MLB’s History of 60-Game Record-Setters Includes Athletics’ Olson: 24 Homers in 2017

For Major League Baseball players who have played only 60 games or less in a season, Oakland Athletics first baseman Matt Olson is the MLB record-setter with 24. A rookie that season, he did it in 59 games.

We wrote the other day about the kind of 60-game bursts that could see players put up some extraordinary numbers.

With the upcoming 2020 season cut to 60 games, there's a chance that we will see something extraordinary in the 2020 Major League Baseball season will be.

In it we talked about 60-game sprees within a longer season, up to Barry Bonds hitting 37 homers in a 60-game stretch in 2002.

Bill James, the godfather of analytic baseball, has taken a different approach. In a series of tweets (@BillJamesonline), he’s listed without comment the best numbers put forward by a player who had played in 60 or fewer games.

One player to make both lists was A’s first baseman Matt Olson. James points out that no one has hit more homers while playing in 60 or fewer games in a season than Olson, who had 24 in 59 games for the Oakland A’s in 2017.

In looking to make a comparison with the Mets’ Pete Alonso, who had 20 homers in his first 60 games last year and 20 in his final 60 games en route to a Major League-best 53 bomb, we looked at Olson’s 2019 stretch of 60 games from May 12-July 22 in which he matched Alonso with 20 homers.

In going over the MLB records compiled by James for players playing no more than 60 games in a season, the name of Reb Russell was a new one to me.

A one-time pitcher for the White Sox who once won five 1-0 games in a single season (1912), he was let go after one game in 1919. He came back as a hitter for the Pirates in 1922, played in exactly 60 games, and has the 60-games-and-under record for hits with 81, RBI with 75 and OPS at 1.091.

Here’s the leaderboard:

At-bats: 255, Jose Reyes, Mets, 2016

Runs: 52, Lefty Davis, Superbas (Brooklyn), 1902

Hits: Reb Russell, Pirates, 1922

Doubles: 21, Earle Brucker, A’s, 1938

Triples: 9, Joe Evans, Indians, 1920

Homers: 24, Matt Olson, A’s, 2019

RBI: 75, Reb Russell, Pirates, 1922

Walks: 46, Mickey Cochrane, Tigers, 1936

Strikeouts: 95, Javier Baez, Cubs, 2014

Stolen bases: 27, 3 players, most recent Ced Landrum, Cubs, 1991

Caught Stealing: 13, Billy North, A’s, 1977

Batting average: .375, Earle Brucker, A’s 1938

Total bases: 122, Reb Russell, Pirates, 1922

Plate appearances: 279, Jose Reyes, Mets, 2016

OBP: .454, Frank Thomas, White Sox, 1990

Slugging Percentage: .668, Reb Russell, Pirates, 1922

OPS: 1.091, Reb Russell, Pirates, 1922

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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