As if today, 1,817 players in the history of Major League Baseball had or have had 3,000 or more Plate Appearances in their career (baseball-reference requires a min. of 3,000 PAs to qualify for their career leader boards in rate stats). Of those 1,817, only 23 (1.27%) players have a stat line for their career of at least a .300 BA / .400 OBP / .500 SLG. Mentioned already were the 13 players who accomplished this feat with a minimum career PA total of at least 9,000: Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Tris Speaker, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Ted Williams, Manny Ramirez, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Todd Helton. Reducing the minimum required PAs by 6,000 only adds 10 new players to this list:
14. Harry Heilmann: 8,966 PA, .342 BA / .410 OBP / .520 SLG
15. Edgar Martinez: 8,674 PA, .312 BA / .418 OBP / .515 SLG
16. Albert Pujols: 8,422 PA, .322 BA / .411 OBP / .602 SLG
17. Ed Delahanty: 8,400 PA, .346 BA / .411 OBP / .505 SLG
18. Larry Walker: 8,030 PA, .313 BA / .400 OBP / .565 SLG
19. Dan Brouthers: 7,676 PA, .342 BA / .423 OBP / .519 SLG
20. Hank Greenberg: 6,097 PA, .313 BA / .412 OBP / .605 SLG
21. Joe Jackson: 5,693 PA, .356 BA / .423 OBP / .517 SLG
22. Lefty O'Doul: 3,658 PA, .349 BA / .413 OBP / .532 SLG
23. Joey Votto: 3,400 PA, .317 BA / .418 OBP / .548 SLG
Honorable Mentions:
Only 3 active players on this list: Todd Helton, Albert Pujols, Joey Votto.
Only 2 of the 23 players were non-1B INFs (at least 66% of games in career played at that position): Chipper Jones (3B) and Rogers Hornsby (2B).
Lefty O'Doul did not play his age 24 and 27-30 seasons. In fact, in his first 4 seasons (1919-20 and 1922-23) the most PAs he had in a season was 39, and he was a pitcher at that point in his career (53.0 IP in 1923). He did not become a full-time LF until 1928, at the age of 31. It would be interesting to see where he would have ended up having not missed those years or if he was a LF from the start of his career. At a minimum of 3,000 PAs, his career .349 BA ranks 4th all-time, and he is tied with Bill Terry for the National League's all-time single season hits record (254).
13 out of the 23 are in the Hall of Fame, and are no doubt Hall of Famers: Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Tris Speaker, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Heilmann, Ed Delahanty, Dan Brouthers, and Hank Greenberg (Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones, and Albert Pujols will also for sure be elected once eligible). This list is not meant to show Hall of Fame worthiness, but rather how rare the accomplishment is.
Setting the minimum parameters at .290 BA / .390 OBP / .490 SLG, the list goes up to 37 out of 1,817 (2.04%, so still rare in my mind), adding the likes of: Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Mickey Mantle (HOF), Jeff Bagwell (future HOF) (these 4 mentioned previously), Bob Johnson, Brian Giles, Lance Berkman, Joe DiMaggio (HOF) , Johnny Mize (HOF), Earl Averill (HOF), Bill Terry (HOF), Miguel Cabrera (Future HOF), Ken Williams, and Hack Wilson (HOF). Again, I am not using this list to advocate Hall of Fame worthiness, but rather show that there are very few that just missed the cut, and therefore showing how rare the .300 / .400 / .500 combination for a career with a minimum of 3,000 PAs is.
Future member: through 65 career PAs, Yasiel Puig has a career .452 BA / .477 OBP / .790 SLG, one of only 26 players ever to have a career BA, OBP, and SLG of at least .300 / .400 / .500 at a minimum of 65 PAs. The future member reference is meant to be a joke, but time will tell.
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