Author: Mike Farley (Page 36 of 36)

Batting average can be a deceptive figure sometimes. Guys like Tony Gwynn always hit for a very high average but didn’t drive in as many runs as you might think. But average is still a great indicator of a player’s offensive skills, and some hitters have both home run power and the ability to spray base hits all over the field as well. Here, we take a look at the Top 10 active batting average leaders in Major League Baseball today:

1. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals (.332)—Okay, so Albert might look like he has a little too much air in the tires, if you know what I mean. But chemical enhancement of any kind isn’t really going to make you hit for a higher average. You have to have natural talent for that, and Albert just oozes it. It’s amazing to think he’s only 28 years old too.

2. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners (.331)—Ichiro came over from Japan in 2001 and won the AL MVP AND Rookie of the Year honors as a 27-year-old MLB rookie. And he really hasn’t stopped hitting since then.

3. Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies (329)—Helton has played his whole career in Colorado (since 1997), which means he has had roughly 800 at-bats in the thin air of Coors Field. But thin air isn’t going to help your batting average, so clearly this dude can see the ball and hit the ball as well as anyone in the game today.

4. Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles Angels (.322)—Thankfully we’re done hearing about Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, because now we can focus on some of the guys like Vlad. He’s truly one of the greatest hitters of our generation, but he’s only played in Montreal (baseball purgatory) and Los Angeles (plays too late for most of the country to watch), so he’s gone largely unnoticed.

5. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees (.316)—Mr. Yankee, Mr. Clutch, Mr. Everything. Derek Jeter represents everything that is good about the game. He plays hard, he plays fair, he plays to win, and he consistently delivers.

6. Nomar Garciaparra, Los Angeles Dodgers (.314)—I don’t know about you, but it’s still odd to me seeing Nomar in anything but a Red Sox uniform. I sort of feel bad for the guy that he left Beantown right before the Sox won a World Series in 2004, but then again, maybe he’s like A-Rod. You know, for whatever reason, the team he’s on can’t seem to win.

7. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox (.312)—“Manny being Manny” bas become a catch phrase that follows this animated player around, but it has meant different things over the years. Here, we’ll just pay homage to the fact that Manny can mash. Always has, probably always will. Dude is inching toward 500 homers and still has a career batting average of .312. That’s ridiculous.

8. Magglio Ordonez, Detroit Tigers (.311)—After battling injuries for a couple of seasons, Ordonez has had a renaissance of sorts with the Tigers, helping them win the AL pennant in 2006, and then leading all of baseball with a .363 average in 2007.

9. Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers (.310)—Maybe Miguel Cabrera hasn’t figured out American League pitching yet, but he’s still hitting .310 for his career, and he’s only 25. I have a feeling this guy’s best is yet to come, and that there is an MVP Award in his future.

10. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves (.309)—Chipper is the epitome of consistency, and he’s now in his fourteenth full season. And he gets better with age, having batted .337 last season, and currently at .415 through 45 games in 2008. And if you’re a Mets fan, you surely don’t want to hear his name.

Source: Baseball Reference

Sometimes pitchers have large numbers of strikeouts for their careers, and often that is because they pitch a ton of innings. That’s not a bad thing, because if you have a pitcher who can go deep into a game, chances are good he’s going to win you lots of games. But here I want to talk about those pitchers who strike out more than a batter per inning, or close to it. Those are the guys I like to watch, whether they start games or finish them, because they (most of the time) bring the heat and make batters swing and miss. Here is a list of those pitchers that are still active in the game today:

1. Randy Johnson, Arizona Diamondbacks (10.762)—Not only does the Big Unit lead this category for active pitchers, he leads every pitcher ever to play the game, including Nolan Ryan (9.548). I mean, think about that. This intimidating lefty strikes out almost 11 batters per nine innings. That’s not just really good, it’s a freak of nature. He even struck out 290 batters in 2004 at the age of FORTY. And none of us can think about Johnson without remembering that poor bird he disintegrated with one of his fastballs in spring training a few years back.

2. Kerry Wood, Chicago Cubs (10.290)—He once struck out 20 batters in a game, but with Wood being on the DL more than Pacman Jones is in strip clubs, he’s never quite reached his potential. Now he’s a closer, which will slow his strikeout totals, but not his average per nine.

3. Pedro Martinez, New York Mets (10.190)—In 1999, Martinez was in his prime, and had some of the most wicked stuff I’ve ever seen. That year, he struck out 313 in 213 innings, an average of 13.22 per nine innings. The poor guy keeps landing on the DL on the back nine of his career, but he’s still only 36.

