Baseball's Best in July - Last Year, Active, and All-Time

Will Leitch (@williamfleitch) did a great job laying out the best players for June, position by position, in his writeup “Who made June’s All-Star team?” 

As we look ahead, lets look back: who did well last year in the month of July? Here are some top performers (see Stathead results for players with 40 or more PA last July) to keep an eye on:

1B

• Joey Votto - 11 HR, .319/.440/.734

• Rhys Hoskins - 6 HR, 11 D, .310/.444/.718

• Freddie Freeman - 6 HR, .371/.479/.588

• Pete Alonso - 10 HR, .250/.304/.577

2B

• Brandon Lowe - 6 HR, .288/.416/.616

• Jonathan India - 4 HR, .319/.470/.528

3B

• Manny Machado - 8 HR, 9 D, .371/.448/.742

• Austin Riley - 9 HR, .305/.409/.674

• Rafael Devers - 8 HR, .310/.378/.644

SS

• Kyle Farmer - 5 HR, .395/.456/.691

• Dansby Swanson - 7 HR, 10 D, 3 SB, .290/.345/.579

OF

• Juan Soto - 9 HR, .356/.487/.689

• AJ Pollock - 7 HR, 8 D, .371/.424/.697

• Harrison Bader - 5 HR, 3 SB, .357/.402/.619

• Franmil Reyes - 9 HR, .309/.341/.667

• George Springer - 8 HR, .282/.358/.635

• Kyle Tucker - 7 HR, 4 SB, .291/.325/.646

• Starling Marte - 1 HR, 11 SB, .294/.394/.377

C

• Max Stassi - 4 HR, .339/.413/.625

• Elias Diaz - 7 HR, .279/.329/.632

• Eric Haase - 9 HR, .265/.319/.627

DH

• Shohei Ohtani - 9 HR, .282/.396/.671

Utility

• Chris Taylor - 7 HR, 3 SB, .333/.369/.619

Interesting guys to consider. Joey Votto jumps out at me, as this year he started with an awful March/April where he hit only .129 with one double in 70 at-bats. But in June he has been much improved, with 9 doubles, 4 HR, and a .274/.361/.495 slash line (BA/OBP/SLG) over 95 at-bats. He is 38, but perhaps July will he be when he fully returns to being himself again as a hitter.

Ditto for fellow 1B Rhys Hoskins of the Phillies. He started this year hitting .197 and then .239 in the first two months, but then hit 7 HR with a .306/.414/.612 slash in June, so he seems to be coming on strong.

On the pitching side, amongst pitchers with four or more starts in July last year, here were the best:

• Tyler Megill - 1.04 ERA, 27 K in 26 IP

• Alex Cobb - 1.09 ERA, 21 K in 24.2 IP

• Jameson Taillon - 1.16 ERA, 25 K in 31 IP

• Robbie Ray - 1.99 ERA, 37 K in 31.2 IP

• Logan Webb - 2.00 ERA, 16 K in 18 IP

• Adrian Houser - 2.05 ERA, 16 K in 22 IP

• Lance Lynn - 2.10 ERA, 32 K in 30 IP

• Luis Castillo - 2.15 ERA, 41 K in 37.2 IP

• Brad Keller - 2.28 ERA, 26 K in 27.2 IP

• Corbin Burnes - 2.30 ERA, 37 K in 31.1 IP

• Frankie Montas - 2.30 ERA, 40 K in 31.1 IP

• Julio Urias - 2.30 ERA, 25 K in 31.1 IP

Interesting to see a few names here that might be traded soon, like Luis Castillo and Frankie Montas. If they can do as well this July as they did last July, that will increase their value before the deadline. (Walker Buehler, Kenta Maeda, and Freddy Peralta also did great in July last year, but they will both be out for a while still this year.)

A few others had big strikeout totals in the month of July last year, like Gerrit Cole (47), Lance McCullers Jr. (42), Patrick Sandoval (41), Sean Manaea (41), and German Marquez (40).

Best Active Players in July

What about looking beyond just last July? Here are the active players who have done the best in July over their careers (minimum 250 July plate appearances, highest OPS):

1B

• Rhys Hoskins 1.003 OPS (18 HR in 75 G, .277/.411/.592)

• Paul Goldschmidt .951 OPS (45 HR in 228 G, .312/.404/.547)

2B

• Max Muncy .893 OPS (22 HR in 82 G, .255/.369/.523)

• Rougned Odor .876 OPS (40 HR in 173 G, .285/.331/.546)

3B

• Rafael Devers .950 OPS (20 HR in 78 G, .303/.366/.584)

• Jose Ramirez .942 OPS (30 HR and 24 SB in 132 G, .304/.378./.564)

SS

• Corey Seager .885 OPS (11 HR in 72 G, .316/.369/.516)

• Javier Baez .865 OPS (24 HR in 123 G, .306/.332/.533)

RF

• Juan Soto .997 OPS (20 HR in 77 G, .306/.428/.569)

• Mookie Betts .900 OPS (27 HR in 150 G, .309/.368/.532)

