied to

Took me a sec - 'tis Kent Hrbek.

In 1959-1962 there were two each summer. Reason given was to increase the funds in the retired players pension fund.

Apparently it didn't work very well as it only lasted 4 years.

Let's not quibble over whether Hrbek is more consistent than Malzone. Actually they are very close. Depending how you do the calculations could favor either.

16.4 WAR, 8 all star games. There may be something there.

I knew there were 2 AS games some years. I'm just not sure why he was selected to so many of them. I guess that period was not a strong time for AL thirdbasemen.

He played in 99% of the Red Sox games until Brooks Robinson was old enough to play.

Nice call John

A formative experience in my early days of collecting was when I was given a big box of 1980s-90s cards that some friends found in the attic of the house they moved into. I pored over their card backs and their stats are still engrained in me.

Seeing Hrbek's stats again are like meeting again a friend from my early childhood that I had forgotten.

Correct. Nice catch.

Ahh, Malzone. Never crossed my mind, but it makes sense.

Runs Scored Varied from 60-90.
Hits Varied from 157-185.
Doubles Varied from 20-34.
Triples Varied from 2-5.
Homers Varied from 14-21.
RBIs Varied from 71-103.
BB Varied from 31-44.
SO varied from 41-58.
BA varied from .266-.295
SLG varied from .386-.437
WAR varied from .9-3.5

That doesn't seem very consistant to me. About the only thing he was consistant at was games played.

His OBP and OPS was nearly identical for 7 years straight. Fluctuation in WAR can be accounted for by competition from other players at his position in any given year.

I'd say for a major league baseball player, those are pretty consistent numbers.

His OPS ranged from .700 to .760 while his OBP was between .313 and .333. I'm not sure I would consider those to be nearly identical numbers for either. If you take out years 4 and 5, then the ranges are .745 to .760 and .319 to .333 which are much smaller, but that kind of kills the idea that he was so consistent over 7 straight years since years 4 and 5 tend to be the low numbers for almost all of his stats.

Fella's, I guess the challenge would be to come up with another player who is more consistently, and reliably predictable from season to season across multiple categories then either Frank Malzone or Kent Hrbek.

I also posted Khris Davis's numbers across a shorter 3 year time frame.

Numbers will vary. Statistics always do....unless you're Khris Davis and batting average I guess.

I find those differences pretty minor, considering it's a 7 year time frame we're talking about.

I'm sure Frank is open to see example stat lines from other players that are consistently....more consistent. ;)

Tony Perez seven year run (hits are a bit off but check the ribbies) - Probably a lot of players similar to this .
If Pitchers were included Warren Spahn was very consistent