2023 1st Round Pick Nolan Schanuel's Hitting Streak to Start MLB Career Now at 10... and Still Going!

The 11th pick overall in this year's draft is now only the 23rd player since 1901 to start his career with hits in hist first 10 games or more

Issue #118

The Angels are obviously having a bad few weeks. Mike Trout came back from injury, but promptly got hurt again. Shohei Ohtani tore his UCL so is done pitching for the year, even as he continues to DH frequently and could still be the AL MVP (and this could increase the Angel's chances of resigning him in the offseason.) Now the latest news is that the Angels have placed a half dozen veteran players on waivers, including Hunter Renfroe, the recently acquired Lucas Giolito and Randal Grichuk, and others, in the hopes of saving some money apparently.

But one thing that is exciting and worth tracking for the Angels the rest of the year is the lightning fast emergence of 1B Nolan Schanuel. Drafted earlier this year in the first round with overall pick #11, Schanuel played 22 games across three minor league levels before being called up. He was hitting .365 with a .505 OBP in the minors, though he only had one HR. In college—earlier this year mind you—he had 19 HR in 59 games for Florida Atlantic, while slashing .447/.615/.868 and also stealing 14 bases (and only one CS). So presumably professional power could come along in time—something he's not had much of yet!

So far, Schanuel has hit in all 10 of his games with the Angels. He has gone 12-37 which is a .324 batting average, while also walking seven times giving him a .457 OBP. Again, 11 of those 12 hits have been singles, with one double—so the power has yet to appear, but I suspect it will if not this year, then in the near future.

Schanuel of course is not the first rookie this season to have started his career with a hitting streak of 10 or more games. Jordan Walker of the Cardinals managed to hit in his first 12 games, and was batting .319 with two HR during that streak. His average dipped only a little to .274, when the Cardinals—whose roster was heavy on outfielders—sent him down to AAA Memphis for some seasoning. He had proven he could hit over .300 with power at A-ball in 2021 and AA in 2022, but hadn't yet played at the AAA level. He didn't actually do very well there this year, hitting only .239 with four HR in 29 games. But the Cardinals—whose season, even more so than the Angels, has seemed cursed from the get-go—called Walker back up anyway. I'm assuming he's in the majors more-or-less to stay at this point.

The all-time record for a hitting streak to start a major league career? That would be 17, held by two players some 75 years apart. David Dahl of the Rockies in 2016 collected hits in his first 17 games, at which point he had a slash line of .358/.394/.597, with four HR, and interestingly, three triples. Dahl is still playing, though most of his 2023 season was spent at AAA with only nine at-bats for the Padres.

Dahl's feat in 2016 tied the record that was set by the great Chuck Aleno (great, I'm sure, at least in the minds of his family and friends). After hitting over .325 in three of four minor league seasons, in 1941 Aleno was batting .348 in 19 games and was called up to the Reds where he promptly started his record-setting 17-game hitting streak. He batted an impressive .389 during that start to his major league career, but quickly came back to earth and ended the season with a .243/.289/.337 slash line in 54 games. He was up and down between the minors and majors through 1946, when his career was over with a lackluster .209 overall average.

Here is the full list of players who started their AL/NL careers with a 10+ game hitting streak (dating back to 1901):

• 17 - David Dahl, 2016

• 17 - Chuck Aleno, 1941

• 16 - Juan Pierre, 2000

• 13 - Glenn Williams, 2005

• 13 - Rocco Baldelli, 2003

• 13 - Mike Woodard, 1985

• 13 - Dale Alexander, 1929

• 12 - Jordan Walker, 2023

• 12 - Ryan McGuire, 1997

• 12 - Hank Arft, 1948

• 12 - Bill McGhee, 1944

• 12 - Eddie Murphy, 1912

• 11 - Bo Bichette, 2019

• 11 - Bryan Reynolds, 2019

• 11 - Gregory Polanco, 2014

• 11 - George Staller, 1943

• 11 - Walter Holke, 1914-1916

• 10 - Brent Abernathy, 2001

• 10 - Gordy Coleman, 1959

• 10 - Joe Buzas, 1945

• 10 - Mel Simons, 1931

• 10 - Red Badgro, 1929

• 10 - Nolan Schanuel, 2023… still going!

Looks like 2023 is not the first year to have seen two rookies with 10+ hitting streaks to start their careers. 1929 saw the Tigers' Dale Alexander start his outstanding rookie campaign with a 13-game hitting streak, and ended by leading the AL with 215 hits to go along with a .343 average, 110 runs, 137 RBI, 43 doubles, 15 triples, and 25 HR. Morris Hiram “Red” Badgro's numbers weren't nearly as impressive, hitting in 10 games to start the season but ending with a .284 average and one HR in 54 games.

Much more recently, 2019 saw both Bryan Reynolds and Bo Bichette start their major league careers with 11-game hitting streaks. Reynolds hit .417 during that period, and Bichette hit .408, to go along with an impressive .810 slugging percentage due to having four HR and nine doubles in those 11 games.

I should explain that Walter Holke has two years listed above, as he went 2-6 in two games for the New York Giants in 1914, and then came back in 1916 to hit in his next nine games. He went on to have an 11-year major league career, with a .287 average overall.

I'll conclude by noting that a few articles I saw earlier this year when Walker's streak was in the news included some seasons from players in 1901 in lists like the above. I consider that a mistake, likely due to 1901 being the year that the streak data begins at sites such as baseball-reference.com. But players such as Nap LaJoie, Danny Green, Sam Crawford, Socks Seybold, and Kid Gleason, who started the 1901 season with 10+ game hitting streaks, were not rookies and had played in major league seasons before 1901.

All data is from Baseball-Reference.com, and also their subscription service Stathead.com. If you are a big sports fan, be sure to check out the latest features at Stathead and the Sports Reference family of sites.

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Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.