On this week’s The Show, we took a look at a few guys having spectacularly good (or bad) seasons and projected their numbers for the entire year. Despite a slump, is Ian Kinsler on pace to have one of the greatest seasons ever by a second baseman? Can anything stop Chris Davis from obliterating the strikeout mark? Plus some notes about Raul Ibanez (we shot this before the nonsense that erupted this week.
That video can be seen below. Stats are a tad out of date since it was shot on Tuesday, and Roy Halladay has since been injured, so I suppose we jinxed him. Anyway, here are a few more Pace Car notes:
- Despite a rough week, Albert Pujols is on track to put up this line: .321/.440/.665, 53 HR, 145 RBI, 121 BB, 25 SB, and only 61 Ks. That’d be a career high in homers, ribbies, walks, and steals.
- He might be coming back to earth a bit, but you’d certainly take 22-5, 1.72 ERA, 262/43 K/BB, 254 innings, 14 complete games, and 5 shutouts from Zack Greinke. The last pitcher to go double digits in complete games was Randy Johnson in 1999.
- Joel Piniero has factored into the decision for all of his 12 starts (5-7) and is on pace to go 13-18. No pitcher has won that many games with 18 or more losses since Jack Morris in 1990 for Detroit, when he finished 15-18. A year later, he was winning the World Series with the Twinkies.
- Matt Cain for Comeback Player of the Year? If he keeps up at this rate, he’ll finish 22-3 with a 2.55 ERA and 159 Ks. The last two seasons combined he went 15-30 with a 3.70 ERA. A better ERA certainly helps with the record, but so does good run support (5.66 runs/game). In 2008 that number was 3.12, and in 2007 it was 3.20.
- If I gave you the numbers 47 and 11, and told you that one of those numbers would be David Wright’s home run total and the other was his stolen base total, what would you think? (Hint: he is not on pace for 47 bombs.) He’s also on track for 50 doubles, although such a discrepancy between homers and doubles in not unprecedented. In Major League history, 25 players have hit 11 or fewer homers and had at least 50 doubles. However, the 47 steals would put him 3rd all-time on the list of players with at least 50 doubles, behind Tris Peaker in 1912 and Craig Biggio in 1998.