Sporcle Saturday: Single Season BABIP Leaders

As May begins to turn its eye towards June, Avisail Garcia has continued his hot start to the season, batting .352/.397/.566, and has been worth 1.9 bWAR. He also sports a BABIP of .409 through 156 plate appearances (prior to Friday’s game), good for sixth-highest in MLB thus far (minimum of 100 plate appearances). .409 seems unsustainable for an entire season based on past performance, but given we’re at just about the quarter mark of the season, a .350 mark seems not entirely unreasonable.

Today’s challenge: name the 21 instances throughout White Sox history when a player has logged a BABIP of at least .350 over at least 400 plate appearances. As you’re all likely aware, .300 tends to be about average for hitters. For some additional context, here’s what FanGraphs says:

The average BABIP for hitters is around .300. If you see any player that deviates from this average to an extreme, they’re likely due for regression, but the best hitters in the league are capable of sporting BABIPs in the .350 range while the worst hitters might hang around .260.

Quiz parameters

• As usual, the quiz will accept both first and last names in addition to last names only.
• There are a few repeat names on the list, however most are unique; therefore, I’m giving you 10 minutes to attempt to fill in all 21 instances.
• As hints I’ve provided the season in which the player accomplished the feat, as well as what the BABIP was for that season. Good luck!

Useless information to amaze, annoy, confound, and/or sadden your friends:

• The worst BABIP logged for the White Sox (minimum 400 PA) was .202, by Lee Tannehill in 1906.
• That BABIP was actually good for only twelfth-worst all-time, as Willie Kirkland logged a .185 (!) BABIP over 470 PAs for Cleveland in 1962.
• The average BABIP for all the players on this quiz: .362, over an average 591 PAs.

Direct link here

All data taken from baseballreference.com