Is There Coco In The Yanks Melk?
Melky Cabrera’s OPS+ on this season, to date, is 78. Seeing this, I wondered how many other 23-year old switch-hitting outfielders have posted a season with at least 300 PA where they had an OPS+ of 80 or less. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Batting Season Finder, here’s the answer:
Cnt OPS+ PA Year Age +----+-----------------+---+----+---+----+---+ 1 Jerry White 76 309 1976 23 2 Joe Lovitto 70 313 1974 23 3 Paul Householder 64 455 1982 23 4 Milt Cuyler 65 313 1992 23 5 Coco Crisp 76 447 2003 23 6 John Cangelosi 76 525 1986 23 7 Melky Cabrera 78 328 2008 23 8 Carlos Beltran 69 413 2000 23 Seasons/Careers found: 8.
Obviously, Carlos Beltran went on to bigger and better seasons. But, on the whole, this is not a very impressive group of offensive players. Seeing Coco Crisp there is interesting – as I thought, seven months ago, that he and Melky were close…in terms of their career offensive achievements.
Seeing the way that Coco Crisp went on to hit, from ages 24 to 28, maybe it’s time for the Yankees to reconsider the somewhat long-term value of playing Melky Cabrera everyday?
Not sure what you are saying here. From 24 to 28, Coco had his two .300 or near .300 seasons, one injury marred one and managed enough pop overall that he has raised his career OPS+ to 94. It may be that he won’t equal his best two years in Cleveland but he’s been a better player since that terrible OPS figure when he was 23.
No one can imagine Melky turning into Beltran, but turning into Coco over the next four years would represent an improvement.
Coco’s RCAA totals coming into this season:
YEAR TEAM RCAA
2002 Indians -1
2003 Indians -12
2004 Indians 2
2005 Indians 20
2006 Red Sox -10
2007 Red Sox -15
Basically, sans the fluke of 2005, he’s not been much of a hitter.
According to you favorite statistic.
He also had two 100+ OPS seasons, and his career OPS, while below league average, isn’t nearly as embarrassing as it was when he also had his 23 year old, 300 PA, less than 80 OPS season.