August 2, 2002
On pace (part 1, hitting)
Baseball is, more than any other sport, a game of statistics. There are some good ones (On-base %, Slugging %, EqA) and some bad ones (Saves, Holds, Errors), but good or bad, it is always fun to see what players are "on pace" for. So, with about 1/3 of the season remaining, I thought I would take a look around baseball and check out some of the interesting paces (and make a few comments):
Home Runs:
Alex Rodriguez - 54 (Absolutely, without a doubt, the MVP of the American League)
Sammy Sosa - 50 (Sammy having an "off" year)
Jim Thome - 48 (Would likely be ahead of Arod for league lead if not for injuries)
Lance Berkman - 47 (Killing righties, but only hitting .235/.347/.383 against lefties)
Barry Bonds - 44 (Absolutely, without a doubt, the MVP of the National League)
Alfonso Soriano - 41 (Also on pace for 59 doubles!)
Torii Hunter - 36 (Breakout season for my favorite player and the best CF in baseball)
Luis Gonzalez - 33 (I can't decide if this means last year was a fluke or not?)
Adam Dunn - 33 (Sort of a disappointing year for homers, but the power will come and you gotta love that .450 OBP)
Todd Helton - 29 (Helton hit 42 in '00 and 49 last year)
Jeff Bagwell - 27 (PASS...oops...May have fallen off of the career path cliff)
Frank Thomas - 25 (See above)
Bret Boone - 24 (Unlike with Luis Gonzalez, I am completely certain that last year was a fluke)
Mark Bellhorn - 26 (Absolutely crushing lefties .348/.456/.773 and pretty damn good against righties .239/.362/.494)
Troy Glaus - 26 (Continues to murder lefties, but has been completely lost against righties .205/.328/.375)
Nick Johnson - 21 (Average is slowly climbing and so are the walks. The power has been there all season)
Omar Vizquel - 20 (What has Omar been eating? Caminiti Flakes?)
Chipper Jones - 20 (Chipper on the same home run pace as Omar Vizquel, wow. Has been going deep lately though)
Jermaine Dye - 16 (Gotta think he is still not completely recovered from post-season injury)
Bobby Abreu - 15 (Homers from years past are turining into doubles this year. Still a very valuable player)
Vinny Castilla - 14 (Absolutely horrendous and getting worse as the year goes on)
Juan Gonzalez - 12 (Has he been hanging out with Bagwell and The Big Hurt?)
Aramis Ramirez - 12 (Not taking a walk was okay last year, but this year nothing is working and that OBP is ugly)
Scott Spiezio - 9 (Anaheim, is this what you want in your first baseman?!)
Doug Mientkiewicz - 9 (I know this isn't what I want in mine)
Ichiro! - 9 (Has completely reversed L/R splits from last year, hitting .415/.468/.569 against lefties so far this season)
Runs Batted In:
Alex Rodriguez - 140 (Like I said, this is your MVP...last year too)
Nomar Garciaparra - 133 (Hitting .363/.399/.632 with runners on base)
Jason Giambi - 132 (After early pub Giambi has been sort of flying under the radar .318/.437/.605)
Miguel Tejada - 128 (128 RBI rank him 3rd...among shortstops!)
Bret Boone - 106 (He and Glaus are only guys on pace for 100 RBI with a sub .460 SLG, .423 for Boone, .427 for Glaus)
Raul Ibanez - 102 (After all my Royal bashing, I figured I should at least point out Ibanez's RBI pace)
Barry Bonds - 95 (With the baseball writers love for RBI it will be interesting if Bonds gets what he deserves)
Jeff Bagwell - 95 (Would be first sub 100 RBI season since 1995)
Adam Dunn - 94 (The anti-Garret Anderson, walks too much to drive in tons of runs)
Other Hitting Paces:
Barry Bonds - 180 Walks (On pace to break his own all-time record despite all the missed time)
Adam Dunn - 145 Walks (When the power stroke starts rolling, watch out, .288/.446/.541)
Ichiro! - 71 Walks (Having an even better season this year because he's on pace for more than double the walks of '01)
Alfonso Soriano - 26 Walks (He just can't keep this up for a whole career right? RIGHT?!)
Shea Hillenbrand - 23 Walks (The All-Star starter has officially turned into a pumpkin, ~.700 OPS over last 2 months)
Alfonso Soriano - 706 At bats (Watch out Willie Wilson)
Garret Anderson - 58 Doubles (The anti-Adam Dunn, always hacking with (or without) men on base)
Rafael Furcal - 26 SB/21 CS (Hey Raffy, stop running!)
Cristian Guzman - 10 SB/16 CS (Stopped sliding head first because of shoulder injury from last year)
And, of course, my favorite...
Barry Bonds - .557 On-base percentage (Will he get enough plate appearances?)
Check back tomorrow for the pitching paces...
