A Weird Johnny Mac Stat...

[Alex]

I had a hunch that Johnny Mac bats better earlier in a game. I seem to recall Johnny Mac getting a lot of early inning hits this year.

Johnny Mac is hitting .321 from innings 1-6.

(I wonder if it's even higher if you just chart his first at bat only)

I don't know what to make of that.

Perhaps the statistical sample is way too small. (9-28)

[Alex]

Well, another hit, let's make that 10-29, a .345 BA...

I know, the sampling sure is small, but then again, who's culpa is that?

[Alex]

and, Johnny Mac is hitting over .400 when he makes contact and puts the ball in play!

[Ytown Tribe fan]

He can hit .180 and still be an improvement over Ricky G.

Apparently, Cholly wants Cabrera to play second now -- even after Ricky gets back. That's fine, since Johnny Mac could then play 3rd base and we could finally have an infield. Just dump Ricky and leave it alone after that.

[Alex]

I'd reverse that and put Jolbert at third and Johnny Mac at second...I don't think Jolbert has a very good first step to explode off of.

But Jolbert is probably rangy enough to dive for balls at the hot corner.

[Dr. Robert]

I agree with that- Cabrera should be at 3B. Mac is a great 2B, and should stay there. His tools are wasted at 3B.

[Alex]

Ever since Jolbert could not throw out Darren Erstad on a chopper to short, he has been maligned. (OK, he botched a couple of other plays in that infamous loss to California last year)

Nobody seems to realize that Darren Erstad is as fast as Ichiro is to first base!

And when I watched that replay, I think Thome was late getting to first, and that is why Jolbert double-pumped before he threw the ball to first.

Anyway, I'm surprised that Jolbert might be given a chance to play, he was pretty horrible his last time up. Too be fair, they may have rushed him back from his recovery from being shot. But Jolbert was only down for about 10 days, what has changed?

I was more impressed that Jolbert got two walks versus the key two-out single that scored Johnny Mac when we absolutely needed to score against Colorado this past weekend.

I'm probably more blown away by the two walks versus the single he had. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 18, 2002 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Alex]

Johnny Mac is 12 for 40, a .300 BA, in innings 1-6.

[Dr. Robert]

Maybe, after a couple of hits, he gets cocky and swings for the fence. Or, pitchers come to their senses and don't throw him too many fastballs later in the game.

[Alex]

Johnny Mac is also 18-46 when you only count the balls he puts in play (foul outs count in this stat)

All non-strike out at bats, Johnny Mac is hitting .391

So, even though Johnny Mac strikes out almost once every 3 at bats, he overcomes that by having quality contact at bats.

Tonight against Montreal Johnny Mac had singles his first two times up, then hit the ball hard his final two times up.