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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.