[Originally posted at VeryWellThen.Com]

Ben Revere does not yet qualify for the Batting Title. His 4 for 5 evening against Cleveland sent his batting average up to .331 – which would be good enough for second place in the American League. Except that to qualify for the leader board, he needs 3.1 plate appearances for every game his team has played. The Twins have played 109 games, which means that his 331 plate appearances fall 7 short of qualifying.

So in just a few days he should debut on the charts with a bullet, likely landing in the top 5.

But wait! If you apply the “Tony Gwynn Rule” he’s already near the top of the charts. In one of my favorite obscure baseball rules, a batter can win the batting title if he remains in the lead even if he goes hitless in those missing plate appearances. Official Major League Rule 10.22(a).

I wrote about this back in 2009 — when Mauer missed April to injury but stormed into mid-summer with a batting average over .400 but not enough plate appearances to qualify on the leader board. Here’s what I wrote then:

So for Revere, add an O-fer 8 to his stats and he stands at .3238. Which would place him third on an adjusted Batting Title board, behind only Mike Trout (.346) and Miguel Cabrera (.3241).

Perhaps this is just the sign of a dismal Twins season — when I take a contrived rule and apply it to establish a hypothetical third place standing on a list for a Twins player who will be on that same list in just a few days.

No, you were right to post this. Revere has been an amazing bright spot for the Twins this year, both with his defense (which everyone knew he had) and his offense (what everyone was less sure about). I think after the game today he was five AB's short, but if you saw it your way, you saw it your way.

This is a great post. I have been wondering when Revere would have enough at bats to qualify, and whether some day he might actually win the title.