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Vote for our classmate Ken Phelps to be one of the Top 50 Mariners!!! FYI-While Ken’s home run production for the Mariners was 123 home runs, he was not the first Mariner to reach 100 home runs (see below).

Career summary

Phelps' career .239 batting average hides the things that, as James pointed out, he could do. Thanks to outstanding power and strike zone judgment, his career OPS is a strong .854. Phelps hit 123 home runs in 1,854 career at-bats, and ranked in the top 10 in the American League at-bats per home run four times in his career.[2] Phelps hit his first 100 home runs in 1,322 at-bats — one of the fastest, as measured by at-bats, in MLB history, behind Ryan Howard in 1,141 at-bats. Phelps held the AL record, later surpassed by Joey Gallo in 2019............... Ken Phelps is a legitimately strong, data-backed pick for a Top 50 Mariners list, and “we went to high school with him.”

On-field impact with the Mariners

• Ken hit 123 home runs for Seattle, giving him a homer about once every five games over six seasons, which is elite power for that era and for those teams.

• During his prime Mariners seasons (mid‑80s), he posted an OPS over 900, combining power and on-base skills that modern analytics really value.

• In 1987, as the Mariners’ main designated hitter, he put up a .259 average with 27 homers and a .958 OPS, making him one of the most productive bats on the team.

Advanced stats and “analytics darling” angle

• By modern metrics, he produced roughly 9.6 WAR with Seattle, which stacks up very well compared to many famous Mariners names.

• He combined a high walk rate with big power, the classic “three true outcomes” profile that sabermetric writers have celebrated for years.

• Bill James and other analysts cited him as a player who should have been in the majors earlier and used more, which adds to the “underrated star” narrative.

• For a while, he was the young franchise’s all-time leader in home runs and on-base percentage, which shows how central he was to the offense on some pretty rough clubs.

• He’s forever linked to the famous trade for Jay Buhner, which makes him part of one of the most talked-about transactions in Mariners history.

• Late in his career as a Yankee, he ruined a near-perfect game against Seattle with a two-out, ninth-inning home run—his final career homer—which keeps his name in Mariners lore.

Local roots and class pride

• Ken is a Seattle native, born in the city in 1954, so voting for him is literally voting for a hometown kid who made it to the majors.

• As classmates, you all saw the early part of the journey, long before he became “Digger” Phelps in MLB box scores.

• Class votes help correct history a bit: he played on mostly losing teams, which means many younger fans underestimate how good he really was.

Ken Phelps was a Seattle kid who became one of the Mariners’ most underrated sluggers, hitting 105 homers and posting an OPS over 900 in his prime seasons. He was an early franchise home run and on-base leader, a favorite of modern analytics, and a central figure in one of the most famous trades in team history—exactly the kind of overlooked star who deserves a spot in the Top 50 Mariners.

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