What is Yordan's potential? Along with the eye popping power, he also has Altuve like contact ability. I don't think he will ever be even an average defender but hopefully he can be serviceable. I'm sure at some point in his career he will lead the league in home runs and RBIs for a season. He's currently rank around 100 in RBI's with 25 of them even though he's only played in 19 games. That's an incredible number.
Looks like he will be a guy who can hit around .300 with 80+ walks since he has good command of the zone. Because he's so patient and so big, it will lead to some strikeouts, but still an acceptable amount. I think Paul Goldschmidt might be a good comp numbers wise
What if I told you Yordan would have a long career and bat .284 while averaging 32 HRs and 102 RBI per season? That’s what Fred McGriff did. Still don’t know how that guy isn’t in the HOF. If you put a hot Yuli or Correa behind him, he might finish this season with 70 RBI.
Ortiz, a surefire 1st ballot hall of famer who had a 20 year career in which he racked up 541 HR and 51.1 fWAR as a bat only player, is Alvarez’s ceiling. I wouldn’t say Delgado, who racked up 44.1 fWAR over a 17 year big league career, is his floor. There is certainly no guarantee (or even likelihood) that Alvarez will stay healthy and continually make the improvements and adjustments necessary to stay one of the league’s best hitters for almost 2 decades. Delgado’s career value is still probably a 75th percentile outcome for Alvarez. I would say a 50th percentile career comp for Alvarez would be someone like Ryan Howard; which is still damn good, as Howard was a cornerstone player for one of the league’s best teams for almost a decade. Regardless, Alvarez obviously looks like a core player so far, and barring an unexpected failure, is the type of player who will help extend Houston’s competitive window.
Poor Fred McGriff; I always liked him. He got 40% of the HoF vote this past year, but it was his 10th and last year to be on the ballot. He was a damn solid player, but he just didn't rack up any of the sexy numbers in his career. 493 HRs, 7 short of a nice 500. 2490 hits, 10 short of a nice 2500, and 510 short of immortality. .284 B.A...3 pts better than Biggio, but not quite .300. 1550 RBIs, which IS top 50 all-time. No major awards like MVP or RoY. Maybe someday the Veterans Committee will give him another shot. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcgrifr01.shtml
He's on pace for 63 hrs and 198 rbi while batting .324 so I'm gonna say Joe DiMaggio is his floor and Babe Ruth is his ceiling.
Let's get him trained to play first base ASAP. That way we don't have to sit him on the bench against NL teams.
Sometime during Hunter Pence's rookie year, he was just killing the ball and a thread or post like this came up. Some guy said something along the lines of "I think he's going to hit .330 with 500 HRs and 1500 RBI" or some such nonsense, and I mentioned that only 3 guys in MLB history had reached whatever his numbers were...I think it was Gehrig, Williams and Ruth. I'm too lazy to search for that and I have no idea why I even remember it.
He is very impressive, but it is a bit early for career projections. Right now, looks like a .300+ hitter.
The people who say it’s too early to make HOF claims are absolutely right... he’s very very early in his MLB career, however The one thing that really opened up my eyes is his outstanding plate discipline. The only pitch thus far that I have seen him really chase is the 12/6 breaking ball in the dirt... aside from that, his ability to hit the ball to all fields and really square balls up is absolutely ridiculous. I’m 30 years old and have been watching and playing baseball practically my whole life. I played against Anthony Rendon, Jason Heyward, and Matt Carpenter and I’ve yet to see a more polished hitter this young. It’s very impressive.
If the best he gets is Ryan Howard, I'd definitely take that. A little research shows he is known for being the fastest player in baseball history to reach 1,000 RBIs, 100 home runs, and 200 home runs.
At this stage it looks very promising. I think most of us like what we see, he has been instrumental in getting some victories, which was sorely needed given the injury bug that hit the Astros. Now regarding his future as in career outlook, well it’s all going to depend on when the league adjusts to him, and they will, therefore the question is, how quickly will he counter their adjustments. Because the pitching coaches are looking for the combination of pitches to negate he strength. And ML pitching will hit the spot to exploit any holes in his swing. Here is to hoping he is a .300 hitter, with 40HR, 120 RBI, 100 walks a season type of DH!