My Favorite Player: Ashley “Blinkard” McKechnie

By mblmlb on 05/20/2020 • ( 0 )

This post is related to the 2020 Best Baseball League series. If you missed it, check out the series kick-off article.
The 2020 Best Baseball League

What do you do with an extremely popular, extremely thick-headed slugger? Hope he hits bombs without setting any off inside the clubhouse. Ashley’s personality is described in the game as being low intelligence, low adaptability, and low loyalty. And while he hit in the 3-5 spot the entire year, and started 156 games, he spent the entire year angry about his role on the team. Not sure if he wanted to pitch? Spend time in the front office? Good ol’ Blinkard McKechnie.

Thing is, he did mash on the field. Only 9 other times has a player hit 45+ doubles, 45+ homeruns and hit at least .275 in a single season. And while all nine of those instances saw higher batting averages (the lowest on this list is .317!),

Player	HR	2B	BA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	3B	RBI	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	OPS
Albert Belle	50	52	.317	1995	28	CLE	AL	143	631	546	121	173	1	126	73	80	.401	.690	1.091
Todd Helton	49	54	.336	2001	27	COL	NL	159	697	587	132	197	2	146	98	104	.432	.685	1.116
Albert Belle	49	48	.328	1998	31	CHW	AL	163	706	609	113	200	2	152	81	84	.399	.655	1.055
Larry Walker	49	46	.366	1997	30	COL	NL	153	664	568	143	208	4	130	78	90	.452	.720	1.172
Albert Pujols	47	45	.327	2009	29	STL	NL	160	700	568	124	186	1	135	115	64	.443	.658	1.101
Lou Gehrig	47	52	.373	1927	24	NYY	AL	155	717	584	149	218	18	173	109	84	.474	.765	1.240
Derrek Lee	46	50	.335	2005	29	CHC	NL	158	691	594	120	199	3	107	85	109	.418	.662	1.080
Albert Pujols	46	51	.331	2004	24	STL	NL	154	692	592	133	196	2	123	84	52	.415	.657	1.072
Juan Gonzalez	45	50	.318	1998	28	TEX	AL	154	669	606	110	193	2	157	46	126	.366	.630	.997
ASHLEY MCKECHNIE	46	46	.275	2020	34	LFT	AL	159	687	614	119	169	5	140	69	153	.349	.591	.941

McKechnie is definitely a reasonable comp to some of these guys. I scooped up Blinkard in the 22nd round – I’ll take .275/.349/.591 in the 22nd round. He was also elected to the All-Star game, and had a couple of legitimate streaks during the year.