One of those years, Bonds reached base above a 60% rate (.600+ OBP) and had 100 more walks than the 2nd place finisher. IIRC, Berkman was #2 that season. He posted some of most ridiculous numbers in baseball history with his enlarged headed self.
120 intentional walks that season. Now imagine Ohtani and Alvarez were allowed to take the drugs Bonds got to take. .
The guys on MLB radio have been high on us most of the year, I listen to them pretty much every morning
If you chopped off Barry Bonds' career in 1998, before he started using the "hard core stuff", he would have been considered one of the best pure hitters in MLB history and one of the most well-rounded players in MLB history (hitting, power, plate discipline, speed, defense). It's a shame he started using steroids because it's impossible to quantify how much it helped him and how he would have done in his mid-to-late 30's. It's probably safe to say that he would have continued being a 1.000 OPS player into his late 30's without the juice (but not the insane 1.300+ OPS numbers that he actually posted). His batting swing is probably the best one to study for young players.
When you are intentionally walked so they can get to 2021 Correa...you are respected at an elite level
Man I'm starting to love Straw. Not everyone needs to be a superstar hitter and he's becoming a good 8th spot hitter in a stacked line up. Don't see him as an automatic out like I did in the beginning of the season. He's improved his plate discipline a lot He also seems like a awesome guy that the entire club loves. Yesterday Blum was talking about how his teammates notice the amount of work he puts in and how much they respect him.
He would have been a hall of famer even without roids just like Clemens would have been. The thing about hypercompetitive people is that they are hypercompetitive and they just can't help themselves.
As a team we hit better against lefty's. Straw, Brantley, Tucker and Chas hit significantly worse against left handed pitchers. Brantley is an insane .378 against righties, and a still good .278 against lefties.
POS L/R/S PLAYER OBP SLG OPS+ Formula 1B R GURRIEL 387 490 139 LF L BRANTLEY 384 498 140 DH L ALVAREZ 378 559 153 SS R CORREA 393 522 149 2B R ALTUVE 372 502 138 RF L TUCKER 322 473 115 CF R STRAW 355 341 93 3B S TORO 325 382 94 C R MALDENADO 264 291 53 POS L/R/S PLAYER OBP SLG OPS+ 2B R ALTUVE 372 502 138 LF L BRANTLEY 384 498 140 1B R GURRIEL 387 490 139 DH L ALVAREZ 378 559 153 SS R CORREA 393 522 149 RF L TUCKER 322 473 115 3B S TORO 325 382 94 CF R STRAW 355 341 93 C R MALDENADO 264 291 53