And that is the MoneyBall answer! All those walks/HBP are just as good as a single! Slugging percentage?
Rose was significantly better, though he also totaled nearly twice as many PAs. For all the venom thrown Biggios' way, he wound up with 185 total postseason PAs spread out over six different years. That's the rough equivalent of not quite two months of a single season for Biggio. It is a remarkably random, unfair and small sample size.
Pete Rose should have been a first ballot Hall of Famer Craig Biggio should have been a first ballot Hall of Famer The players are very close in regards to prime. Virtually all the metrics and numbers bare that out. Rose was better early in his career and at the end of his career. Biggio was better in the prime of their respective careers. Rose has better playoff numbers, although Biggio played against the greatest pitching staff in major league history for a majority of his playoff at bats. Both players were good defenders that could play multiple positions. Rose by a hair, because he played longer and accumulated insane raw statistics. Still, the players are comparable and in the same general class. Rose and Biggio are a few levels behind players like Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby etc.
I started the Biggio/Rose thread for a reason guys. That 0-6 hurt last night, amazing he can do that and "fall" to .340. He still has a 7 point lead thought. That Indians pitching staff is pretty filthy, I don't think our guys mind seeing them leave.
There is never a situation where a walk/HBP is as good as a single. Singles have the opportunity to advance a current runner more than one base. Singles also put a ball in play in which an error may occur and advance runners even further. The only thing a walk is assured of doing over a single is to add to a pitcher's pitch count. In the bottom of the 9th, losing by a run, runner on third with 2 outs, do you want a single or a walk?
Now 218 Hits. Altuve doing a great job, and he is only 24 yr's old. Just for example, other players who have that many hits when younger than 25: Hall of Famers: Lou Gehrig Roger Horsby Chuck Klein Willie Keeler Stan Musial Richie Ashburn Tris Speaker Joe Medwick Lloyd Waner Paul Waner Freddie Lindstrom Should be Hall of Famer: Shoeless Joe Jackson Exceptions: Jimmy Williams Johnny Hodapp Tommy Davis Willie Wilson I'd say that is good company.
Martinez .334 (1-4) Altuve .344 (2-4) With another 2-4, he's opened up a 10 point lead. 7 Games for Altuve, 8 for Martinez. If Altuve hits .250 over the final 7 (7-28), Martinez would have to go 15-32 (.468) over his last 8. Obviously these are inexact projections, but it does give an idea of the cushion he has right now. Would be a cool feather in the hat.
http://espn.go.com/blog/jayson-stark/post/_/id/937/batting-champs Short people can hit If you’re not aware of the awesome Twitter account @HowManyAltuves, you don’t know what you’re missing. Just the other day, in fact, you could have learned, by following it, that the great Jose Altuve’s hits this season have covered 4,668.4 Altuves (or close to 26,500 feet, if you haven’t mastered the Metric Altuve System yet). But we focus on that sort of thing only because Jose Altuve is kinda, well, short. Or height-challenged. Or, at the very least, minimalistic. Officially, he’s listed as 5-foot-7, which could lead him to all kinds of fun achievements, such as … He’d be the shortest batting champ since 5-foot-4 Willie Keeler led the NL in 1898. (Hey, why do you think they called him “Wee Willie?”) But that’s not all Jose Altuve has on the line. Here’s more: • He’s on pace for 227 hits. The record for most hits by an AL second baseman in the live-ball era just happens to be 227, by Charlie Gehringer in 1936. • Altuve is leading the league in both batting average and stolen bases. The only other players to win a batting title and stolen-base title in the same season in the past 90 years: Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, Jackie Robinson in 1949 and the legendary Snuffy Stirnweis in 1945. Yeah, Snuffy Stirnweis. • If Altuve keeps up his current, furious pace, he’d finish with 227 hits, 57 steals and 46 doubles. Only one man who ever lived had a season in which he reached those three totals: Tyrus R. Cobb in 1911 (248/83/47). Whoa. Ah, but there’s one more thing we probably ought to mention: Due to the fact that his team’s offensive talents don’t match its second baseman’s, Altuve has scored only 82 runs this year -- even with all those hits, all those steals and all those doubles. So … • The record for fewest runs scored by a guy who had 220 or more hits is 88, by Ichiro in 2009. That one’s in big trouble. • The AL record for fewest runs scored in the live-ball era by a guy who had 220 hits and stole 50 bases is (ready?) 127, by Ichiro in 2001. That one’s in bigger trouble. • The only batting champs who ever had 215 or more hits and still scored fewer than 90 runs are Kirby Puckett (215 hits, 75 runs for the 1989 Twins) and Rod Carew (218 hits, 86 runs for the 1974 Twins). Puckett’s record, thankfully, is in no trouble. So is it worth rooting for Jose Altuve to win a batting title just for all the fabulous statistical tidbits it would generate? Of course it is. All the @HowManyAltuves tidbits it would generate would be an added bonus.
Really is unfortunate how few runs he has scored. He has hit 7 HR, that means he has only been driven in by a teammate 75 times. To put in perspective how poor a number that is, he has reached base 264 times, not counting FC's. He's doubled 44 times, stole second 46 times and tripled 3 times. That's 93 times alone that he has gotten himself to at least second base without help, yet he's only scored 75 times total. FWIW his run scoring woes were mostly early season, when the team as a whole was struggling offensively, only 14 runs through 39 games. Hopefully he has another good year and the team around him can give him a run total befitting his performance.
Great stats and article. Baseball is my least favorite sport among the big 3 and it can be boring, but its STATS are way better than basketball or football. The fact it's been played 100+ years also adds to the intrigue. GO ALTUVE!!!
And, you know, puts a man on base - but, semantics... pitch count, exactly. That's ALL a walk does.... I want a not-out. A walk puts the winning run on base, btw - not insignificant. A walk also potentially brings a better hitter to the plate... no one criticized Jim Edmonds for "only" walking in '05 before Pujols' blast in game 5. Specifically, Biggio stole 300+ something bases in the 10-year period we're discussing, so this idea that a walk wasn't an effective weapon is just silly.
In an individual circumstance, a single is indeed better than a walk. To argue differently would be silly.
Jose Altuve batting average splits this season: April: .276 May: .357 June: .411 July: .324 August: .325 September: .414 Two months over .400 in a single season is rare. He is hitting 363 since the end of April. His minor league numbers are also staggering when it comes to the hit tool. 2007: .343 2008: .284 2009: .302 2010: .301 2011: .390 Jose Altuve is barely 24 years old, and his pattern since he was 17 years old is continued improvement.
