Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Holy Cow! Look at These Numbers

Every year, there are a few numbers that just jump off the Sunday sports stats wrapups (okay, these days, off the ESPN.com MLB screen) screaming, in a Harry Carey voice, "Holy Cow!"

Oh, I don't mean the Bonds-73 and McLain-31 types of numbers -- those jump off the page/screen at even the most casual of fan. But in just skimming the nearly-complete 2007 season numbers, I found myself shaking my head a number of times. For instance, did you realize ...

Matt Holliday is hitting .339/36/131?
Jose Valverde is leading the majors in saves with 46?
Placido Polanco is hitting .342, good for third in the AL -- and second on his own team (to Magglio Ordonez)?
Carlos Pena has hit 40 home runs?
Adam Dunn has hit at least 40 home runs now in each of the last four seasons?
Fausto Carmona is leading the AL in ERA, but his 3.07 mark wouldn't even crack the top five in the NL?
Three players in the majors -- Ichiro, Holliday and Ordonez -- have already reached or surpassed 200 hits? he next four in line to get there -- Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Derek Jeter and Michael Young -- are all shortstops.
Shane Victorino is 37-for-40 in the SB department? Every other player in the majors with at least 32 steals has been caught stealing six or more times.
Atlanta's Kelly Johnson (Kelly Johnson?) is one of just four men in the majors to have reached double digits in triples? (He has 10 right now.)
Two players -- Jeff Francoeur and Raul Ibanez -- have reached the 100 RBI plateau but have not yet hit 20 home runs? They have 17 and 19, respectively, while Bobby Abreu is at 16/98.
Just five players have walked at least 100 times so far this season, while no less than 76 have struck out that many times already? The latter group is "led" by Ryan Howard, with 189, who seems a good bet to break Dunn's all-time record of 195.
Rollins already has 675 AB, and seems a sure thing to break 700? He would be just the fourth player ever to do so, and has a good shot at Willie Wilson's all-time mark of 705.
Just five SP have cracked the 200 K barrier so far this season? Jake Peavy leads the way at 225 -- the days of Nolan Ryan and 383 seem far away -- well, hey, that was 34 years ago!
Aaron Harang is 16-4? (Aaron Harang!!) Ben Sheets (12-5) and Claudio Vargas (11-4) are a combined 23-9 for Milwaukee.
Kip Wells is 6-17 and Edwin Jackson is 4-15?
Sixteen different pitchers have at least 30 saves? Six more are in the 20's and 14 others have reached double digits.
Only two starting pitchers in the majors (among qualifiers) have an ERA of 6.00 or higher? Adam Eaton is at 6.36 while Scott Olsen is at 6.06. According to USA Today, Eaton is earn - er, nake that, "is being paid" $7,208,333 by the Phillies in 2007; Olsen is making "only" $380,000 with the Marlins.

Gosh, that's enough for now. What's jumped out at you?

Posted by Mick Doherty on Thursday, September 20 2007 @ 10:55 PM EDT.

Holy Cow! Look at These Numbers | 54 comments | Create New Account

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ANationalAcrobat - Thursday, September 20 2007 @ 11:50 PM EDT (#174580) #

Nice post, Mick. I really enjoy reading this type of thing.

Biggest surprises for me?
- Carlos Pena at 40 homers
- Fausto Carmona: the dude lost something like 4 games in a week last year... he was awful... of course I had him on my fantasy team
- Victorino - who announced actually announced early in the year that he would be stealing a ton of bases, but I doubted he'd be any good at it since he had hardly stolen any since being in AA 5 years earlier. I expect it'll only get harder for Victorino though since pitchers will keep him on such a tight leash.

Mick Doherty - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 12:09 AM EDT (#174582) #

Of course, 45 minutes after I posted this, Ibanez hit his 20th home run. I guess Abreu will hit four tomorrow ...

ayjackson - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 12:37 AM EDT (#174583) #

One I came across the other day was that McGowan and Burnett are second and third in the AL in OPS against (.630 and .647).

Geoff North - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 12:47 AM EDT (#174584) #

How about Curtis Granderson with more than 20 homers, 20 triples, 20 doubles and 20 steals! And those triples - he's leading the league - by 13!

