Monday, June 05, 2006

Slugging Percentage and Barry Bonds

This is a stat that shows how many bases you hit for, for example a single would give you one base, a double two bases and so forth until a home run which gives the most bases, 4. Although if you are a hitter that finds gaps very well in the outfield and hits a lot of triples then you could have a good slugging percentage even though you might not hit very many homeruns although that usually doesnt happen. The highest slugging percentages in history I believe belong to some of the greatest sluggers the game has ever known, Babe Ruth for sure, Hank Aaron likely as he holds the record and of course the current Barry Bonds, number 2 on the all time list and still chasing Hank today. He had an unbelievably good stretch of seasons from 2000 on, .500+ on-base percentages and .800 slugging percentages were common at this time for him. This was due to his enormous ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark therefore pitchers intentionally walked him and everyone time they didnt it seemed they would regret it as he would make some runs happen and help out his team offensively. 
Rumours exist of his possible steroid use which seems possibly likely as his body and voice seem odd and suddenly he broke the single season home run record at 73, an astounding amount of home runs to be hit in around 140 or more games. They say this is a good measure of a hitters ability to hit for power, seeing if he can hit to alot of bases in comarison to his at bats then he can hit the ball hard and usually for extra bases. You can have a low average and still have a very high slugging percentage and high ob-base percentage. Such a player is Jason Giambi who can hit for average average but even when it is low he still would lead the league at least in the category of on-base percentage and sometimes slugging but rarely as you would have to hit a home run and triple alot for that. Albert Pujos, who was injured just a few days ago was on pace at 25 homers and 65 rbis to break the record for both, on pace for nearly 80 homers or so and nearly 200 rbi's, phenomanal numbers, an offensive paramount that could potentially carry a team into the playoffs, such a player is a manager and gm's dream and a source of doubt and speculation. Baseball is a sport where having a few tremendous MVP sluggers/good players would not gurantee a trip to the postseason as in other sports where a good forward or quarterback or "runner" in football could carry a team, like brett farve on green bay and michael jordan for the bulls. Albert Pujos has been considered the re-deemer in baseball after all the steroid problems of recent years. But you cant fault them for having such high hopes and crazy human emotions, considering all the pressure and potential glory if you do very well and hit alot of homeruns and get a lot of RBI's

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