Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

According to baseball-reference.com, there have been the following MLB batting triple crown winners:

2012 AL Miguel Cabrera DET .330, 44 HR, 139 RBI
1967 AL Carl Yastrzemski BOS .326, 44 HR, 121 RBI
1966 AL Frank Robinson BAL .316, 49 HR, 122 RBI
1956 AL Mickey Mantle NYY .353, 52 HR, 130 RBI
1947 AL Ted Williams BOS .343, 32 HR, 114 RBI
1942 AL Ted Williams BOS .356, 36 HR, 137 RBI
1937 NL Joe Medwick STL .374, 31 HR, 154 RBI
1934 AL Lou Gehrig NYY .363, 49 HR, 166 RBI
1933 AL Jimmie Foxx PHA .356, 48 HR, 163 RBI
1933 NL Chuck Klein PHI .368, 28 HR, 120 RBI
1925 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .403, 39 HR, 143 RBI
1922 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .401, 42 HR, 152 RBI
1912 NL Heinie Zimmerman CHC .372, 14 HR, 104 RBI
1909 AL Ty Cobb DET .377, 9 HR, 107 RBI
1901 AL Nap Lajoie PHA .426, 14 HR, 125 RBI
1887 AA Tip O'Neill STL .435, 14 HR, 123 RBI
1878 NL Paul Hines PRO .358, 4 HR, 50 RBI

Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams are the only hitters to win the triple crown twice. Further, Williams, never a favorite of the press, failed to win the MVP in both of his triple crown seasons. To add insult to injury, Williams has no ATG SOM card for either of his triple crown seasons, joining 1933 Jimmy Foxx and 1878 Paul Hines as the only triple crown batters not to have an ATG card for their triple crown seasons. Hines won his triple crown in just a 62 game season.

In addition, some of you may recall that in 2015 Heinie Zimmerman was awarded the 1912 triple crown retroactively when a baseball researcher recalculated RBI totals for 1912. That was a 100+ year wait for Zimmerman's triple crown feat to be recognized, but then again, Heinie played for the Cubs, who know a little bit about 100+ year waits! Here's the link to the article about the discovery of Heinie's achievement: https://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2 ... ple-crown/

Neither Babe Ruth nor Barry Bonds ever won the triple crown, although Ruth led the A.L. in HRs 12 times, RBI 5 times and won a batting championship, while Bonds led the N.L in HRs twice, RBI once and batting twice. Also, despite hitting 475 career dingers, Stan Musial never led the N.L. in HRs, but led the league in RBI twice and won 7 batting titles. George Brett, universally considered one of the best hitters of the expansion era, who hit 317 career HRs, never won a HR title (but led the A.L. in SLG & OPS 3 times), never led the league in RBI, but won 3 batting crowns. Similarly, Frank Thomas, with 521 career HRs, never won a HR title or an RBI title, but he did win a batting title. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Norm Cash, Dick Allen, Jim Rice, Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Walker and Todd Helton had triple crown worthy seasons, but fell short.

To fully appreciate the magnitude and difficulty of winning the triple crown in the modern baseball era, no N.L. batter has won the triple crown since Joe Medwick in 1937, a span of 83 years and counting, while Miguel Cabrera ended the A.L. 45 year triple crown drought in 2012.

Interestingly, the triple crown was only won in the same league in consecutive years twice, in 1933-1934 when Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig, respectively, won the A.L. triple crown, and 1966-1967, when Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski, respectively, accomplished the feat.

The only year when there was a triple crown winner in each league was 1933, when Chuck Klein won in the N.L. and Jimmie Foxx won in the A.L.

In 2017 a topic in the ATG forum stated that 1957 Hank Aaron had won the triple crown in an $80 mil league, but that is the only time I've seen a triple crown winner in the ATG game. Here's a link to that that thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=642660&p=5641293&hilit=triple+crown&sid=d78f1300b2217238757db1ce212eb578#p5641293

So who has the best chance, if anyone, of winning the triple crown in the ATG9 card set?

The most likely triple crown winner would come from a $60 million league in a hitter's park. This would take advantage of a weak hitter's pool, poor pitching and ravaged bullpens.
Ruth seems most likely if a team wanted to spend a significant portion of their salary on one player. I'm not sure it is a winning strategy but would give him every possible benefit.
If the pitching was heavily skewed left or right then Gibson or Gehrig would be good candidates also.

Hornsby's two triple crown seasons are amazing. Funny when talking about the greatest ever he is rarely in the conversation.

Either Hornsby's 1922 season or Heilman's 1923 season are the most likely, especially in an 80 million or under league. The higher up the salary cap goes the more discrepancy you get from Bonds, Kiner and top average guys. I had a 100 million team with Joe Dimaggio being in top 10 for average @ .330 and 204 RBI's and 48 HR's but Kiner with 76 HR's makes it a long way to get a triple crown. Cobb got the batting title with a .415 BA

In a 100 mill league I had Ruth lead in Hr's and RBI's but was 5th in average. Also led the league in runs and BB's.
Team was successful, winning 101 games.
I believe that is the closest I have come.

BD man-o-man... congrats... what a nice topic... very nice research and info... thanks a lot buddy...

as far as your question... I really think that the 1932 Jimmy Foxx card has the best triple crown chance if it is used in a ballpark like Polo Grounds, Hilltop Park, Minute Maid... righty power parks... he holds my record for RBIs in a 80M$ league with 221...

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/st ... 1/all/ba/1

Closest I have seen Bonds he was 2nd in HR 2nd in RBI and 3rd in avg. 60 million dollar league

I would not discount the great Hack Wilson...He can put up some big numbers...

labratory wrote:The most likely triple crown winner would come from a $60 million league in a hitter's park. This would take advantage of a weak hitter's pool, poor pitching and ravaged bullpens.
Ruth seems most likely if a team wanted to spend a significant portion of their salary on one player. I'm not sure it is a winning strategy but would give him every possible benefit.
If the pitching was heavily skewed left or right then Gibson or Gehrig would be good candidates also.

I agree that there is a greater chance of a hitter winning a triple crown at smaller caps.

gkhd11a wrote:https://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/stats/players/batting/449731/all/ba/1

Closest I have seen Bonds he was 2nd in HR 2nd in RBI and 3rd in avg. 60 million dollar league

Interestingly, Hank Greenberg won two jewels of the triple crown that league, beating Bonds in both HRs and RBI. Bonds' team was 72-90. Greenberg's team was 81-81.

I had a team in a $60 million 2020 Barnstormers league where one of the other owners used $10.82 million Jimmie Foxx. Foxx finished tied for 5th in HRs, was 4th in RBI and 16th in BA. Meanwhile, $4.73 million George Burns, who played 1B on my team, had just 5 fewer RBI than Foxx and batted a cool .377, 46 points higher than Foxx. Foxx's team was 88-74, while Burns' team was 90-72. However, Foxx's team beat Burns' team in the Semis 4-3 and then went on to get a ring. Burns' team also featured ($4.64 million) Wee Willie Keeler, who led the league in batting with an astonishing .402 BA playing in County Stadium '95. With so many teams playing smallball at a $60 million cap, it gets to be a little difficult for power hitters to win the batting crown.

Here's some links to stats and Foxx's and Burns' teams:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/st ... 7/all/hr/1

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1573779

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1540988