Dave Rutt - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 01:04 AM EDT (#174586) #

I was going to mention the 20/20/20/20 thing. Jimmy Rollins only needs 2 triples to reach that mark as well - and he's well beyond in the other categories with 28 HRs, 36 2Bs, and 37 steals.

Dave Rutt - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 01:05 AM EDT (#174587) #

Brandon Phillips needs 1 HR for 30/30.

Mark J - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 01:24 AM EDT (#174589) #

My favorite crazy baseball stat from this year was Chipper Jones' batting line on July 29: 1 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 5 RBI. Only time it's happened in 50 years (2 sac flies and 3-run double). More trivial than significant, of course.

Anyone notice David Ortiz is third in the AL with a mere 31 HR?

TamRa - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 03:30 AM EDT (#174590) #

Chone Figgins is hitting .405 since the break.

Jayson Werth (Jayson WERTH!) is hitting .359 in 145 AB since the break.

Magglio hit .421 w/RISP and has driven in 102 runs in that situation!!

Who kills the Jays in 2007?

Polanco - .429 BA; Alex Gordon - 1.349 OPS; Mike Lowell 6 HR, 17 RBI and Carl Crawford 6 HR and 10 steals;

Hitters have hit .167 off AJ Burnett since the break (or more technically since he came off the DL)

Alex Obal - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 04:09 AM EDT (#174591) #

Carl Crawford vs Blue Jays: 1.50 WPA
Carl Crawford vs Other: 2.00 WPA

Not quite as impressive as I was expecting when I started adding it up, but still...

Also, 3.50 WPA in one season is pretty freakin' good for a position player.

Chuck - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 07:54 AM EDT (#174593) #

Oliver Perez, king of the unearned run: 82 RA, 63 ER. The 19 UER are more than the rest of the Mets starters combined.

Chuck - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 08:10 AM EDT (#174594) #

Vernon Wells: 245/304/402, 16 HR, 80 RBI
Bengie Molina: 282/303/446, 19 HR, 80 RBI

By having surgery now, Wells is perhaps saved the ignominy of a 2xx OBP and a 3xx SLG.

Barry Bonnell - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 09:29 AM EDT (#174597) #

I love the fact that Roy has more complete games than every team in the majors except for Cleveland.

Lugnut Fan - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 10:42 AM EDT (#174600) #

Appropriate to use the Harry Carey reference today since this is the 10th anniversary of Harry singing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at Wrigley.

Mike Green - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 11:00 AM EDT (#174601) #

They can't catch a cold in Florida. Tampa's DER (Hardball Times) of .657 or Def Eff (Baseball Reference) of .652 and Florida's .662 DER and .658 DefEff are historically bad numbers.

Tampa has some wild numbers all over. B.J. Upton's .413 BABIP is pretty crazy (I guess balls are harder to catch in the Trop...) and Jorge Posada's .391 BABIP is, if anything, stranger. You are not supposedly to be able to do that over a season as a mid-30s catcher. Tampa has 4 of the top 15 BABIP leaders. Actually, Tampa's DER and BABIP both appear to be higher on the road by my calculations, so I guess that it is not a park effect.

Nigel - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 11:13 AM EDT (#174602) #

Toronto's ERA+ of 118 is now leading all of MLB. I think that stat is genuinely astonishing.

Greg - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 11:59 AM EDT (#174603) #

I had a fairly heated discussion with someone in April about how I thought the Jays could very well have better pitching than Oakland this year.

Although it didn't come about exactly as I had imagined, I feel vindicated!
And at the same time sad...what a waste, if only the hitters could have turned in anything close to an average performance...

3RunHomer - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 12:52 PM EDT (#174604) #

<p>How about Curtis Granderson with more than 20 homers, 20 triples, 20 doubles and 20 steals! And those triples - he's leading the league - by 13!</P>

<P> AND Granderson did all that while hitting .157/.211/.270 against LHP (115 AB)!! THAT is one wacky crazy season.</P>

John Northey - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 01:45 PM EDT (#174606) #

Rather than individual, I thought I'd look at team stats.

