Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Delgado: Will Lightning Strike?

A lot of Carlos Delgado stories today, after his arrival in Dunedin. Thanks to Jurgen Maas for pointing out this one, by Larry Millson in the Globe and Mail. Carlos has realistic expectations for the upcoming season:

"I don't think I'm a .344 hitter, but I'm not a .280 hitter, either. And I know that I can consistently drive in over 120 runs."

The prolific Spencer Fordin has a Delgado profile on the Official Site, and a brief CP report in the Sun mentions Carlos' minor offseason knee surgery went well.

Apart from intangibles -- like "veteran leadership" -- what can we expect from the Toronto 1B this season? As I've mentioned more than once, he'll benefit from a cozier spot in the order; seeing more people on base with fewer outs, Delgado might hit .300-42-125, with his usual 100+ walks. After two years of "only" .950-960 production, I'll say his OPS is back over 1.000 this year. Predictions, anyone?

Posted by Coach on Saturday, February 22 2003 @ 04:51 AM EST.

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Lucas - Sunday, February 23 2003 @ 11:51 AM EST (#95668) #

http://www.baseballblog.blogspot.com
I think Carlos Delgado is a really great and underrated player, but it's funny that he doesn't think he's a .280 hitter, when that's almost exactly what he is.

Take out the .344 season...

1996 = .270
1997 = .262
1998 = .292
1999 = .272
2001 = .279
2002 = .277

That is almost the very definition of a .280 hitter, or maybe even a .275 hitter.
Of course, he does deserve credit for his .344, but still...

My prediction for Delgado:

.275 BA
.412 OBP
.567 SLG
112 BB
37 HR
39 2B
122 RBI

BTW, his career batting average.... .281!

_Spicol - Sunday, February 23 2003 @ 04:45 PM EST (#95669) #

Looking at Delgado's similarity scores, I found it pretty interesting that the player Carlos is most similar to through age 30 is the vastly underrated Fred McGriff.

In other ex-Jay news, looks like Pat Borders is planning for life after shin guards. I always found Borders to be pretty likeable and would be thrilled to see him back in this organization after his playing days are over.

_R Billie - Sunday, February 23 2003 @ 05:49 PM EST (#95670) #

I think the key for Delgado is performing against lefties. In 1999 and 2000 he hit over .300 against lefties with an excellents OPS against them in 2000. Maybe that as much as anything accounts for the career year.

However, the past couple of seasons Delgado has been very bad against lefties. If he can somehow figure out how to hit them again maybe he can break the .1000 OPS mark. The exaggerated shifts against him hurt a lot because the outfielders move around to left field, particularly against lefties, and take away all of those flyballs and line drives that used to be doubles.

_jason - Sunday, February 23 2003 @ 10:24 PM EST (#95671) #

Delgado had a down year and he was still in the top 10 in OPS, so if that's the worst production we can expect from him then I don't think we should be too worried about it.

_jason - Monday, February 24 2003 @ 12:19 AM EST (#95672) #

Jose Cruz Jr. seems to be moving up in the world.

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