OT- Miguel Cabrera is good at baseball, visual proof
In case you were living under a rock, or just don't like baseball, you probably haven't noticed that Miguel Cabrera is on quite a hot streak right now. This front page article on fangraphs shows just how ridiculously locked in this guy is right now.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/miguel-cabreras-ridiculousplate-coverage/
Better than the Darvish .gif, IMO.
he went down in the strikezone to get was something special. I thought for sure that was pop fly.
and (assuming each of those hits were HR's or at least for extra bases), I'm not sure yet which swing impressed me most. Subject to change, I'll call the top 3 of those as follows:
1) waaaay-inside pitch (looked like a hard slider) Incredible bat speed, being able to get the barrel out front on a pitch that would handcuff practically anybody else.
2) "your" pitch, down in the strikezone. Amazing ability to instantly recognize and adjust his swing is being shown, as he lines it towards the right-field stands. Like you said, a pop-up for most mere-mortals.
3) upper-inside strike (fastball?) that for the majority of hitters is a swing and a miss. Again, the bat speed wins this battle.
The rest ? Shows that no pitcher can fool the man, no pitch is safe to throw, any swing can result in a souvenir to any kid sitting in the outfield seats armed with a glove and big dreams.
No assumption needed. They were all HRs.
Just to add to it's greatness, this HR was hit to straight away center.. (not at Comerica though)
This five-second loops communicates so much information simultaneously.
And it looks #*$&ing cool.
I can't say I love MC...but there is one thing for certain (at least in my mind) and that's he's the best all around hitter in baseball right now. Honestly, he might be the best hitter baseball has seen since...I'm trying to find a comparison and it's difficult in my lifetime. Dude is damn good, no question.
The best comparison I can think of is Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime, but even then Cabrera hits quite a bit better for average than Griffey did.
Griffey hit pretty good for average in his prime as well actually, but still I think MC is better than Griffey was even in his prime. I mean, the triple crown is huge and only AP has even come close to that in thelast several decades but even he couldn't do it.
I agree iwth this and the two of them are the two best hitters of this generation. One who has come close to the triple crown a couple of times and one who has won it. Other than these two though I think you have to go way back to find comparables. The two of them are beasts for sure.
Frank Thomas from 1990-1997 is better than any hitting peak Cabrera or Pujols put up, though Cabrera is just entering the 4th season of his peak so he could still match it.
And of course, Bonds second peak.
Here are some stats I will show you and you tell me who is who:
Player #1
|
Years |
Hr’s |
RBI’s |
Avg. |
|
1 |
7 |
31 |
330 |
|
2 |
32 |
109 |
318 |
|
3 |
24 |
115 |
322 |
|
4 |
41 |
112 |
316 |
|
5 |
38 |
101 |
353 |
|
6 |
40 |
111 |
308 |
|
7 |
40 |
134 |
349 |
|
8 |
35 |
125 |
347 |
|
9 |
29 |
109 |
264 |
|
10 |
15 |
77 |
304 |
Player #2
|
Years |
Hr’s |
RBI’s |
Avg. |
|
1 |
37 |
130 |
329 |
|
2 |
34 |
127 |
314 |
|
3 |
43 |
124 |
358 |
|
4 |
46 |
123 |
331 |
|
5 |
41 |
117 |
330 |
|
6 |
49 |
137 |
331 |
|
7 |
32 |
103 |
327 |
|
8 |
37 |
116 |
357 |
|
9 |
47 |
135 |
327 |
|
10 |
42 |
118 |
312 |
Player #3
|
Years |
Hr’s |
RBI’s |
Avg. |
|
1 |
12 |
62 |
268 |
|
2 |
33 |
112 |
294 |
|
3 |
33 |
116 |
323 |
|
4 |
26 |
114 |
339 |
|
5 |
34 |
119 |
320 |
|
6 |
37 |
127 |
292 |
|
7 |
34 |
103 |
324 |
|
8 |
38 |
126 |
328 |
|
9 |
30 |
105 |
344 |
|
10 |
44 |
139 |
330 |
Player #4
|
Years |
Hr’s |
RBI’s |
Avg. |
|
1 |
33 |
114 |
301 |
|
2 |
25 |
116 |
292 |
|
3 |
34 |
103 |
311 |
|
4 |
46 |
123 |
336 |
|
5 |
37 |
81 |
312 |
|
6 |
33 |
104 |
294 |
|
7 |
42 |
129 |
308 |
|
8 |
40 |
101 |
291 |
|
9 |
37 |
122 |
303 |
|
10 |
34 |
83 |
262 |
In order the players are: Frank Thomas from 1990-1999 (you picked those years), AP from 01-10, MC from 03-12 and Bb from 90-99. Just for interest sake the players ages were FT (22-32), AP (21-30), BB (25-34) and MC (20-30).
I have to say that you are either an incerdible homer when it comes to the Sox and FT or you never actually took the time to see how FT actually stacked up to AP. He is clearly the class of the four players mentioned, but MC has age on his side which is what my comment was referring to in the original post, as in I think he is now as good a hitter as AP is, but he is younger and could continue to improve.