SS: Jays OPS=583, good for 30th out of 30 teams
1B: Jays OPS=689, good for 29th (Seattle is worse)

For even uglier last place stuff...
LF: Baltimore OPS=618, which would be 28th for SS's
CF: ChiSox OPS=620

Those are the only positions with the 30th slot at 620 or worse. Yes, our SS's are the worse hitters in baseball for any position. No other team has a position doing worse than 600 for OPS.

The good news is our pitchers are 3rd in baseball for OPS at 461. #1 goes to Tampa Bay at 773 (#2 is St Louis at 482). That means that TB's pitchers are outhitting all but 9 teams. Of course, it is over just 22 AB's :)

SF, despite having Bonds, is dead last in total bases at 1999.

Detroit has 4 times as many triples (48) as St Louis (12). I miss the old Whitey Herzog days.

Toronto is #3 in doubles. See, our hitters aren't total crap!

Oakland has the worst BA in the AL (257) but are 6th in OBP in the AL. No real shock I guess, but interesting. The anti-moneyball team, the ChiSox, are dead last in MLB (even behind all the teams that have to let their pitchers hit) in OBP at 317. And yes, the Yankees/Red Sox are #1/2 in that stat.

Kieran - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 02:03 PM EDT (#174608) #

OFF TOPIC BUT WONDERFUL NEWS...

Second only to the Blue Jays acquiring some new impact talent, I've just read that the club will be bringing back full-on powder blues as alternate uniforms for 2008. This seems to include the old logo and hat as well. I'm not sure if this means the black jerseys are gone, as I seem to remember each club only being allowed one alternate. The lettering of the road jerseys is apparently also being revised.

Forum discussion here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2631077

I just bought a powder blue STIEB 37 jersey this past weekend. I noticed the front TORONTO lettering (in blue, and not BLUE JAYS) and the blue jersey number with white piping dates the jersey as a '77 model (using Chris Creamer's site as a guide). Although, technically, the '77 jerseys didn't have names on them.

Do Bauxites love this news as much as I do?!

John Northey - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#174609) #

Hmm... gotta love ESPN...

Most run support 100 or more innings pitched, aka the award for the happiest pitcher in baseball...
Kyle Kendrick (Philly) - 8.01

Least run support 100+ IP, aka the 'and you thought you had it bad' award...
Anthony Reyes (St Louis) - 3.10

In the AL the 2nd lowest is Gil Meche at 3.97 - think he is wondering if Toronto would've been so bad now? (9-12 with a 3.70 ERA)

The 'sucks to be you' award to Matt Cain for 8 tough losses to the lead the majors with 0 cheap wins - Santana is next at 7-0.

The guy hitters love to see award to Mike Maroth who allowed a 1.013 OPS against, next worst for 100+ IP guys is at 901. 349/411/603 was the average hitter vs Maroth. Ouch.

AWeb - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 02:18 PM EDT (#174611) #

Todd Helton leads the NL in times on base (274) yet has scored only 81 runs.

Juan Pierre, despite being almost twice as hard to strike out as any other NL player (every 18 AB, next at 10.9), has stolen 60 bases, and still had a terrible year.

Both Carlos Zambrano (97) and Daniel Cabrera (104) will walk more than 100 batters for the second straight year.

John McDonald, with 12 sac bunts, is only one behind the league leader. This is the only chance a Jay has to lead a hitting category.

Toronto leads the league in pinch hit AB's with 107. Sadly, they do not have the most pinch-hits.

Toronto has exactly the average number of HR for a major league team as of now (156). This shocked me considering how terrible many of their homerun hitters have been this year.

Noah - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 10:05 PM EDT (#174613) #

you've got to really feel for Halladay, this bullpen is absolutely terrible. This is now the 2nd time in 3 starts that Hallady has lost a win with one out remaining in the ninth. Two terrible defensive plays from normally reliable fielders in Overbay and Hill. Sometimes with the game on the line you've got to lay out the body a little. Hill not diving for that ground ball is simply unacceptable.

greenfrog - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 11:01 PM EDT (#174617) #

this bullpen is absolutely terrible

I feel your pain, but at least be objective (you might start by checking the stats of Accardo, Janssen, and Downs). We have had a great bullpen this year--in fact, the bullpen has pitched well in this game. The only reason we didn't cinch it in the 9th is because of a couple of uncharacteristic botched plays by Hill.

cascando - Friday, September 21 2007 @ 11:15 PM EDT (#174618) #

I was just wondering if this is the Jays best bullpen ever? ERA+ in order of innings pitched:

Janssen -- 190
Accardo --204
Downs -- 204
Tallet -- 142
Frasor --108
Wolfe -- 205

How much better could it get? They've been dynamite all year.

