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The Spectacularly and Historically Feeble Ben Revere

We are witnessing history in Ben Revere. But not the good kind.

By David S. Cohen
The only home run balls Ben Revere watches - those hit by other players.
The only home run balls Ben Revere watches - those hit by other players.
Hannah Foslien

We all know that Ben Revere has no power.  We also know that Revere has no home runs in his career.  But are you aware of just how historically special Revere is in these regards?

I've looked at Revere's historic feebleness before, but let's update it to this season (so far) and add a few wrinkles as well.

What's quite spectacular about Revere this season is not only that he hasn't hit any home runs (that's par for the course for him, as we know) but that he has barely hit any extra base hits.  Through Wednesday's game, in 142 plate appearances, Revere has only 2 extra-base hits -- 2 triples.  That means that Revere, with his speed on the basepaths, has somehow not managed to hit a double yet this year.

The best way to measure Revere's power (or lack thereof) is with isolated average.  ISO is the difference between a player's slugging percentage and average.  In other words, by subtracting out the player's singles, ISO tells you how many bases beyond first the player has per at bat.  Revere's ISO stands at .029, by far the worst in baseball.

But how does Revere's futility so far this year rank all time?  Here's a chart of the 15 worst ISO seasons since expansion for players who have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title (which Revere so far does for 2014):

Player ISO Year Age Tm PA H 2B 3B HR BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Sandy Alomar 0.019 1973 29 CAL 519 112 7 1 0 0.238 0.288 0.257 0.545
2 Hal Lanier 0.022 1969 26 SFG 537 113 9 1 0 0.228 0.263 0.251 0.514
3 Felix Fermin 0.023 1989 25 CLE 562 115 9 1 0 0.238 0.302 0.260 0.562
4 Horace Clarke 0.024 1968 28 NYY 607 133 6 1 2 0.230 0.258 0.254 0.512
5 Enzo Hernandez 0.027 1971 22 SDP 618 122 9 3 0 0.222 0.295 0.250 0.545
6 Don Kessinger 0.028 1966 23 CHC 578 146 8 2 1 0.274 0.306 0.302 0.608
7 Ben Revere 0.029 2014 26 PHI 142 37 0 2 0 0.268 0.284 0.297 0.581
8 Tim Johnson 0.030 1973 23 MIL 510 99 10 2 0 0.213 0.259 0.243 0.502
9 Curt Wilkerson 0.031 1984 23 TEX 522 120 12 0 1 0.248 0.282 0.279 0.561
10 Jerry Remy 0.031 1981 28 BOS 410 110 9 1 0 0.307 0.368 0.338 0.706
11 Mike Squires 0.031 1981 29 CHW 334 78 9 0 0 0.265 0.312 0.296 0.607
12 Sandy Alomar 0.031 1969 25 TOT 662 153 12 2 1 0.248 0.294 0.279 0.573
13 Dave Chalk 0.032 1978 27 CAL 527 119 12 0 1 0.253 0.318 0.285 0.603
14 Ozzie Smith 0.033 1981 26 SDP 507 100 11 2 0 0.222 0.294 0.256 0.549
15 Hal Lanier 0.033 1968 25 SFG 518 100 14 1 0 0.206 0.222 0.239 0.461

Revere currently sits 7th on this chart and is having the worst ISO season since Felix Fermin's .023 in 1989.  Unlike what follows below, I have to believe that he will not end the season on this chart.  He has averaged 13 doubles per 162 games over the course of his career, so his current double drought is unusual for him.  With his speed, it's hard to think he wouldn't get a double or several over the course of the rest of his season.

