Russell Branyan of the Milwaukee Brewers has 11 home runs and 19 RBI. That has to be close to some kind of record for driving in the fewest runs with that many homers.
Think about it: the lowest number of RBI you could possibly have with 11 homers is 11. By contrast, in 1985 Tommy Herr drove in 110 runs with only 8 homers.
At Branyan's rate, if he hit 30 home runs, he'd have under 60 RBI.
Brook Jacoby once had a similar year, only with a lot more at-bats than Branyan. In 1987, he had 32 home runs and 69 RBI in 540 at-bats. Branyan, so far, has 106. At the current rate, for a full season, he'd hit something like 55 HR and only have about 95 RBI. Jacoby still had more than two RBI for every homer. Branyan is still below that.
Strangely enough, Branyan has had pretty low RBI to home run rates. Last year, Branyan had 10 HR and 26 RBI, in 2003, 9 HR and 26 RBI, and in 2004 11 HR and 27 RBI.
I remember hearing one of the Indians' broadcasters say when Branyan came up with the Indians, one scout — it may have been Ted Simmons — said he'd hit 500 home runs and strike out 2,500 times. I may have the numbers wrong, but I have the sentiment right.
Branyan hasn't had enough playing time for either of those milestones, but he still hits a lot of home runs and not much else.
Talk about feast or famine.
1 comment:
I remember northwest Ohio's own Chris Hoiles having a season like this once. In 1992, he hit 20 home runs with 40 RBIs--exactly a 1-2 ratio. Unlike the numbers you provided on Branyan, though, Hoiles did improve his HR-RBI ratio in subsequent years. That always struck me as odd.
BTW, doesn't there just seem to be a Bob Uecker joke waiting to happen in all of this. He'd say something like "Yeah, one season I hit 11 home runs ... but I only managed 5 RBIs in the process."
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