Upon a Little Guess Who?

 

G 157

AB 653

R 118

H 213

2B 54

3B 2

HR 17

RBI  83

BB 50

SO  52

SB 20

CS 1

AVG .326

OBP   .376

SLG .493

OPS .869

157

592

097

190

37

1

34

130

53

93

3

3

.321

.375

.599

.934

162

623

097

187

47

4

23

129

76

85

0

1

.300

.374

.499

.873

154

623

118

214

39

3

14

97

69

102

34

5

.343

.417

.483

.900

 There are two MVP seasons in there. Guess which two were? Which two should have been?

Upon a Professional Courtesy

So I was persuing ESPN.com yesterday for some Yankee’s news, and I came across this blog post from Keith Law. I was struck by this line:

“The Yanks could still sign Teixeira and play Swisher in left, benching Hideki Matsui (often hurt and not very good when he plays) or just give him away to anyone willing to pay the postage, and it seems a lot more likely that they’d do that than stand pat with Swisher at first and Matsui in left, a combination that could easily leave the Yanks with below-average bats at three or four positions if they don’t also upgrade in center field. “

I took issue with his depiction of Matsui as “not very good”. I decided to click the “feedback” link on the top of his blog and shoot off a comment expressing my disagreement. I argued from the rudimentary perspective of HR, RBI, Runs and average, contending that Matsui’s numbers certainly don’t qualify as “not very good.” I figured that he or an assistant might glance at the email, and that there was an outside shot he might respond to it in an article. Mostly though, I wrote for the catharsis of defending a player I like after a pretty dissatisfying Yankee season.

Today, I opened my AOL email to find a response from Keith himself. I was really surprised to see that he (or possibly someone using his email) had taken the time to respond. I won’t reprint his email here, mostly because I referred him to my site for constructive criticism, but he argued that Matsui’s average and RBI numbers were essentailly meaningless. He thinks that average discounts the variety of hits and RBI is merely a function of the lineup in which one hits.

I fired back a riposte, and hope the debate can continue. For now though, I think its worthwhile to shout out a guy for taking the time to do what he didn’t have to.

For whatever my linkage is worth, here’s Keith Law’s ESPN.com Blog