That being said, Revere does have a historically bad ISO for his career.  His career ISO is .044, even with all those doubles he used to hit.  Since expansion in 1961, for players with 1500 plate appearances or more, Revere is 8th worst:

Player ISO PA From To Age H 2B 3B HR BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Rafael Belliard 0.038 2524 1982 1998 20-36 508 55 14 2 0.221 0.270 0.259 0.530
2 Bob Lillis 0.038 2300 1961 1967 31-37 495 59 8 2 0.230 0.264 0.268 0.532
3 Al Newman 0.040 2409 1985 1992 25-32 476 68 7 1 0.226 0.304 0.266 0.570
4 Enzo Hernandez 0.042 2612 1971 1978 22-29 522 66 13 2 0.224 0.283 0.266 0.550
5 Dal Maxvill 0.042 3898 1962 1975 23-36 748 79 24 6 0.217 0.293 0.259 0.552
6 Sandy Alomar 0.043 5160 1964 1978 20-34 1168 126 19 13 0.245 0.290 0.288 0.578
7 Ron Brand 0.043 1500 1963 1971 23-31 322 34 7 3 0.239 0.303 0.282 0.585
8 Ben Revere 0.044 1542 2010 2014 22-26 408 31 16 0 0.283 0.320 0.327 0.647
9 Otis Nixon 0.044 5800 1983 1999 24-40 1379 142 27 11 0.270 0.343 0.314 0.658
10 Felix Fermin 0.044 3072 1987 1996 23-32 718 86 11 4 0.259 0.305 0.303 0.608
11 Duane Kuiper 0.045 3754 1974 1985 24-35 917 91 29 1 0.271 0.325 0.316 0.641
12 Fred Stanley 0.047 1906 1969 1982 21-34 356 38 5 10 0.216 0.301 0.263 0.564
13 Rob Andrews 0.047 1643 1975 1979 22-26 365 30 15 3 0.251 0.318 0.298 0.616
14 Hal Lanier 0.047 3940 1964 1973 21-30 843 111 20 8 0.228 0.255 0.275 0.529
15 Junior Ortiz 0.049 2071 1982 1994 22-34 484 71 4 5 0.256 0.305 0.305 0.610

Of course, for both of these charts, it's important to note that Revere is playing in an era in which offense is down.  The missing years in both of these charts are mostly the 1990s and 2000s, when offense was up for a variety of reasons (PEDs anyone?).  A truer measure would be ISO+, but I haven't seen that stat in use anywhere.

Finally, how's punchless Ben doing on the career homerless rankings?  With no home run in 1542 plate appearances, he has the most plate appearances without a home run since expansion, besting Tim Johnson by 134 plate appearances.

How about for the all-time list in this regard?  Revere is 7th on the list all-time, but over 1000 plate appearances behind Dave Eggler:

Player PA HR From To Age G AB H 2B 3B BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Dave Eggler 2593 0 1871 1885 22-36 576 2544 697 85 31 0.274 0.288 0.332 0.619
2 Mike McGeary 2507 0 1871 1882 20-31 547 2481 684 56 13 0.276 0.283 0.309 0.592
3 Bill Holbert 2396 0 1876 1888 21-33 623 2335 486 41 7 0.208 0.228 0.232 0.460
4 Tom Oliver 2073 0 1930 1933 27-30 514 1931 534 101 11 0.277 0.316 0.340 0.656
5 Irv Hall 2052 0 1943 1946 24-27 508 1904 496 58 19 0.261 0.302 0.311 0.613
6 Roxy Walters 1602 0 1915 1925 22-32 499 1426 317 41 6 0.222 0.281 0.259 0.541
7 Ben Revere 1542 0 2010 2014 22-26 378 1442 408 31 16 0.283 0.320 0.327 0.647
8 Pat Deasley 1519 0 1881 1888 23-30 402 1466 358 37 9 0.244 0.271 0.282 0.552
9 Jim Holdsworth 1492 0 1872 1884 21-33 319 1484 432 38 22 0.291 0.295 0.346 0.641
10 Jumbo Latham 1469 0 1875 1884 22-31 334 1431 353 35 17 0.247 0.266 0.295 0.561

Revere is a good two seasons away from taking over this list, but only one homer-less season from moving into 4th place overall and becoming the leader in the post-1900 era of baseball.

There's no two ways about it.  Ben Revere is a historically bad power hitter.

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