Friday, August 22, 2008

#637 Jay Bell



Why this card is awesome: Because you gotta love that there's a guy taking a hack in the batting cage in the background. Plus, we see one of two interesting trades that Bell was involved with on the back. He was one of the chips that got Bert Blyleven to Minnesota. Later, Bell was involved in a double "player-to-be-named-later" trade, with the famous Felix Fermin.

Cool stat: Bell had a massive fluke year in 1999. All time, he's had the second-lowest batting average in a season with at least 130 runs, 110 RBI, and a .550 SLG. Only Roger Maris' 1961 was lower. Some people think that this is evidence that Bell used steroids in 1999, saying that he wasn't any better hitter, just hit the ball further that year. I don't think statistics can really inform on one player like that. But Bell's year is a fluke just because of the other names on the list. He's clearly the very worst player from the 80 such seasons.

1 comment:

Luke said...

yep, future bucco, and one my favorite buccos ever!

An integral part of the early 90's teams. then somehow, he had the power to hit 30 plus homers.