Post AS game 2014, Jose Abreu had 7 HR, 34 RBI, a .350 avg, and a .948 OPS.

Nobody on the Cubs had more RBI, nobody in MLB with more than 200 ABs had a better average, and only 3 players with more than 200 ABs had a better OPS. He was middle of the road in HRs. To insinuate that Abreu had a poor second half, is just laughably stupid, IMU & Kirkwood.


Also, if Cubs fans don't care about the Sox, as many of them repeatedly claim, why are they posting in this thread?

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You aren't wrong. But the ball was only clearing by 2', each time. And now he hasn't been clearing that wall.

So now it is a 384' out. You know who else has a lot of outs?

Javier Baez.

The White Sox now have the top two "just barely" leaders from last season.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Show me where "each" of his 36 HRs cleared the wall by 2'. I guarantee you won't even be able to find half of those 36 that cleared the wall by 2' or less. Remember, you said "each time."

A ball hit 384' down the lines or to the power alleys is an easy HR in many MLB parks.

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I picked an arbitrary number.

He had 14 just barely home runs last season, and 2 "no doubters."

Rizzo had 9 just barely gome runs last season, and 6 "no doubters."

U.S. Cellular is an easier park to homer in.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor ... t/HRFactor

I predict Abreu will hit less home runs in 2015 than he did in 2014.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That is 16 HRs. What about his other 20? And what about all of these that cleared the wall by 2'? Was this is made up by you or Kirkwood?


I've debunked this more than once too. 15 HRs at the Cell, 21 on the road. For the record, 20 of his HRrs either tied the game or put the Sox in the lead. Pretty clutch for an MLB rookie.

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As Goldilocks would say, those home runs were just right.

The 14 listed are the ones that just barely cleared. He lead the majors in that category.

He isn't the crazy power hitter you think he is. You will see.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

ESPN has this great little home run leader board. There are a lot of cool categories to look at.

PARKS: Number of Parks Homer Would Have Been a HR In
ND: No Doubt: Really Deep Blasts
JE: Just Enough: Barely Made It Past The Fence



Easy to see his 1st half was an outlier. His 2nd of swinging like Jane has carried over to Spring Training. He's still a good player but I prefer my 1B to be a slugger not a slap hitter.

I just want to point out that I am not trolling this thread. Abreu is a fine youn..... middle-aged ball player.

Its a sad state of affairs when all Cubs fans can say to knock Abreu is that "HIS HOMERS DIDN'T GO FAR ENOUGH!!!" I will point out that your ESPN thing accounts for 16 of Abreu's HRs. What about his other 18?


As expected, this question has yet to be addressed.

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You really need to do the math. You'll notice every player's no doubters + just barely don't equal their total.

Because those are 'standard home runs.' Nothing special either way. Cleared the fence no problem...but didn't make anyone say "wow." Maybe 5-10 rows deep.

Frank would make a poor analyst. Being able to predict trends using analytics is actually important in many jobs and fields.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I believe Hussra pointed out power peaks in a player's middle 20s. Plus add his discovery of Chipotle and KFC, chronic injuries, and the his moaning the season is too long it's understandable that a 34 year-old player is going to fade.

Technically this is a Cubs subject. I care about WhiteSox fans the same way I care why we still havn't found bigfoot.

Let me get this straight. I need to do the math, then 5 second later you infer that there has to be some sort of quantification of the "wow" factor when it comes to homeruns?

The only thing I've said 'wow' to so far are the plethora of Cubs fans responses in this thread.


So lets bring this full circle, IMU. "WOW" or not, Kris Bryant would be lucky to have as many career HRs as Alexei Ramirez. For reference, I will point out that Corey Patterson, who was hyped as the 'next big thing' in the Cubs farm system in the late 90s, hit exactly 99 HRs for the Cubs, which is what Alexei is at right now. Patterson had 118 HRs in his career.

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Are you going to be on this board in five or six years?

I bet you a clean grand ($1000 USD) that Kris Bryant finishes with more than 118 HRs for his career. We can shake on it next we meet, and get an agreement signed by a notary. Are you in?

You're currently up 118 HRs. This should be an easy bet for you.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

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Alexei is 33 or 34, correct? And currently has 99?

I'd make that bet.

I have no idea if Kris Bryant is going to be some amazing .950 OPS player for 10 years. But I'm fairly sure he can hit 200 home runs over a likely 15 year career.

And all he needs to do is average 9 or 10 a season to surpass Alexei's likely career total of ~130-ish.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

If Kris Bryant follows the Delmon Young career path (not unlikely) he finishes somewhere in the neighborhood of Alexei Ramirez. Probably a few more because Bryant's power profiles better than Young's.

The better bet is if Kris Bryant will still be on the Cubs 5 years after his call up date.

I do wonder about Abreu's second half, but I think he'll still have the power. Probably just tired.

a troll ain't taking the bait no matter how many times you make it wiggle

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Bump.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!