WHY I THINK HAL TROSKY SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
Hal Trosky was one of the best hitters of all time. Similar in style to Al Rosen and Charlie Keller, Trosky had better career numbers than either of them. He was the best bet to win the AL Triple Crown for a long time. He was a great power hitter and RBI man with consistency, something that is rarely found today. Trosky was also a slick fielding first baseman who was regarded as one of the best defensive first basemen in the league. Hal Trosky started his career by batting .295 in 11 games in 1933. In 1934, Trosky had the first of six straight 100-RBI seasons with 142. He also hit 35 home runs and 45 doubles, batted .330, scored 117 runs, and collected 206 hits. He additionally set the MLB record for total bases in a season by a rookie with 374. Trosky slipped to .271 in 1935 but still hit 26 home runs and knocked in 113 runs before his best season in the Majors, .343 with 42 homers and 162 RBI’s in 1936. His performance that season led to many people praising him as the next Babe Ruth, and he played like a Ruth that year. Trosky hit .298 with 32 homers and 128 RBI’s in 1937 and .334 with 19 homers, 40 doubles, and 110 RBI’s in 1938, but started experiencing serious migraines, which affected his vision. By 1939 Trosky hadn’t really slowed down, however, as he batted .335 with 25 homers and had his last 100-RBI season at 104. In 1940, a suffering but still productive Trosky hit .295 with 25 home runs and 93 RBI’s. He slipped to 89 games in 1941 but still hit .294 with 11 home runs. After taking the 1942 and 1943 seasons off Trosky batted only .241 with ten homers and had his last of eight 30-double seasons with 32. He retired after the season but came back in 1946, hitting .254 in 88 games. After the season, Trosky decided to retire for good. Hal Trosky was one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. Even as one of the all-time greats, Hal Trosky still hasn’t made the Hall of Fame.
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games career: 1,347 season high: 154 in 1934 and 1935 led AL: 154 in 1934 and 1935
At Bats career: 5,161 season high: 632 in 1935
Hits career: 1,561 season high: 216 in 1936
Doubles career: 331 season high: 45 in 1934 and 1936
Triples career: 58 season high: 9 in 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1938
Home Runs career: 228 season high: 42 in 1936
Runs career: 835 season high: 124 in 1936
Runs Batted In career: 1,012 season high: 162 in 1936 led AL: 162 in 1936
Stolen Bases career: 28 season high: 6 in 1936
Walks career: 545 season high: 79 in 1940
Strikeouts career: 440 season high: 60 in 1935 and 1937
Batting Average career: .302 season high: .343 in 1936
On Base Percentage career: .371 season high: .407 in 1938
Slugging Percentage career: .522 season high: .644 in 1936
Total Bases career: 2,692 season high: 405 in 1936 led AL: 405 in 1936
Sacrifice Hits career: 25 season high: 10 in 1939
Fielding Percentage career: .991 season high: .993 in 1935, 1937, 1938, and 1944
Double Plays career: 1,146 season high: 145 in 1934 led AL 1B: 145 in 1934
Putouts career: 12,125 season high: 1,567 in 1935 led AL 1B: 1,487 in 1934, 1,567 in 1935
Assists career: 753 season high: 102 in 1938 led AL 1B: 86 in 1934
DID YOU KNOW?
-father of pitcher Hal Trosky
-finished seventh in the 1934 AL MVP voting, tenth in 1936, 13th in 1938, and 30th in 1939
-got over 1,000 putouts eight times
-turned 100 or more double plays in a season seven times and 97 once
-led the AL in extra-base hits in 1936 (96)
-played a game at second base in 1936
-was inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame in 1951
If you have an 11-year career at first, you have to be a really incredible hitter to be deserving of the Hall. Trosky's career OPS+, 130, is obviously very, very impressive, but I just think it comes down to his short career. He was a very good player for 8 years. Not enough.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, on Saturday I did a post about our trade, so you might be interested in that. Also, I started a new blog, which is just about baseball in general. I have 1 post so far, and hope to post every couple of days. https://johnsbaseballblog.blogspot.com/
"Not enough." Ouch! I completely understand that you have to be up there with Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx type hitters to make it in eleven years, but Trosky had 162 RBI's in one season (the 20th best of all time) and 142 in another. He also had a career strikeout to home run ratio under 2, and was a great defender at first. His migraines really devastated his career, and he got them worse than my Mom (just ask her how bad they are). Trosky is a pretty popular candidate, and I personally thought, "How is this guy NOT in the Hall of Fame?" when I first looked over his career.
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