Nothing in this world beats a masher. Nothing is more attractive, but nothing can get you into more trouble.
Just to be clear about something, a masher is not someone who hits a lot of home runs. Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron hit a lot of home runs, but they were good all around hitters. No, mashers are people that live and die by the long ball.
This list is simple. We’re going with the best masher seasons of all-time. Every one of these guys is identified purely by the long ball. They have all had many good seasons, but these are the best seasons for these mashers and all of their mashiness.
The criteria for the different teams will be different. But since this is an all-time team, you are eligible for this team if each of the following applies to you.
1.In the season listed, you had to have struck out at least 100 times.
2.The season listed can’t be a .300 season.
3.You can not have logged more than one complete season where your batting average was better than .300. If you do that, you exit the masher realm and become a good hitter. Frankly, we can’t have any of that.
| Runs | H/AB | AVG | HR | RBI | SB | SO | ||||||||||
| Todd Hundley (1996) | C | 85 | 140/540 | .259 | 41 | 112 | 1 | 146 | ||||||||
| Ryan Howard (2008) | 1B | 105 | 153/610 | .251 | 48 | 146 | 1 | 199 | ||||||||
| Dan Uggla (2009) | 2B | 84 | 137/564 | .245 | 31 | 90 | 2 | 150 | ||||||||
| Harmon Killebrew (1959) | 3B | 98 | 132/546 | .242 | 42 | 105 | 3 | 116 | ||||||||
| Jay Bell (1999) | SS | 132 | 170/589 | .289 | 38 | 112 | 7 | 132 | ||||||||
| Dave Kingman (1984) | OF | 68 | 147/549 | .268 | 35 | 118 | 2 | 119 | ||||||||
| Bo Jackson (1989) | OF | 86 | 132/515 | .256 | 32 | 105 | 26 | 172 | ||||||||
| Reggie Jackson (1982) | OF | 92 | 146/530 | .275 | 39 | 101 | 4 | 156 | ||||||||
| Adam Dunn (2004) | UT | 105 | 151/568 | .266 | 46 | 102 | 6 | 195 | ||||||||
| 855 | .261 | 352 | 991 | 52 | 1385 |
I would call this pretty close to a dream team. Bo Jackson’s 26 steals is a little excessive, but this is otherwise a stellar masher season. The shortstop position was a little hard to draw from. It’s not a position that’s lends itself to a lot of historically mashing players. The poster boys for this team are Harmon “Killer” Killebrew and Dave “Kong” Kingman, although Ryan Howard is well on his way. But Kingman and Killebrew gave plenty of quality seasons to choose from.
Feel free to offer any suggestions on how to make this team a little more one dimensional.