CF

• Mike Trout 1.029 OPS (58 HR and 29 SB in 204 G, .310/.414/.615)

• George Springer .850 OPS (30 HR in 134 G, .262/.352/.498)

LF

• AJ Pollock .931 OPS (22 HR and 18 SB in 139 G, .312/.380/.551)

• Andrew McCutchen .887 OPS (51 HR in 269 G, .288/.374/.513)

C

• Yasmani Grandal .907 OPS (27 HR in 159 G, .288/.387/.520)

• Omar Narvaez .875 OPS (11 HR in 81 G, .309/.381/.494)

DH

• Giancarlo Stanton .913 OPS (53 HR in 212 G, .269/.367/.546)

• Nelson Cruz .887 OPS (73 HR in 298 G, .282/.356/.531)

Some of these guys are the best of the best, so no doubt they'd appear in several months; lists like this, not just July. The position that stands out to me here is 2B, where Max Muncy has really struggled so far in 2022, with monthly batting averages of .136, .164, and .197 so far. That is improvement I guess, but he could use a solid July.

And Rougned Odor, remember him? He is still only 28 and has three 30+ HR seasons to his credit. He is quietly batting .194 with 7 HR so far this year -- quiet because that isn't very good. It seems less likely that he'll have a strong July as he has over his career, since overall he's slashed .198/.270/.408 over the past four seasons.

As for pitchers, the best active starters by ERA in July have been:

• Clayton Kershaw, 1.75

• Jacob deGrom, 1.88

• Noah Syndergaard, 2.11

• Kyle Hendricks, 2.64

• Adam Wainwright, 2.67

• Marcus Stroman, 2.78

• Chris Sale, 2.78

• Gerrit Cole, 2.81

• Corey Kluber, 2.83

Kershaw's dominance in July is impressive, even compared with a tidy 2.50 ERA for his overall career. He is 33-7 in 54 July starts, with 8 complete games and 5 shutouts (rarities for anyone these days). And Syndergaard could certainly use some solid July starts, as his 2022 so far the Angels has been very inconsistent.

All-Time Best Single-Season July Hitting Performances

Now what about the All-Time best single-season hitting performances for the month of July? Here they are, ranked by sOPS+, which relativizes the players OPS to their league's July OPS that year (minimum 90 plate appearances required, and players listed at the position they played at the most that season, not just in July):

1B

• Roy Sievers in 1960, 1.403 OPS with 12 HR, .447/.558/.845

• Jason Giambi in 2005, 1.498 OPS with 14 HR, .355/.524/.974

2B

• Rogers Hornsby in 1923, 1.364 OPS with 7 HR, 4 T, 13 D, .488/.540/.824

• Rogers Hornsby in 1924, 1.332 OPS with 7 HR, 3 T, 8 D, .464/.556/.777

3B

• George Brett in 1980, 1.353 OPS with 3 HR, 3 T, 12 D, .494/.541/.812

• Chipper Jones in 1999, 1.470 OPS with 11 HR, .413/.558/.913

SS

• Honus Wagner in 1904, 1.102 OPS with 1 HR, 6 T, 10 D, .372/.464/.638

• Arky Vaughan in 1935, 1.273 OPS with 5 HR, 4 T, 11 D, .412/.528/.745

C

• Carlton Fisk in 1972, 1.126 OPS with 9 HR, .354/.429/.697

• Yogi Berra in 1959, 1.120 OPS with 6 HR, 9 D, .371/.446/.674

RF

• Babe Ruth in 1920, 1.584 OPS with 13 HR, 10 D, 5 SB, .440/.614/.970

• Babe Ruth in 1924, 1.441 OPS with 14 HR, 9 D, .450/.556/.886

CF

• Ty Cobb in 1912, 1.373 OPS with 3 HR, 8 T, 11 D, 15 SB .528/.562/.811

• Ty Cobb in 1919, 1.243 OPS with 1 HR, 4 T, 4 D, 7 SB, .521/.566/.677

LF

• Ted Williams in 1957, 1.472 OPS with 9 HR, 9 D, .441/.579/.893

• Barry Bonds in 2003, 1.581 OPS with 11 HR, .415/.581/1.000

Well that certainly is a tour of all-time greats… except 1B. Not that Roy Sievers and Jason Giambi didn't have good careers, they did. But they aren't in the all-time-best-at-their-position conversation like all the others listed here are.

As for all-time single season July records in various hitting statistics, here they are:

• HR - 16, Albert Belle in 1998 and Mark McGwire in 1999

• Batting Average - .528, Ty Cobb in the 1912 season mentioned above

• Runs - 45, Babe Ruth in the 1920 season mentioned above.

• RBIs - 50, Lou Gehrig in 1930 when he would go on to pace the AL with 173.

• Doubles - 19, first by Billy Herman in 1935 and then by Carlos Delgado in 2000.

• Stolen Bases - 33, Rickey Henderson in 1983. Wow... that just seems mythical by today's standards.

So that last one, the 33 stolen bases by Henderson, is pretty safe as a record I think. But maybe someone will go nuts and smash 17 HR in the month of July? I doubt it, but we’ll see!

All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.