Alex Obal - Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 02:10 AM EDT (#174619) #

Second only to the Blue Jays acquiring some new impact talent, I've just read that the club will be bringing back full-on powder blues as alternate uniforms for 2008.

Frank Thomas in powder blue pyjamas has to be the most intimidating sight for a pitcher... ever. I love it. Hopefully this is a reasonably regular thing.

Chuck - Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 07:58 AM EDT (#174620) #

I've just read that the club will be bringing back full-on powder blues as alternate uniforms for 2008... Do Bauxites love this news as much as I do?!

Those of us old enough to have lived through the powder blues the first time may not share your enthusiasm.

greenfrog - Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 09:24 AM EDT (#174621) #

So SF will not be bringing Bonds back next year. What about bringing him to Toronto to play LF for a year (think of Bonds in powder-blue pajamas). He would give the team a needed OBP and power boost. Give him 400 AB in LF and as occasional DH. Let Reed have the balance of playing time in LF--spelling Barry, playing against LHP and as a late-inning defensive replacement.

This could be Stairs's role instead. I like Stairs, and he is a few years younger than Barry, but Bonds's OPS this year is 1.053.

greenfrog - Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 12:54 PM EDT (#174628) #

That's fair--I forgot about Barry's dubious defense. He's probably still valuable as a LF, but clearly would make more sense as a full-time DH. And we already have one of those.

Still, I wonder about our ability to compete in the AL East without a deeper offense. Having Reed, Zaun, McDonald, an injury-prone Glaus (and, possibly, an OPS-challenged Wells) in the starting lineup scares me. At the moment, it's an unbalanced, slow, RHB-heavy lineup that doesn't get on base enough and doesn't hit for enough power. And the subs are subpar.

jeff mcl - Saturday, September 22 2007 @ 01:10 PM EDT (#174629) #

I guess Big Troy has paved the way for the potential additional of another alleged drug user. I'm so jaded now...

Would I take the 120 games of 1000+ OPS you get from Bonds over a Johnson/Stairs platoon? Hell yes. And I could get used to hitting the mute button everytime a journo put a mic in his face pretty easily.

How many suitors will he have anyway? I wonder what Bonds would go for?

ANationalAcrobat - Sunday, September 23 2007 @ 09:25 AM EDT (#174635) #

I had forgotten about this one, but perhaps the most surprising stat of the year for me would be: Jack Cust, 477 Major League plate appearances in '07.

Dan Daoust - Sunday, September 23 2007 @ 12:33 PM EDT (#174636) #

Most amazing stats: Ryan Braun, rookie, 420 AB, .319 BA, .986 OPS, 31 HR, 85 RBI, 14 SB, 22 2B, 6 3B. All since late May. I can't remember ever seeing a rookie season like this. Ichiro had the average, the speed and the fielding, Pujols and Thomas had the average and power. Who in recent history has combined average, power and speed like this in his rookie season? (22 errors, I could do without...)

But of course, the most important part, on this day after Yom Kippur, is that he could become the first Jewish superstar since Koufax. (Please no one call Shawn Green a superstar, thank you very much.)

Chuck - Sunday, September 23 2007 @ 12:52 PM EDT (#174637) #

I seem to recall seeing one BP writer (can't recall which) making an argument in favour of Tulowitzki over Braun. I presume the argument was that Braun gets punished for fielding like Dave Kingman while Tulowitzki gets bumped for playing shortstop and being a plus defender (along with being a plus hitter, of course).

That said, I can't see the voters not choosing Braun. With Fielder entrenched at first, the Brewers are going to have to figure out what to do with Braun. I would imagine an outfield corner might be in his future.

