July 07, 2006
Chasing Clarke
Sabernomics introduces the Francoeur Meter, measuring Jeff Francoeur's progress in chasing Horace Clarke for most outs made in a season. I find this particularly interesting since Horace Clarke was one of the first players I watched in baseball. In 1969, Phil Rizzuto made a big deal about Horace getting 20 stolen bases (he stole 33 that year) and had the best OBA of his career, .339. Still bad for a leadoff hitter. In 1970, the year in question, he once again batted lead off, but only posted a .286 OBA. Despite that, the Yankees had their best year since 1964.
It was later I came to realize that Clarke was an awful leadoff hitter. It turns out that whoever played second for Ralph Houk led off, regardless of the hitter's ability. Whenever I see a middle infielder, weak on offense hitting at the top of the order I think of Houk and Horace and know someone is screwing up.
The fact that Francoeur may catch him from the middle of the order is quite impressive.
Posted by David Pinto at
05:16 PM
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Random Francoeur stat:
As of today, he is dead last in the majors (qualified hitters) in OPS vs. RHP. He's at .625 on the year against righties.
What else did Horace Clarke do in 1970? Broke up three ninth-inning no-hitters, by Rooker, Siebert, and Niekro, in the span of 28 days.