4. Johan Santana, New York Mets (9.476)—One of the most dominant pitchers in the last five years is now in the spotlight of New York City, and so far as a Met he’s kept his one strikeout per inning ratio intact (52 in 52 innings). And it’s not just the heat with Johan—his changeup has made batters swing while the ball is only halfway to the mound.

5. Jake Peavy, San Diego Padres (9.031)—If Peavy drinks some of Trevor Hoffman’s potion for staying young, he might wind up with 4000 strikeouts for his career.

6. Arthur Rhodes, Seattle Mariners (8.856)—In 17 seasons, Rhodes has mostly been a reliever. But he’s only saved 30 games, which means he’s been relegated to set-up and middle relief. Still, Rhodes has managed to strike out 1003 batters in 1020 innings. Which begs the question: has no one thought of using this guy as a closer?

7. Hideo Nomo, free agent (8.734)—After a two year absence from the majors, Nomo was just released by the Royals and is expected to officially announce his retirement. But he hasn’t retired yet, so here he is on this list. Nomo has one of the most unconventional deliveries, and that alone has fooled many hitters over the years.

8. Curt Schilling, Boston Red Sox (8.600)—When Schilling isn’t convincing everyone that the blood on his sock in the playoffs a few years back was real, he’s still blowing hitters away.

9. Josh Beckett, Boston Red Sox (8.531)—Beckett proved he’s worth every penny of his salary by dominating in the playoffs. He’s done it with Boston, and he did it with Florida in 2003. The guy is just money.

10. Tom Gordon, Philadelphia Phillies (8.248)—It’s hard to believe Tom “Flash” Gordon has been pitching in the bigs for 20 years, but he has. And he’s racked up almost 2000 strikeouts. Wow.

Source: Baseball Reference.com

No disrespect to Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa, who have not technically retired from baseball. But on Yahoo Sports, those two are not considered active players. So with that in mind, here is a Top 10 list of currently active MLB home run hitters.

1. Ken Griffey, Jr., Cincinnati Reds (597)—Have you noticed yet that while players linked to performance enhancers like Bonds, Sosa, and Mark McGwire keep fighting off asterisks, Griffey just keeps hitting home runs? This guy had home runs in his blood, but unlike Bonds, didn’t put anything else in his. And if he’d stayed healthy all these years, he’d surely have 800 by now.

2. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees (522)—Okay, so this guy is probably a lock to overtake Bonds some day, but you can’t convince me that Rodriguez has done it legally all along either. I mean, look at his 2007 numbers compared to everyone else’s. He’s also never going to win a ring, because all he does in the playoffs is view the opposing pitcher as a big, hairy monster.

3. Frank Thomas, Oakland Athletics (516)—Thomas was released by the Blue Jays last month after being benched, and then re-signed with Oakland, where he played in 2006. When the Mitchell Report was on its way, Thomas wanted everyone to know that he was and always had been clean. So what you’re saying then, Frank, is that you’ve always looked like a bloated cartoon character?

4. Jim Thome, Chicago White Sox (514)—Look, I know that people gain weight in their twenties and thirties, but Thome’s rookie photos to where he was a few years later parallels Barry Bonds’, um, growth. Still, the guy is still mashing at the age of 37, with 7 homers already in 2008.

5. Manny Ramirez, Boston Red Sox (497)—It’s almost mind-boggling to think Thome and Ramirez used to hit 3-4 in the Indians’ lineup. Will someone remind me how that team never won a World Series in the ‘90’s?

6. Gary Sheffield, Detroit Tigers (482)—The most mystifying thing to me about Gary Sheffield is that he’s Dwight Gooden’s nephew. Sheffield is 39 and Gooden just turned 44. Somebody get me a calculator.

7. Carlos Delgado, New York Mets (435)—He’s slowing down with creaky knees, but if I was a pitcher this guy would still scare the crap out of me every time he came to bat.

8. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves (396)—If Jones has this many home runs, as a Mets fan I’m convinced that 200 of those have come against my team. I’m not sure anyone has ever owned a team like Jones owns the Mets. This year he has come out of the gate like Ted Williams, batting .413 through 32 games with 10 homers.

9. Jason Giambi, New York Yankees (371)—Well this guy all but admitted to cheating, so if you take away even 20% of these bombs, he becomes fairly insignificant in the big picture.

10. Andruw Jones, Los Angeles Dodgers (369)—Was Andruw Jones on the Mitchell Report? Because how do you go from 51 home runs to 41 to 26, and then this year be on pace for FIVE? That’s a steep slope, Mr. Jones.