Comments on: Couching Cantu in context

By: Week in Review | Baseball Bloggers Alliance

Week in Review | Baseball Bloggers Alliance — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:52:36 +0000

[...] struggles of the pitching staff. Jorge Cantu’s RBI streak came to an end Friday night, but as Michael at Marlin Maniac points out, RBI streaks tell us very little about a hitter (regardless of what Jeff Conine and Carlos Tosca [...]

By: Baseball Side of FanSided (4/16) | Call to the Pen

Baseball Side of FanSided (4/16) | Call to the Pen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:35:19 +0000

[...] Marlin Maniac (Marlins): Couching Cantu in context [...]

By: Michael Jong

Michael Jong — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:51:54 +0000

Joe,

You’re right in that Cantu does tend to put the ball in play a lot due to his lower strikeout and walk rates. The thing is that does not necessarily guarantee a good player, but this “record RBI streak” talk is making him sound like he’s a better hitter than he actually is. A good deal of his RBI total is HEAVILY based on Hanley Ramirez.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:32:08 +0000

I’d also like to point out that Cantu’s hitting style is very much in favor of driving in runs. Of course you need runners on base to get rbi’s, but look at how cantu hits. With the exception of 2008 cantu has never struck out over 100 times. He also only walks about 40-50 times a year. That means he’s going to have a lot of plate appearances where he puts the ball in play. What I’m saying is he usually doesn’t beat himself with men on base. He will almost always put the ball in play.

It actually wouldn’t surprise me either if Maybin had around a .350 on base percentage with hanley coming in around .420 (could be higher i think he will walk over 100 times this year). And if Coghlan gets going that could be a very intimidating top three for cantu to drive in all year.

By: Michael Jong

Michael Jong — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:30:28 +0000

David,

Exactly. This is what everyone needs to be thinking when they think of RBI, but it’s hard to do that when you grew up thinking “RBI = good, RBI = good” all your life.

BP’s book “Baseball Between the Numbers” put it best (and I’m paraphrasing here):

“The best players get the most RBI, but the players who get the most RBI aren’t necessarily the best players.”