Sunday, August 7, 2011

Dan Uggla's Hitting Streak At 28; A Look At MLB's Recent Hitting Streaks

The Atlanta Braves' second baseman, Dan Uggla is currently on a 28-game hitting streak.

The irony is that in the first half of the season, Uggla struggled with a .186 batting average, prompting many to wonder if the Braves had overpaid when they traded for the former Marlins player in the off-season.

However, that all changed after July 4th, and since then he's been on a hitting tear with a batting average of .361.




History isn't at all kind to hitting streaks.  Joe Dimaggio's all-time hitting streak of 56 games is likely to never be broken, considering how hard it is to even get to 30 consecutive games of hits.  Today's media circus and 24/7 attention, along with modern day pitching, will prove insurmountable for even the best hitters.

Look at Ichiro Suzuki, despite his dominance as a hitter from 2001-2010, He set a MLB record for having the longest streak of consecutive 200-hit seasons (10).  However, his longest hitting streak was 27 games.

In the past 10 years, very few players have managed to put together a hitting streak of 30 games or more:

  • 38 - Jimmy Rollins (2005-2006)
  • 35 - Luis Castillo (2002)
  • 35 - Chase Utley (2006)
  • 30 - Albert Pujols (2003)
  • 30 - Willy Taveras (2006)
  • 30 - Moises Alou (2007)
  • 30 - Ryan Zimmerman (2009)
  • 30 - Andre Ethier (2010)
I'm rooting for Uggla to break 30 hits, but I'm not expecting much after that.

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