Sam Mertes

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 10 in · 185 lb

BornAugust 6, 1872 · San Francisco, CA, USA

MLB debutJune 30, 1896

Final gameSeptember 15, 1906

Seasons10 (1896–1906)

Philadelphia Phillies 1896; Chicago Orphans 1898–1900; Chicago White Sox 1901–1902; New York Giants 1903–1906; St. Louis Cardinals 1906

Percentile snapshot

1906 season — qualified batters

124

22.1

507

23.2

444

41.1

107

42.1

78.9

33.7

RBI

25.3

76.8

.241

24.2

OBP

.315

35.8

SLG

.329

41.1

OPS

.644

wRC+

101.5

OPS+

101.5

38.9

wOBA

.321

42.1

sWAR

1.1

28.4

of 96 qualified 1906 batters (min 477 PA) · 1 stat not shown: every qualified player held the same value, so a percentile there carries no information

Career, era-adjusted

wRC+

112.0

65.6

OPS+

114.1

70.4

sWAR

20.9

wRC+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; OPS+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1896	37	157	143	20	34	4	4	0	14	8	10	19	.238	.288	.322	.609	64.6	60.4	.292	-0.2
1898	83	316	269	45	80	4	8	1	47	34	28	27	.297	.388	.383	.771	121.2	120.8	.380	1.7
1899	117	474	426	83	127	13	16	9	81	33	35	45	.298	.349	.467	.816	116.0	122.6	.382	2.3
1900	127	548	481	72	142	25	4	7	60	42	26	38	.295	.356	.407	.763	108.3	110.2	.363	2.2
1901	137	623	545	94	151	16	17	5	98	52	34	46	.277	.347	.396	.743	107.7	108.2	.350	2.8
1902	129	544	497	60	140	23	7	1	79	37	43	46	.282	.334	.362	.696	97.7	97.1	.329	1.3
1903	138	592	517	100	145	32	14	7	104	61	45	45	.280	.360	.437	.797	121.7	125.3	.380	2.9
1904	148	611	532	83	147	28	11	4	78	54	48	47	.276	.346	.393	.739	126.0	127.3	.357	3.4
1905	150	627	551	81	154	27	17	5	108	56	51	52	.279	.351	.417	.769	126.8	128.8	.368	3.4
1906	124	507	444	57	107	16	10	1	52	45	58	31	.241	.315	.329	.644	101.5	101.5	.321	1.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1902	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	6	1	0	0	0	4.7	1.93	1.286	0.00	2.81	82.2	176.9	1.3

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

1,190

4,999

4,405

695

1,227

188

108

135th-most career 3B

RBI

721

422

378

396

77th-most career SB

.2785

OBP

.3461

SLG

.3975

OPS

.7436

Pitching

G (P)

SHO

SO (P)

BB allowed

ERA

1.929

WHIP

1.2857

K/9

0.00

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1904-10-04	STL @ SF Gameday	4	3	4	1	1	1	1	0	10
1904-07-15	SF @ CIN Gameday	4	1	4	0	0	1	4	0	7
1901-08-13	CWS @ CLE Gameday	5	3	4	0	0	1	3	1	7
1903-05-01	SF @ PHI Gameday	4	2	3	1	0	1	3	1	7
1903-09-23	SF @ PIT Gameday	4	2	3	0	2	0	2	0	7

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER
1902-09-28	CWS @ BAL Gameday	7.2	6	2	1
1901-04-24	CLE @ CWS Gameday	0.0	0	0	0
1901-04-25	CLE @ CWS Gameday	0.0	0	0	0
1901-04-27	CLE @ CWS Gameday	0.0	0	0	0
1901-04-28	CLE @ CWS Gameday	0.0	0	0	0

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.