Anyway, sorry for the length of my post, but I needed to back up my opinion with stats.
I don't give much of a shit about points and get negged a fair amount without saying a word, but this kind of garbage just pisses me off. If you have an issue with my post at least have the balls to explain when you neg. You don't agrre with my point, fine, tell me why? Was it too long didn't read? Fine tell me that. Whatever the reason, fine, just tell me what it is and perhaps we could have a reasonable debate about it.
In this post I disagreed with someone else and instead of negging them I did some research and provided the basis for my disagreement. People who just scroll through posts negging everyone without any reason provided just piss people off.
/rant.
I said 90-97, not 99, 98 and 99 were not elite level seasons, Thomas fell off after that point.
From 1990-1997 Frank Thomas posted a batting line of .330/.452/.600 with a 182 OPS+. His wRC+ were 178,179,176,171,206,169,168, and 179.
The best stretch of Pujols' career would be 03-10. Over that time period he posted a batting line of .334/.433/.635 with a 177 OPS+. His wRC+ were 184,171,167,177,155,184,180, and 164.
It's close, but Thomas has a clear lead in OPS+ and an even bigger advantage in wRC+ over their best years. Same class of players, but Thomas has the clear edge IMO.
It wasn't until 2010 when Cabrera posted his first wRC+ greater than 160, and he's posted wRC+ of 171,177,166, and currently sits at 194. Like I said, Cabrera is still in the midst of his hitting peak, so he could still catch up to the level Thomas was at in the early 90's, but he's not there yet.
And I'm a Tigers fan, not a White Sox fan, so no homerism.
That stat really has nothing to do with the individual hitter and more to do with what he is worth to the team. The debate here is who is the better hitter, not who meant more to his team.
We may just have some philisophical differences where what makes a good hitter is concerned, but things like OBP just don't do it for me. I look at the raw data because I don't care whether a guy walks a lot or gets hit by pitches.
What I am referring to is who I think are the best hitters in the game and to me, AP has had a better career than FT. He has hit for a better average, hit more homeruns and produced more runs batted in than Thomas over a similar timeframe
Again, it seems we just look at different things when evaluating a players ability which is fine. For me and how I evaluate a players ability AP is the top dog.
As to your last point...you're fortunate...I'm a Jays fan and have very little to cheer about these days (or the past two decades for that matter).
wRC+ measures an individual hitters performance. It's basically an improved version of OPS+.
It really has nothing to do with the team.
I'm not debating the overall career of Thomas/Pujols, just looking at their peak years, and IMO Thomas had the better peak. Obviously you disagree, and as you said it is clearly because of philoshpoical differences. Thomas and Pujols were much closer in terms of OPS+ than they were in wRC+, and that's because OPS+ undervalues OBP, which is where Thomas was greater, and places greater value on SLG where Pujols was greater.
And that's fine, they were both historically elite hitters during their prime years, it's mostly splitting hairs when differentiating players of their caliber.
Even though I am an Indians fan, Cabrera is one of my favorite hitters to watch these days. As shown in the gif, he can hit damn near anything and everything. I can't imagine being a pitcher and having to face him.
but the MLB. Another HR and he'll be in the lead for that as well
Tigers? He leads the Majors or is damn close in most every offensive category. He just needs to swipe a couple bases...
Bet he wins the Triple crown 2X in a row..
Damn you Bryan! Beaten to the punch.
Six homeruns, one of which was in the strikezone. I don't think there is a consistant way to get him out. He hits more "good pitch" homeruns than anyone I can remember.
Cabrera's ability to hit pitches that are not strikes- and hit them hard- will be required for the foreseeable future. He is so hot right now, that he will not see many strikes. I would also expect him to have a huge increase of walks, no matter how well Prince is hitting. And when Feilder is hitting, we will punish them.
Great time to be a Tiger and Wolverine!
Edit: AND also a great time to be a Red Wing!
It's actually nice to see those swings presented in this way - I would think his mechanics are some of the best in the game right now if not the best period. It is certainly one of the most fundamentally sound swings that I have seen from any batter in my memory anyway. He fully extends his arms and basically covers the entire strike zone and then some. I believe Mike Lowell once termed it as "taking a direct path to the ball" (speaking to how he keeps his hands close and can adjust to just about any pitch), which Miguel Cabrera seems to do nearly every single time at the plate
I love these baseball gifs. I can't stop watching them. Sure glad Miggy's a Tiger - the guy is proving to be one of the best of all time.
Wait, you need visual evidence to prove that the current AL MVP and first triple crown winner since the 60's is good at baseball?
greatest Tiger. When Al Kaline says he hasn't seen a hitter like Cabrera you know the guy is way beyond special. He is approaching the rarefied air of Williams-Dimaggio-Aaron-Ruth.
In terms of hitting, Dimaggio, doesn't belong anywhere near a list with Williams or Ruth.
Really, he doesn't belong anywhere near them in terms of players either.
how none of those pitches were down the pipe yet all still jacked.
/s
The one low and away is most impressive. Look at how is back foot steps back as well, that's not a lot of power on the hit relative to what he's capable of. Obviously it helps going into right, but it's like he just tapped it and still sent it out.