Remember when the backs of baseball cards only had a few stats? In 1963, for example, Topps included only the counting stats for hitters, but no walks, and only batting average. They added slugging and walks later, but now go to a major league stadium and just look at the available statistics on the big screen- it’s pretty awesome (in my opinion, of course).

Well, today we’ll look at that old-timey important stat, batting average (minimum two full years in the majors):

2006-2017
1 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 0.299
2 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 0.288
3 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 0.268
Yonder Alonso Luray ’06 0.268

Only four players are even eligible since the 2006 draft! (It’s hard to capture one of the 8 starting positions in the majors!)

All-Time
1 John Kruk New Market ’81 0.300
2 Dan Murphy Luray ’05 0.299
3 Juan Pierre Harrisonburg ’97 0.295
4 Mo Vaughn Harrisonburg ’87 0.293
5 Gene Richards Harrisonburg 0.290
6 Jon Jay Staunton ’04 0.288
7 David Eckstein Harrisonburg ’95-6 0.280
8 Mike Lowell Waynesboro ’93 0.279
9 Aubrey Huff Staunton ’97 0.278
10 Chad Tracy Staunton ’99 0.274
11 Billy Sample Harrisonburg ’74-6 0.272
12 Steve Finley Harrisonburg ’85 0.271
13 Jason Kipnis Covington ’06-7 0.268
Yonder Alonso Luray ’06 0.268
15 Reggie Sanders Winchester ’87 0.267
16 Brett Gardner New Market ’03-04 0.264
17 Emil Brown Waynesboro ’94 0.258
Luke Scott Staunton 0.258
19 Kevin Kouzmanoff Winchester ’02 0.257
20 Gaby Sanchez Staunton ’03 0.254

Kruk, a former Rebel, leads the way, but the list has 6 former Turks and 5 former Braves on the all-time list…

Kruk
Murphy