Here Tom

Suntan Superman

WC's Resident Samoan

I was doing the classic ESPN argument with a friend of mine, David Eckstein vs. Alex Rodriguez, who would you have. I mean the answer is clear to me, even if he's a douche, I'll take A-Rod, because at the end of the day, A-Rod mostly gets it done, whereas Eckstein is ordinary. I admit I love guys like Eckstein who play their heart out every game, but the numbers difference is unbearable. Anyway, I figured this would be one for you to research as you probably have more resources readily available.

My friends main argument against A-Rod...

"75% of his homeruns come before the 7th Inning"

Now again, my thinking would be, well DUH! There's 6 Innings, of course he's gonna hit more homeruns, he also didn't have any comparable numbers, did Reggie Jackson hit more homeruns after the 7th inning? Am I not looking at this deep enough or is it a valid argument.

Granted, my retort was

"75% of Eckstein's homeruns are caught at the wall"

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

That's a weird argument. I would like to know who the more clutch players are in the league though.. You hear it all the time. So and so is clutch.. It's obvious that a guy like David Ortiz gets a lot of late game hits that tie or win the game, but it's also more noticeable because A) I watch a lot of Sox games and B) the Sox are in a huge market.

Dr. Giganto

Sports Moderator

Most players's numbers go down in innings 7-9, especially good hitters, because thats when they start facing specialty relievers (closers, set-up men, lefty/righty specialists, etc.)

Looking separately at Innings 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9...David Ortiz's BA, OBP, and SLG all are their lowest in innings 7-9.

Same with Reggie Jackson. Same with Manny Ramirez. Same with Ken Griffey Jr.

That's 4 guys I randomly selected and ALL 4 had lower BA/OBP/SLG in innings 7-9

Anybody who says they'd rather have Eckstein than A-Rod doesnt know anything about baseball