Baseball By Paul

Only 10 days (technically 9, but that’s coming later tonight) until live game action…

• 30: Desmond Jennings
• 29: Carlos Santana
• 28: Hanley Ramirez
• 27: Yonder Alonso
• 26: Pablo Sandoval
• 25: Kyle Seager
• 24: Jose Bautista
• 23: Todd Frazier
• 22: Adrian Beltre
• 21: Jason Heyward
• 20: Anthony Rizzo
• 19: Adam Jones
• 18: Allen Craig
• 17: Alex Gordon
• 16: Mike Napoli
• 15: Ryan Doumit
• 14: Jeff Keppinger
• 13: Victor Martinez
• 12: Chris Carter
• 11: Denard Span

I have to go with a new format for the rest of the countdown.

I know we are almost done, but unfortunately I don’t have enough time for the full essays right now. The reason is a very good one for me, though: work! I’ve been getting freelance work assignments that have combined with the SP Guide to take up my Countdown time and then some. Since I am trying to make writing a full-time thing, this is very much good news, but the Countdown is a bit of a casualty. Originally the Countdown was set up to keep the daily content flowing and also gave me a chance to hit on some hitters since most of my focus in on pitching.

I’ll finish out the Countdown, but the format will be a little different. I’m not necessarily going to follow my offensive players list for the final eight days (starting tomorrow). Some days I will. But my post of the day, whatever it is, will serve at the Countdown entry. When it does happen to be a Countdown player, it will be some stats about the guy and occasionally a GIF or video to go with them.  Essentially the posts will be closer to 400-500 words instead of 1500-2000. Just some nuggets on info on a player, strategy, or general baseball topic.

NORICHIKA AOKI

-Did you know that Aoki led baseball with 34 infield hits? His 34 were the third-most over the last three years. Top two? Ichiro, of course, with 36 in 2011 and 53 (!) in 2010.

-He hit just .653 on line drives. And yes, it’s only because the league hit .718 on them. If he had matched league average he’d have gained 10 points pushing his average up to .298 last year.

-Though his final year before coming to MLB saw him hit just four home runs, he hit 14 in 2010, 16 in 2009, 14 again in 2008, and 20 in 2007. He is a heavy groundball hitter (55 percent) and his 17 percent line drive rate is modest, but there may be some home run growth from his 10 in 2012. We are talking 2-3 more here, but every bit helps, especially when it’s add-on value. You’re drafting Aoki for speed, batting average, and runs scored so even a repeat of his 10 home runs works.

-Imagine if the Brewers had used their sneaky star all year long. In fairness to them, their Ryan Braun–Carlos Gomez–Corey Hart setup was pretty formidable which made it difficult to find space for Aoki. Mat Gamel tore his ACL on May 4^th shifting Hart to first and Aoki into a permanent role. From that point on he went: .289/.354/.433 with 9 HR, 48 RBI, 77 R, 30 SB in 557 PA.

-And finally, Aoki is going 140^th overall in the NFBC drafts that have been conducted thus far. That’s just into the 10^th round for those leagues. Not bad value for someone who put up that across-the-board effort. The 31-year old import is still a bit underrated.