Tulowitzki, 22 years old, 292/364/473 (though a 962/714 home/road OPS split). Had Ricciardi just kept picking shortstops for another year...

AWeb - Sunday, September 23 2007 @ 06:45 PM EDT (#174643) #

I know it got mentioned in the article, but Howard striking out 191 times (after today) in 137 games is a truly impressive assault on an all-time record. The Phillies have 6 games left, and are still in the playoff hunt, so Howard will get every chance to break it for at least a few more games. Howard strikes out at a Rob Deer like pace (who once had 186 K's in 134 games). Of course, great players who strike out constantly aren't unheard of (Thome, Fielder, young Schmidt), but it's still oddly impressive.

Chuck - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 09:06 AM EDT (#174646) #

How about David DeJesus with 100 runs scored?

On the one hand, he bats leadoff and has only missed a handful of games. On the other hand:
* his .355 OBP is fine, but not earth shattering
* he's only driven himself home via homeruns 7 times
* he's only placed himself in scoring position via stolen bases 9 times
* he's only placed himself in scoring position via doubles/triples 38 times
* he's not exactly followed in the batting order by a murderer's row (the team leader in RBI, Emil Brown, has just 61)

Mike Green - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 01:48 PM EDT (#174667) #

Dan Daoust, Braun has got some work to do to catch Al Rosen as the third baseman on the "Seed of Abraham" club. (Green, Kapler/Goody Rosen, Sid Gordon, Al Rosen, Eckstein, Lip Pike/Buddy Myer, Greenberg and Ausmus with Koufax pitching). Braun, so far, will have to share the DH job with Ron Blomberg. Lou Boudreau's mother was apparently Jewish, and he'd be a significant upgrade on Eckstein. Nice club, Boudreau and Myer at the top of the order would get on base plenty and Rosen, Greenberg, Green, Braun/Blomberg and Gordon would make an excellent power core. With Koufax pitching, I'd take my chances on them any day in the 7th game of the World Series.

By the way, Koufax' original name was apparently Sanford Braun.

Chuck - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 03:17 PM EDT (#174674) #

With Koufax pitching, I'd take my chances on them any day in the 7th game of the World Series.

So long as it wasn't a Saturday.

Mike Green - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 03:43 PM EDT (#174675) #

There is a health exemption to just about every rule in Judaism. It would be deleterious to Koufax' health if he didn't pitch the seventh game of the World Series for the Seed of Abraham club on the sabbath. Alternatively, he'd have at least 10 Jewish males over the age of 13 in the stadium; I am sure they'd be able to find a rabbi to preside over services during the 7th inning stretch. I am sure that there are other talmudic arguments...

Mike Green - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 04:24 PM EDT (#174676) #

In related news, BA named David Bromberg as the 3rd best prospect in the Appalachian league. There was no word on whether he likes to sleep late in the morning.

In unrelated news, Joe P. Sheehan has an interesting article in Baseball Analysts. It turns out that Jesse Litsch's fastball breaks down as much as Brandon Webb's. His ground ball rate was very high in the minors, and may yet get there in the majors.

MatO - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 04:43 PM EDT (#174677) #

and may yet get there in the majors.

Well today was a good start. He was 17-5 in GO-FO with 1K.

Chuck - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 04:57 PM EDT (#174678) #

I am sure that there are other talmudic arguments...

With an infield of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, our side would have far fewer issues.

Nigel - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 06:09 PM EDT (#174682) #

Having watched Litsch now for a few starts, I'm not sure that the pitch that they are measuring (in the study that Mike G. refers to) at around 84 mph is actually his fastball. I think that Litsch throws essentially 4 pitches - fastball at around 87-88; cutter at around 83-84; change at around 80-81 and then his curve. This would also explain the left horizontal break number on that pitch (whereas every other sinkerballer is shown as getting some right horizontal break). Of course it could be that the two pitches are a 4 seam fastball at 87-88 and a 2 seam fastball at 83-84 (which he gets a cut-fastball action on).

Litsch reminds me of a righthanded version of Chacin. His only plus pitch is that cut-fastball/ two seamer - although he does throw an above average change every so often (the main problem with that being the relatively small change of speed off his fastball).

