Miguel Tejada said in the paper this week that he "isn't a power hitter". That may be true, and the recent stats certainly back him up on it. But it wasn't always true. In fact, for several years he was a classic power hitter. Let's take a look:
1999: .251/.325/.427, 21 HR, 84 RBI
2000: .275/.349/.479, 30 HR, 102 RBI
2001: .267/.326/.476, 31 HR, 113 RBI
2002: .308/.354/.508, 34 HR, 131 RBI
2003: .278/.336/.472, 27 HR, 106 RBI
2004: .311/.360/.534, 34 HR, 150 RBI
2005: .304/.349/.515, 26 HR, 98 RBI
2006: .330/.379/.498, 24 HR, 100 RBI
2007: .309/.365/.383, 2 HR, 18 RBI
High home run totals? Check. High RBI totals? Check. Decent average, middling on base percentage? Check. All these things, combined with the fact he plays shortstop? That's a really valuable player.
But his power has dropped precipitously since mid-2005, the summer of his 29th birthday. So I don't think we can account for the loss of power due to age yet. By all reasonable estimations he should be in the prime of his career, especially considering the outstanding numbers he put up in ages 23-29.
In the first half of 2005, Tejada was putting up some great numbers. Through June 18 he'd hit .320/.366/.636 with 19 HR and 55 RBI in 292 plate appearances, clearly on his way to a career year, even better than his MVP year of 2002. Since becoming a regular player Tejada has averaged roughly 700 plate appearances per season. As of June 18, 2005 he was on pace for 45 HR and 132 RBI. So what happened? In 412 plate appearances the rest of the way, he hit 7 HR and 43 RBI. And I posted the numbers for 2006 and so far this year above.
So the questions stands, "What's happened to Miguel Tejada" from June 19, 2005 to present that makes him a completely different player than the previous six and a half seasons?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2169007
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1 comment:
Raffy knows the answer to this question. Tejada was his supplier for "B-12" shots, remember.
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