Normally, an isolated week’s worth of plate appearances wouldn’t merit any sort of mention, but since Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee is in pursuit this season of baseball’s first Triple Crown since 1967, even his short-term vicissitudes are of interest.

Here are Lee’s numbers for the the month of August: .200 AVG/.294 OBA/.400 SLG. His recent struggles have certainly hurt his chances of becoming the first player since Carl Yastrzemski to lead his league in batting average, home runs, and RBI; he’s now tied with Florida’s Miguel Cabrera for the lead in batting average, trailing Atlanta’s Andruw Jones in homers, and lagging behind Milwaukee’s Carlos Lee and St. Louis’s Albert Pujols, Jones, and Houston’s Morgan Ensberg in RBI. So Lee’s chances are most assuredly fading.

Perhaps lost in all the Triple Crown furor is the fact that the ingredients of the feat are by no means the best measures of offensive performance. Regular Baseball Prospectus readers are no doubt aware that RBI are highly team-dependent, homers are not the best measure of power, and batting average, as rate stats go, is less informative than on-base average or slugging average. One of the hazards of such conspicuous chases is that the putative value of such metrics becomes even more cemented in the mind of the rank-and-file fan.

So why don’t we concoct a more telling Triple Crown?

To do this, let’s say the New and Improved Triple Crown (NITC) comprises the categories of OBA, SLG, and plate appearances. As you know, OBA and SLG, in tandem, are the best traditional offensive measures in the presence of some indicator of playing time, which is why plate appearances are thrown in the mix.

Presently, Lee’s .427 OBA ranks him third in the NL behind Washington’s Nick Johnson and Pujols. His .675 SLG leads Pujols by a comfortable 48-point margin, but he’s only 11th in the league in plate appearances with 485. So it’s also unlikely he’ll claim the NITC.

Lee shouldn’t feel too badly about that; In historical terms, it’s far less common than the traditional Triple Crown. Throughout baseball history, 15 hitters (ranging from Tip O’Neill in 1887 to Yastrzemski in ’67) have claimed the traditional Triple Crown, while only two players have claimed the NITC. In 1943, Stan Musial won it in the NL with a .425 OBA, .562 SLG, and 691 PA; six years later, Ted Williams was even more impressive in the AL with a .490 OBA, .650 SLG, and a whopping 730 PA.

Since it’s such a rarity, let’s expand the list to those whose rankings in the three categories total five or fewer. The near misses are in the chart below:

As you can see, no one’s even come close since Hank Aaron in 1963. So, can Lee pull it off this season? His substantial deficit in plate appearances (in tandem with a balky shoulder) will likely shanghai any run at the NITC. Plus, his career batting line of .275/.361/.495 suggests that his recent decline may be the start of a long slide.

Some have suggested that Pujols might have a better shot than Lee at winning the Triple Crown. Well, that’s probably also the case for the NITC.

Pujols, as noted above, has substantial ground to make up in terms of SLG, but if Lee’s staggering level of performance withers over the season’s final weeks – as many of us anticipate it will – Pujols will have a shot at overtaking him. Pujols trails Johnson by only four points in OBA (and the possibility remains that Johnson will fall short of qualifying, as various injuries have allowed him to play in just 87 games this season), and he ranks fourth in plate appearances, 27 behind Brady Clark of the Brewers.

As is the case with Lee, Pujols probably won’t be able to pull it off, but considering his career line of .334/.426/.624, he’s the likeliest candidate at this juncture.

This article was provided by Baseball Prospectus. For more state-ofthe-art commentary, visit their Web site at baseballprospectus.com.