Friday, June 25, 2010

Home Runs

As someone who has followed the Blue Jays from Day One -- I was there on that cold, snowy, blustery Opening Day in 1977 -- I've been watching the current edition of the Jays with some bemusement. Here's a team that doesn't hit well except for round-trippers. Now, who does that remind one of?
Here are two sets of lines in order, BA, OBP, SLG and OPS:
.239, .307, .448, .755
.236, .302, .478, .780
The top line is the current edition of the Jays as of June 24, line two is the career average for Dave 'King Kong' Kingman.
I don't worry that much about batting average as a stat -- arguably the least meaningful of the four -- but OBP is a concern as are Ks.
For the record, the current edition of the Jays is not quite as woeful as King Kong. Collectively -- and this includes pitchers -- they are whiffing once every 4.3 ABs, compared to Kingman who struck out once every 3.7 ABs.
Kingman was never a success despite leading the league in round-trippers in two seasons and finishing second on four occasions and neither, it appears, will be the Jays who currently lead the AL in home runs.

1 comment: