4/26/2004 09:54:00 AM by Rob

I just wanted to mention this

Yes, it's early, sample size boy.

The Flannel Boy, Rob Neyer, always has "his leaders" on his ESPN web page. For the hitters, he lists the top 5 in each league in OPS. For pitchers, top 5 in "game score". I think we all know OPS. For a nice explanation on game score, check out Fork.

The surging Cubs have a man in each category. Zambrano is 2nd in the NL in average game score. And, Moises Alou is third in the NL in OPS, with 1.188.

That's beefy. His on-base percentage + his slugging percentage together add up to 1.2, which is around what Sosa had for an entire season during 2001, when he was just a straight-up beast. Roughly speaking, every time Alou steps to the plate, he's good for a base, and then some. That's like money in the bank, and if he keeps it up for an entire year, he will complete one of the greatest over-35 batting performances of all time.

He's .800 behind Barry Bonds.

Bonds has a .700 OBP. He also has a 1.256 SLG.

That's not even video-game quality. That's Sega Genesis quality, when the games weren't as sophisticated, and any gamer worth a damn could completely exploit the software, so every time your guy steps to the plate, he does extra-base damage.

After a while, it wasn't even fun anymore.

Basically, whenever it is Bonds' turn to hit, just put him on SECOND, and push any runners over two bases. EVERYONE in scoring position comes home.

Every. Single. At Bat.

That isn't even fun anymore.

---