Berkman is more productive offensively, but only slightly. RUNS CREATED/GAME 1 Albert Pujols 11.08 2 Lance Berkman 9.96 3 Carlos Beltran 9.54 OBP is actually more important than SLG when determining offensive production. However, Beltran plays in a pitcher's park, so I'd guess that his park-adjusted numbers are better than Berkman's.
What does it matter right now, they are both doing awesome this year and it's not like we had to pick one or the other. Beltran didn't want to be here, or the money wasn't enough (though I'm sure with taxes and all, it still comes out to more salary for him if he had stayed here) and I guess he felt he could make more off the field playing in NYC.
He also nets more outs because he gets on base less. There are some interesting comments in here: http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/005962.php
There has been alot of analysis... www.pankin.com/sabr36.pdf Read that. It's a pretty straightforward, non-biased statistical analysis. OBP is about 2 times more important than SLG, in general terms these days.
Well, if you wan to play this game. How about this rotation of former and current Astros: 1. Roger Clemens 2. Randy Johnson 3. Curt Schilling 4. Roy Oswalt 5. Andy Pettitte. What if always sounds good.
Berkman said on the radio this morning that he leads the league in turning triples into doubles. So he's got that going for him.
Right. And go ahead and complete that outfield with Abreu, and put Lofton on the bench as a late inning speed/defensive replacement. Nice. Heck, pencil in Guillen at short and Nevin (headcase that he is) at third. Move Lance to first and take your pick of Gonzo or Finley in the OF. Scratch Schilling (injury) and put Santana in. Now, that's looking nice.
