Well, I was listening to the FSN broadcast of Friday night's Astros @ Dodgers game 1.... and Jim Deshaies laid down some awesome stats about our Astros sluggers (strangely, Bill Brown repeated all five of the stats a few minutes later, almost as if he hadn't heard Jim say them earlier...).
So far this season, the Astros 3-4-5 hitters (i.e. The BLT) are:
1st in the majors in batting average
1st in the majors in slugging percentage
2nd in the majors in home runs
tied for 1st in the majors in RBI
2nd in the majors in runs scored
Impressive, impressive start to the season for the power core of the Astros lineup. That said... while Carlos Lee's season hasn't started quite as hot as Berkman's and Tejada's have, we all saw what Lee and Berkman did by the end of last season. So here's a question for you:
Based on whatever information/gut feelings/etc. you want, including the season/overall stats I've posted below.... who's gonna have the highest OPS by the end of the 2008 regular season? All three guys are well over their career averages right now, including Lee himself, and I suspect they'll be closer to both their average OPS and to each other by September. But take a gander and then vote. Again...
Who will have the highest OPS at the end of the 2008 regular season?
(Berkman and Tejada are tied for hits this season! And in their careers, Lee and Tejada are tied for batting average! WHO WILL WIN? Feel free to post about your answer, including reasoning if you want, and talk about any other stats besides OPS and how they'll do... I probably should have included stolen bases, but that wasn't relevant to OPS, so I left it out... drat...)
there is no way i'm voting against berkman right now. geez, the guy is having an unreal stretch...lee is keeping up the pace from last year and tejada has looked like a genius move both offensively and defensively...but lance has really turned it up a few notches so far this season. go stros!
Every night its Berkman, Lee, and Tejada. The Astros probably have the best lineup in baseball. These guys can just flat out hit the ball. Its pretty unbelievable to me. Berkman is on fire right now. Right now its a 2 person run for the NL MVP between him and Utley. ( I know its early but as of right now he is probably the best hitter in baseball.) A guy who is a switch hitter and power like he does. No one wants to see Berkman right now. Honestly not one team wants to see the Astros right now you cant pitch around anyone. I love watching them play.
Berkman is going to clear 1.000 again. Tejada and Lee will be between about .850 and .900. Those two just don't walk enough to really high OPS. But in this line-up, they don't need to.
LOL! 21 votes (make that 23... I reloaded before I posted!) and Berkman's still at 100%! I feel like this is one of Lou Dobb's polls (for those who've never seen his show on CNN, he picks poll topics that end up with 97.5% to 2.5% "yes/no" spreads almost every single weeknight).
It IS a bit of a no-brainer, but I was wondering if anyone would pick Tejada.
Berkman is INDEED having an unreal stretch, bassman. He and Pujols are the only two players in the past 50 years of MLB history to have streaks like this. I wish he'd done better than 1/4 today so he coulda stood alone and also tied a record that Pete Rose was the last to hit (only 4 players had done it)... but it's still spectacular.
I also like your prediction of an Utley/Berkman MVP race, but I'm going to go one further and suggest it'll be a three-way race with Tejada involved as well!
Nash, you're probably right in that the other two just don't walk enough. Maybe I should have made the poll who will have the highest slugging %, then, since the other two would have a chance against Berkman that way.
It is absolutely stunning to look at the disparity between Lance and the other two in the BB category in those stats I posted in the original poll post... flat out stunning.
100% with 30 votes.... impressive... most impressive.
BIG PUMA... SPIKE THAT OPS ALL SEASON LONG!
3/4 tonight.... with a single, double, and homer. I just wish he coulda done something similar instead of 1/4 last night. He would have not just tied Pujols for, essentially, "hottest streak" in the past 50 years of MLB history... but blown him OUT!
Still, he can start on a NEW streak now. Also, with his 11 game hitting streak and Pence's 10 game hitting streak... There's just no END to the offensive statistical fun us fans can have, eh?
Oh, and from 12 homers and 36 RBI... to 13/38.... and up to 16 doubles. HE HAD TWO DOUBLES THIS TIME LAST YEAR. Berkman had around three by Memorial Day. And he still had a great season...... If that was a GREAT season... what does that make THIS season, eh?
Okay... 38 votes for Berkman (95%), 1 vote for Tejada (5%).... I had expected that 1 vote for Tejada much sooner, but I'm glad to see he's finally gotten some love.
While Carlos Lee is unlikely to EVER get a vote in this poll, I've given him a little love for his contributions this week in the 4-game series against the Giants, in a thread on game 4's recap page (which most people probably wouldn't see otherwise). BEHOLD:
