On this episode of "The PosCast", Joe and Mike are making sense of the chaos around Shohei Ohtani and his historic season. Plus, many other meaningless things!
Yes, it is a good thing to look at all the 50+ HR seasons and look at the SB totals. Yeah.
But one should ALSO look at all the 70+ SB seasons and look at the HR totals. Mike started with HR, and should have also looked again starting with SB.
The challenge for Acuna supporters is that Ricky Henderson went 87 SB/28 HR in 1986. Acuna's 73/41 definitely *is* better. Yes. You'd trade an SB for a HR, any day. But 28 was still a LOT of HR in 1986.
Does 87/24 feel closer to 73/41 than 43/43 feels to 53/53? It's different. Ricky was better at SB and Acuna better at HR. But Shohei?
The old record was...A-Rod in 1998. #2 was Soriano in 2006 Eric Davis was third.
1 43.91 1998 A-Rod
2 43.91 2006 Soriano
3 42.53 1987 Eric Davis.
Close!
Acuna just SMASHED that record last year. 52.51! Eat it, A-Rod.
But Shohei has already topped it, this year. 53.98. And he's got a few games to go. No, he's not smashing Acuna's record. But he's beating it by quite a bit, considering how closely packed everyone below is.
Joe/Mike, There's an important, yet meaningless, fact about the Tigers that you really need to be aware of. They are anti-Twins in that they have NEVER lost to the Yankees in a postseason series. Sure it's been over a decade at this point and the only connection between those teams back then and these teams today is laundry. But still! It's a true fact that the Yankees have never been able to beat the Tigers in the playoffs.
I think Mike is being a bit unfair to Acuna.
Yes, it is a good thing to look at all the 50+ HR seasons and look at the SB totals. Yeah.
But one should ALSO look at all the 70+ SB seasons and look at the HR totals. Mike started with HR, and should have also looked again starting with SB.
The challenge for Acuna supporters is that Ricky Henderson went 87 SB/28 HR in 1986. Acuna's 73/41 definitely *is* better. Yes. You'd trade an SB for a HR, any day. But 28 was still a LOT of HR in 1986.
Does 87/24 feel closer to 73/41 than 43/43 feels to 53/53? It's different. Ricky was better at SB and Acuna better at HR. But Shohei?
So, maybe we should abandon Mike's approach. Maybe we should just look at the old Power-Speed stat. I think it's a Bill James stat. 2 x (Home Runs x Stolen Bases)/(Stolen Bases + Home Runs). <https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/power_speed_number_season.shtml>
The old record was...A-Rod in 1998. #2 was Soriano in 2006 Eric Davis was third.
1 43.91 1998 A-Rod
2 43.91 2006 Soriano
3 42.53 1987 Eric Davis.
Close!
Acuna just SMASHED that record last year. 52.51! Eat it, A-Rod.
But Shohei has already topped it, this year. 53.98. And he's got a few games to go. No, he's not smashing Acuna's record. But he's beating it by quite a bit, considering how closely packed everyone below is.
Joe/Mike, There's an important, yet meaningless, fact about the Tigers that you really need to be aware of. They are anti-Twins in that they have NEVER lost to the Yankees in a postseason series. Sure it's been over a decade at this point and the only connection between those teams back then and these teams today is laundry. But still! It's a true fact that the Yankees have never been able to beat the Tigers in the playoffs.
Did they mention glasses in One Last Meaningless thing?
I'm not so sure this is meaningless, as people who need glasses to read REALLY need those shower things in a consistent order.
Of course, as soon as the topic came up, I thought "Shampoo, conditioner, body soap." Obviously the only correct answer.
Oh dear, I am reading a book on a possible scenario for Nuclear war. So I hope we don't .