Sorry, I couldn't resist. Nonetheless, this is the type of season former slap-hitting utlity man Ben Zobrist is having. During the offseason, some people did not even have Any Inning Lightning even projected to make the opening day roster. Then there were the discussions of Zobrist maybe deserving to chip away at the Gabe platoon. In the last few days, there has been some chatter of Zorilla possibly being added as an all-star reserve. Let's go inside the #'s and see just how absurd the title of this post is to date. Here are your top 10 leaders to date in .ISO in the AL along with various other metrics (minimum 150 PA):
Name |
BB% |
BB/K |
OBP |
SLG |
OPS |
ISO |
Spd |
wOBA |
IFFB% |
UZR |
Ben Zobrist |
15.9% |
0.93 |
0.414 |
0.659 |
1.073 |
0.356 |
5.7 |
0.448 |
0.0% |
5.1 |
Jason Bay |
17.0% |
0.84 |
0.41 |
0.624 |
1.033 |
0.339 |
5 |
0.441 |
8.6% |
-9.4 |
Carlos Pena |
16.8% |
0.57 |
0.363 |
0.554 |
0.918 |
0.326 |
3.1 |
0.383 |
12.2% |
-0.3 |
Mark Teixeira |
13.2% |
0.78 |
0.388 |
0.595 |
0.982 |
0.316 |
1.4 |
0.414 |
9.5% |
-0.4 |
Nelson Cruz |
10.2% |
0.47 |
0.365 |
0.6 |
0.965 |
0.303 |
4.1 |
0.416 |
12.5% |
7.6 |
Hank Blalock |
3.6% |
0.19 |
0.293 |
0.558 |
0.851 |
0.301 |
4.5 |
0.357 |
9.4% |
0.1 |
Kevin Youkilis |
16.0% |
0.74 |
0.482 |
0.664 |
1.147 |
0.299 |
3 |
0.484 |
8.5% |
2.6 |
Russell Branyan |
14.0% |
0.54 |
0.421 |
0.614 |
1.036 |
0.295 |
2.7 |
0.438 |
3.6% |
-0.7 |
Justin Morneau |
11.3% |
0.74 |
0.414 |
0.632 |
1.046 |
0.294 |
2.5 |
0.434 |
16.4% |
-2.5 |
Evan Longoria |
10.2% |
0.45 |
0.391 |
0.614 |
1.005 |
0.292 |
2.9 |
0.426 |
3.1% |
5.8 |
I included IFFB% simply to show that Zobrist's magical swing has yet to produce one single infield pop up. Now let's determine each player's rank within each category excluding IFFB%.
Name | BB% | BB/K | OBP | SLG | OPS | ISO | Spd | wOBA | UZR | Total |
Ben Zobrist | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 19 |
Jason Bay | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 34 |
Carlos Pena | 2 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 59 |
Mark Teixeira | 6 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 60 |
Nelson Cruz | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 56 |
Hank Blalock | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 73 |
Kevin Youkilis | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 28 |
Russell Branyan | 5 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 51 |
Justin Morneau | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 52 |
Evan Longoria | 8 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 59 |
If we sort by their total ranks we get this:
Name | Total |
Ben Zobrist | 19 |
Kevin Youkilis | 28 |
Jason Bay | 34 |
Russell Branyan | 51 |
Justin Morneau | 52 |
Nelson Cruz | 56 |
Carlos Pena | 59 |
Evan Longoria | 59 |
Mark Teixeira | 60 |
Hank Blalock | 73 |
Pretty remarkable right? I sincerely hope we never have to have the everyday player debate again.