Why this card is awesome: Because of two things we previously mentioned. He, like Eric King, has ties to Oxnard, CA, plus, like Brett Butler, he was part of the great trade the Indians made for Len Barker.
Cool stat: Jacoby's 1987 is the 4th-fewest RBI for a guy with at least 32 HR. Interestingly, I would have assumed that this was because 1987 was such a fluke year for homers. But with an OPS+ of 143 that year, Jacoby was pretty damned productive. He doesn't even make the 200 worst seasons in OPS+ with 32 or more homers. (Incidentally, the #1 season on that list, Tony Batista's 2004, is one of the biggest all-time fluke years.)
6 comments:
Jacoby had the misfortune of being in a horrendous lineup. Closer inspection of the worst seasons in OPS+ with 32 or more HR reveals two of Jacoby's teammates: Cory Snyder at #5 (89 OPS+) and Joe Carter at #17 (104 OPS+).
Digging even deeper, the 1987 Indians had five regulars with OBPs worse than .310 - Snyder (.273 OBP), Carter (.304), Chris Bando (.260), Tony Bernazard (.300), and Mel Hall (.309).
That's awful...
Snyder in 87 also ranks high on that fewest-RBI-with-32-HR list!
70% of Indian HRs were solo shots (vs 58% for all of baseball).
Vinny Castilla OWNS that list!
Yeah those 1987 Indians were a screwy team, led by one of the most overrated players in Joe Carter.
And Vinny Castilla might be the most overrated power hitter of the last 20 years. He was absolutely a Coors Field creation, when Coors still had a huge batting advantage.
Check out Castilla's splits here.
He had 172 HR at home and 148 on the road. He batted .295 at home and .257 on the road. His home OPS was .857 and his away OPS was .738.
And his peak of 1995 to 1999 was even worse. 117 HR at home, 74 on the road.
A lot of players have benefited from playing in a home field that suited there style. Personally, I doubt Wade Boggs is a hall of famer if he doesn't play most of his career at Fenway.
Bart
Well that's an interesting comment about Wade Boggs. I think I will post about it on the SOTD blog on B-R.com
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