Home Run Stuff

[DOUGHBOYS]

How fast did rookie Andrew Benintendi go through the Red Sox system?
Benintendi has already played more games at the Major League level than minors.
Benintendi has a chance to be a true 20-20 player.
He has 19 homers and 19 stolen bases.

If we multiply 9x15 for the batting spots in the American League, we get 135
If we multiply 8x15 for the National League batting spots, we get 120.
255 total.
111 players have already reached 20 home runs.
By seasons end, it could be half the batting spots are occupied by hitters with 20 homers.

In 2001, when Barry Bonds put up 73 home runs and baseball players were 'bigger suddenly', only 89 players hit at least 20 home runs

The owner (Glenn Schroter) leading home runs in the Main Event, is averaging almost 27 homers per player from his 14 offensive players.

280 of 480 Main Event teams have an offense averaging 20 home runs per player....

Mark Trumbo hit 47 home runs last year.
This year, he has yet to reach half that total.
He has 23 home runs.
In 550 at bats

Matt Olsen also has 23 home runs.
In 179 at bats.

Six catchers have at least 20 home runs.
20 catchers have as many or more home runs...than Buster Posey

Playing in two of the best hitting venues in baseball, Jonathon Lucroy has hit five home runs.
Seriously.
Five.
A player with the nickname of 'Scooter' hit four in one game, fer crissakes..



Last year, eight players had 40 home runs.
Including Trumbo and Chris Carter.
This year, only three hitters (Stanton, Judge, JD Martinez) have 40 homers.
The only player with a good chance of having both 40 last year (42) and 40 this year is Khris Davis with 39 this year.

Nelson Cruz has a streak of three years with 40 homers.
He has 35 this year.

Players with middle infield eligibility this year with 30 homers....
Francisco Lindor, Jonathon Schoop, Brian Dozier, Rougned Odor......and Anthony Rizzo

Who misses David Ortiz the most?
Last year, Xander Bogaerts saw a lot of good pitches hitting in front of Big Papi.
He set a career high of 21 homers.
This year, nine.

Madison Bumgarner had as many homers in the first game of the season as Dee Gordon has had in 607 at bats

In three days, Jose Fernandez will not have been with us for one year.
10 pitchers have allowed as many home runs (31) this year as Fernandez allowed during his CAREER.

.286/116/35/100/15
Great hitting line, right?
That is all hitter's line vs. Rick Porcello this year.

[Bronx Yankees]

Good stuff, Dan, as always.

Trumbo has been a huge surprise. If you told me at the beginning of the season that Trumbo essentially would be healthy all year, play 140+ games, and hit fewer home runs than Yonder Alonso and more than a dozen fewer home runs than Logan Morrison, I'd have claimed you were on drugs. Go figure.

The stat I really like that you mention is how so many more players have hit more than 20 homers this year compared to prior years, and yet far fewer have hit 40 homers than last year. Thus, whatever is adding homers for most players certainly isn't helping other players (like Trumbo, among a number of others).

Fortunately, while the end of baseball season - and the end of the road for our fantasy teams - is often sad, it is quickly followed by drafting season. As much as I love watching baseball and following my teams, and players, religiously, I miss drafting and it will be fun to start all over again.

Good luck down the stretch.

Mike

[JohnP]

A player with the nickname of 'Scooter' hit four in one game

You reminded me of a cool little "Scooter" story....

He used to play second base for the Brewers but for fans of the team, Ryan Gennett is not a player’s name they would recognize. That’s because the playful 23-year-old has been going by his nickname of Scooter since about the age of 5.

Gennett found himself at a police station as a young child because he was giving his mother problems with wearing his seat belt. She took her son in to scare him into wearing it, and left with a surprising twist.

In an attempt to avoid trouble with the law, the mischievous young Gennett gave officers a fake first name. “I told the cops Scooter Gennett because that was my favorite Muppet Babies character. I kind of just used it as an alias, I thought I would get in trouble if I told them my real name.”

Both the police officers and Gennett’s mother were not expecting the youngster to give an alias. “She was shocked, she didn’t know that that was my favorite character. It kind of surprised her. She gave me a nudge to tell them my real name and I still didn’t. I just rolled with it.”

Gennett decided he liked his new identity so much he stopped responding to his real name. “For about a year or so I didn’t answer to Ryan. To get me to do anything, my parents and everyone would have to call me Scooter. It kind of just stuck.”

Ever since, the second baseman has used the name as his own. The only time he heard Ryan was when he got into trouble at school.

As for his love for the Muppet Babies character, that remains even though the show isn’t on often. “I am sure with the little nieces and nephews I will watch a few episodes but you don’t really see the old episodes a lot. The new movies are cool, too.”

So is his nickname.