Alex Obal - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 07:22 PM EDT (#174683) #

The bit about Litsch's sinking fastball is really interesting (and totally fits the spirit of this thread).

I'd be very curious to see the relation between velocity and groundballishness among sinker specialists. Like, if Litsch's sinker averaged 89 instead of 85 with the same amount of movement, I'd (intuitively) expect him to get more strikeouts - but would it also be reasonable to expect an increase in his groundball rate?

greenfrog - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 08:24 PM EDT (#174684) #

If Litsch is for real, some fans (myself included) may have to start revising their assessments of JP's drafts. Marcum, Litsch, Janssen--that's potentially three good starting pitchers (or two and a setup man).

Though Adams-over-Tulowitski may haunt JP forever...

greenfrog - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 08:26 PM EDT (#174685) #

Er, make that Adams-over-Kazmir/Swisher/Hamels and Romero-over-Tulowitski...

Mike Green - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 09:06 PM EDT (#174686) #

With an infield of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett, our side would have far fewer issues.

By all accounts, Greenberg wasn't religious after his experience in the war. He might play on the Doubting Thomases too, and I am sure that he could hit a curve better than Hitchens. At least the Thomases would have Earl Weaver to manage.

Returning to Litsch, the key point is that he is 22 years old. He is young enough to add a few mphs on to his fastball, which would help with the deception on his off-speed stuff.

I would be happy if he started 2008 in the bullpen. He's a fine 6th or 7th starter to have going into the season.

Frank Markotich - Monday, September 24 2007 @ 10:39 PM EDT (#174690) #

For some reason I visualize Dawkins as a pitcher, kind of a Greg Maddux type.

Geoff - Tuesday, September 25 2007 @ 10:52 AM EDT (#174695) #

This stat really grabs me: as a team the Yankees have more saves (32) than only the Pirates (31), Orioles (28) and Devil Rays(27). They are tied with the Cardinals.

Probably has a good deal to do with the run differential in their wins, but still they are scoring an average of 5.9 and allowing 4.45. Would expect a higher percentage of their wins would result with a save.

If 32 wins were saved, how many wins were beyond the 3-run differential and how many were come from behind at home in the final frame?

Mike Green - Tuesday, September 25 2007 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#174696) #

The Yankees have 55 wins with run differentials of 4 runs or more. That's a huge number. They've only played 36 one-run games, and won 17 of them. Rivera started off the season cold, but really has been great since mid-May. He has been brought into more non-save situations than usual because the Yankees have been in relatively few close games.

Mike Green - Wednesday, September 26 2007 @ 11:40 AM EDT (#174736) #

Prince and Cecil Fielder are now the first father-son combo with 50 homer seasons. If Ryan Howard had a son, I wonder if he would try to one-up Big Daddy by naming him King.

Ryan Day - Wednesday, September 26 2007 @ 11:54 AM EDT (#174738) #

Has everyone just gotten used to how awesome Albert Pujols is? He's hitting 324/426/561, and I can't remember the last time I heard anyone talk about him. His OPS+ of 155 is third in the NL this year, but it's tied for the worst of his career. (Though he's admittedly cranked up his OBP since then)

That's just really impressive.

zeppelinkm - Wednesday, September 26 2007 @ 05:05 PM EDT (#174758) #

Anyone else impressed with Aaron Hill's power numbers? I am! 17 HR and 45 doubles is pretty sweet given he's a gold glove caliber 2nd basemen. Let's see if the new hitting coach can work some OBP magic with him and we're all set... but really, Hill sure looks like someone who is certainly capable of improving that area of his game, new hitting coach or not.

ayjackson - Thursday, September 27 2007 @ 12:54 PM EDT (#174811) #

The Yankees handed 9 pitchers their major league debut this season.

Chuck - Thursday, September 27 2007 @ 03:43 PM EDT (#174829) #

36: Of the 201 times Frank Thomas reached base (ignoring homeruns), the number of times he was driven in.

His .376 OBP is not being taken advantage of. Some of it is his fault, of course, for being so damned slow. But better to be a slow man clogging up the bases than a fast one clogging up the dugout. And why exactly do sportscasters complain about guys clogging up the bases? Can they not see that the alternative is much, much worse?

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.