Round Numbers

We love round numbers in baseball. Psychologically, there's a big difference between a .300 hitter and a .296 hitter, a 20 game winner and an 18 game winner, and a batter with 100 RBI versus one with 97. Even though the difference is so indescribably small--a handful of base hits here, a three-run homer there--over the course of a 162 game season, there's still some allure to reaching certain figures. Until the steroid era turned baseball's record book in its head, 3,000 hits, 500 home runs and 300 wins all guaranteed a plaque in Cooperstown. Why do you think Craig Biggio stuck around so long?

Here are some players who fell short of round numbers in several key categories last year:

• Derek Jeter (99) narrowly missed reaching the century mark in runs scored for the 14th time in his Cooperstown bound career. NL Rookie of the Year Bryce Harper (98) would have easily cleared 100 had he not spent most of April in Triple-A.
• Robinson Cano threatened 200 hits and 50 doubles but finished with 196 and 48, respectively.
• Elvis Andrus and Harper fell one triple short of double-digits.
• Curtis Granderson fell five strikeouts short of 200
• Billy Butler was one dinger shy of 30.
• If Jay Bruce had drive in one more run, he would have finished the year with an even 100 RBI
• Adam Dunn was the only player to draw more than 100 walks this season, though Ben Zobrist (97) came close and Joey Votto (94) would have if he hadn't missed a third of the season. 
• AL Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up Mike Trout fell one run shy of 130, one stolen base short of 50 and one OBP point south of .400.
• Coco Crisp and Shane Victorino missed 40 steals by one while Angel Pagan and Ichiro Suzuki missed 30 by one.
• A pair of established first basemen, Adrian Gonzalez (.299) and Paul Konerko (.298), missed out on the magical .300 batting average.
• Alfonso Soriano (.499), Chase Headley (.498), and Matt Holliday (.497) all came within an extra base hit of slugging .500 on the season. Holliday needed one more double (or two singles) to reach the 300 total base mark.
• Miguel Cabrera fell one percentage point shy of having a 1.000 OPS.
• Johnny Cueto finished with 19 wins, a feat I like to refer to as the curse of Mike Mussina.
• Fernando Rodney fell two saves short of 50. Chris Perez finished one save shy of 40. Tom Wilhelmson and Addison Reed finished one shy of 30.
• Gio Gonzalez (two outs) Adam Wainwright (four) and Chris Capuano (five) were all knocking on the doorstep of 200 innings when the season ended.
• C.C. Sabathia and Stephen Strasburg missed out on the 200 K club by three whiffs.
• Jered Weaver and Clayton Kershaw both posted WHIPs of 1.02, nearly posting sub-one WHIPs.
• The Washington Nationals had the best record in baseball but fell two victories short of 100 W's. Despite adding C.J. Wilson and Albert Pujols last winter, the Los Angeles Angels still fell one win short of 90.