Best friend of the podcast, Dan Szymborski, put out his 2020 ZiPS projections for the Sox this week, and good news: Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal are projected to contribute immediately upon their respective arrivals.
Unsurprisingly, ZiPS thinks that Nick Madrigal will have the lowest strikeout total on the team (just 25 over 124 games), and will also bang out 130+ hits. Put those numbers in the context of a full 162 game season and that's (assuming I did the math right; never a given) 176 hits to just 32 strikeouts. In the majors in 2019, Baltimore's Hanser Alberto led the way with 50 strikeouts in 139 games (and 160 hits).
While 176 hits seems a little high, 150 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, and that's where today's Sporcle comes in: since the DH was introduced in 1973, which Sox players have logged at least 150 hits and struck out 75 or fewer times in a single season? That's 49 player seasons, how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I've provided the season and the position of the player.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The average triple-slash of the players on this list: .293/.352/.438
- The most home runs from a player on this list is 41, while the fewest is...0.
- Madrigal's 32 projected strikeouts would be the fewest by a Sox hitter since 1995 (assuming the 150 hits remains intact, as well).
All data from baseballreference.com
