Building the Prototype Power Hitter

Last season Chris Duncan was called up by the St. Louis Cardinals and showed a ton of power and has continued that into this season as he currently sits with 20 homers. What has been Chris' biggest problem during his 2 seasons with the Cardinals? He is absolutely hideous against left handed pitching. He's pretty much not worth playing and for the most part he rides the pine when they face lefties. Last season his average vs. lefties was .170 and this season he has raised it up to a better than mendoza line, but still piss poor mark of .222.

Meanwhile, his elder brother Shelley has been called up by the Yanks and has become a fan favorite. What has Shelley so far shown this season in limited amount of at bats? He absolutely mauls left handed pitching. To the tune of 3 homers in 17 at bats.

Here are their splits:
Shelley vs. Lefties: .421 OBP, .882 SLG, .353 AVE, 5.667 AB/HR
Chris vs. Righties: .380 OBP, .561 SLG, .285 AVE, 13.3 AB/HR

So now let's get into a lab and start merging these two brothers together. They could create the prototypical all star slugger, mashing against both left handed and right handed pitchers. They would definitely mash around 35 homers and neither can field a lick or run, furthering the power hitter prototype.

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M E T S = Mercifully End The Season

Do it before David Wright gets Hurt!

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Numbers On Steroids: Mickey Mantle

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. This week it's throwing a curve ball and looking at All Time Great Yankees. Players that we know did not take steroids to see if this gives a defense to any of the players 'convicted' by Numbers on Steroids. Time to look at my dad's favorite athlete of all time, Mickey Mantle. Averages Say: What's with the mysterious dip at 27 and then the uptick? At Bats Per Home Run Says: That's a mighty jump from 22 to 24 Explaining As If It Was the 90s If you take a look at the numbers there are two time frames which in the 1990s would be questioned. First would be the incredible leap he took from his first year in the big leagues to his first MVP season in 1956. His batting average jumped 50 points. His slugging percentage jumped 90 points and he hit 15 more homers than his previous high. This wouldn't merrit a conviction nowadays though because the young age he...

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Guest Post: Thoughts on Sabathia Signing

I asked Grutt what his thoughts were on the Sabathia signing and I thought his response pretty much nailed it. So here it is. I don’t know. Every year I get a little more disenchanted with baseball. Yea, it’s great we signed the top pitching free agent. But we were supposed to. No team was even in the ballpark of the Yankees offer yet they still needed to jump from the already ridiculous price of $140 million to $160 million to close the deal. Now I hear we are going to sign more pitchers who will also get large contracts and the position player gaps are still glaring. Each new, large contract just adds to the feeling that the Yanks are supposed to win it all. “I think we have a good chance this year.” That is a lost feeling. If they don’t win I’ll wonder why, like there has to be some other reason besides that it’s a sport you can never predict how things will work out and some years just aren’t yours to be won. If they win I will be pleasantly smug. It gets a little more...

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