After reading Mr. Thursday’s GoodEnough column today, I think he has a good idea. Since the sample sizes are way too small to do any real analysis of our rookies right now, perhaps we should just do the meet-n-greet profiles.
The man you see to your left is Jeff Baker of the Colorado Rockies. His face is astoundingly square. This could be a result of the fact that he was born in Bad Kissingen, Germany, where a square face is considered the height of teutonic engineering. Or, it could be that he learned to fill each cheek with a wad o’ tabaccy while he played at Clemson. I’m not sure which, but I lean toward the genetic engineering explanation, because this guy is turning into a pinch-hitting Terminator.
Mr. Baker went from Tiger Orange to Colorado purple in the 2004 draft. He played most of his minor league ball at the AAA level (Colorado Springs Sky Sox), and hit .305 with 30 doubles and 20 home runs while he was in the waiting room in 2006. Prior to that, he actually got to start the 2005 season in the show. Rocks third baseman Garrett Atkins was injured at the start of the ’05 season, and Baker filled in on Opening Day and managed to play in 12 games overall before Atkins reclaimed his spot.
Baker’s consistent power and maturity made him a no-brainer to be called up to the big club this year. While Atkins is still the everyday 3B, Baker has been an absolute monster as a pinch-hitter. In just six at-bats, he has hit a double and a home run, compiling an impressive 1.333 slugging percentage in the early going.
Atkins is a pretty decent fielder, and can heat up with the bat, so Baker might have to make a position switch. JB played some outfield in spring when Brad Hawpe was hurt, so this seems to be the plan. A team like the Rockies should find a way to get both talented hitters in the game as often as possible.
Baker is making the most of his limited field time, and stands far above our gold standard set by Albert Pujols in 2001 (see table at right). As the season goes on, Baker will have to get more ABs to stay in the hunt, but the real point swings come in the AVG and SLG categories, so as long as Mr. Baker continues to hit efficiently and with power, he may take home this year’s prize.
Now is the time on Sprockets when we knock the cover off of the ball.
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Next week: Tampa hitter Akinori Iwamura, who was flattened but flattered after ending up at the bottom of his first Big League Dogpile.
Baker and Iwamura…may they be the cornerstones of my fantasy baseball team this season!
Question: how can one have a similarity score above 1000? Is that due to the small sample size and (only slightly) incorrect usage of the concept?
Holy cow! What a square face. That is unbelievable.
It’s almost entirely because of the incorrect use of the formula. The area where the biggest point swings happen is in the SLG, where each .002 is a point of difference. Since I’m keeping Pujols’ stats as a goal to be attained, I add to the player’s score if his slugging and average are more than Albert’s.
I suspect a mathemetician (or Bill James) would have fits that I am using it this way.
I’m fulfilling the promise of my liberal arts education – I know just enough to be dangerous.
[…] how the mighty have fallen. Jeff Baker and Josh Hamilton had amazing leads in average and slugging last week, which, due to my appalling […]
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