By the Numbers - George Brett

For my second installment of "By the Numbers" I will be checking in on Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, partially because his Kansas City Royals hosted last night's MLB All-Star Game and partially because the video posted above is one of the funniest YouTube clips I have ever seen.

Just so you know what the number mean, the first three sets of numbers on the line are the "triple slash" (batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage), HR stands for home runs, RBI stands for runs batted in, H stands for hits, BB stands for walks, K stands for strikeouts, 2B stands for doubles, 3B stands for triples, and PA stands for plate appearances.  Any statistic in bold indicates he led the league.

Although Brett played his first two full seasons in 1974 (third in Rookie of the Year voting) and 1975 (eleventh in MVP voting), 1976 was his first great season.  Here are the numbers:

.333/.377/.462, 7 HR, 67 RBI, 215 H, 49 BB, 36 K, 34 2B, 14 3B, 705 PA

For that season, Brett finished second in the MVP voting and led the Royals to a berth in the ALCS, where they lost to the Yankees.

In 1980, when Brett won his first MVP and led the Royals to their first World Series, where they lost to the Phillies, he posted these numbers:

.390/.454/.664, 24 HR, 118 RBI, 175 H, 58 BB, 22 K, 33 2B, 9 3B, 515 PA

It is amazing that Brett was just five hits away from becoming the first player since Ted Williams to hit .400 for a season.  1980 was also remarkable for Brett in that missing a month of the season due to injury before the All-Star Game, he only played in 117 games.  That means he averaged more than 1 RBI per game, the first player to do so since Walt Dropo of the Red Sox in 1950.

In 1985, Brett led the way at the plate for the Royals one and only World Series championship, posting the following stats:

.335/.436/.585, 30 HR, 112 RBI, 184 H, 103 BB, 49 K, 38 2B, 5 3B, 665 PA

Brett's last great season came in 1990 at the age of 37.  He finished seventh in the MVP voting that year, putting up the following statistics:

.329/.387/.515, 14 HR, 87 RBI, 179 H, 56 BB, 63 K, 45 2B, 7 3B, 607 PA

Overall in a 21-year career, George Brett was a 13-time All-Star, an MVP, and a World Series champion.

Here are his career totals as well as his 162-game averages:

.305/.369/.487, 317 HR, 1596 RBI, 3154 H, 1096 BB, 908 K, 665 2B, 137 3B, 11,625 PA
.305/.369/.487, 19 HR, 96 RBI, 189 H, 66 BB, 54 K, 40 2B, 8 3B, 696 PA