Most baseball fans believe success in the Home Run Derby translates to a power outage in the second half of the season. Josh Hamilton in 2008 comes to mind, but it would be foolish to make assumptions based on that one particular instance.
To answer this presumption, I tallied the first and second half home run totals of each Home Run Derby winner since 2000. The results may surprise you.
The following table shows the pre and post All-Star Break at-bat per home run rate (AB/HR) of each player in the season they won the Home Run Derby. (Note: an AB/HR rate of 14.0 simply means the player hit a home run once every 14 at-bats.)...
New day, new insider. Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ sixth game of the season was the season opener at Comerica Park featuring the Tigers and the visiting Indians.
Game No. 6 – Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers
Friday’s game featured few hits, few strikeouts and one enormous error by third baseman Jhonny Peralta.
Grady Sizemore finished with two hits and a stolen base. One of the hits was a rope off the wall for a triple. Grady is now batting .316 on the season and just may be on his way back to prominence...
As part of our journey to watch and score 162 games this season, Tuesday night featured the Orioles/Rays opener in Tampa.
Game No. 3 - Baltimore Orioles vs. Tampa Bay Rays
Adam Jones went 3-for-5 with a single, double, and HR.
Matt Wieters went 2-for-4 with a HR to lead off the sixth. In his first at-bat of the game, the soon-to-be 24-year-old crushed a ball that forced B.J. Upton to the wall in straight away center. I’ve been saying this since last April, Wieters will be a top-25 fantasy player by the end of this season...
If you’re unfamiliar with Baltimore Orioles left fielder Nolan Reimold, listen up.
In 2009, Baseball America ranked Reimold as Baltimore’s fifth best prospect, saying the Bowling Green State alum possesses “the raw power to compare with just about anyone in the minors, rating a 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale.” They also acknowledged his potential to “be an average overall hitter if he continues to make adjustments.”
After a slow start to 2009, Wieters managed to salvage his rookie campaign by hitting .301/.351/.415 with six HRs and 33 RBI in 246 at-bats after the break.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old is one of the game's best young hitters. In fact, Baseball America wrote last year that "Wieters is an above-average hitter with above-average power, combining patience...with great pitch recognition." As if that's not enough, he's also a switch hitter...
Monday, July 12, 2010
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