July 28, 2011

Best 1-5 Hitters In History?

Each of the top five hitters in the Red Sox lineup has an OPS over .865:
Jacoby Ellsbury   .911
Dustin Pedroia    .893
Adrian Gonzalez   .973
Kevin Youkilis    .890
David Ortiz       .960
The rest of the American League combined has five.
Jose Bautista     Blue Jays   1.138
Miguel Cabrera    Tigers       .986
Paul Konerko      White Sox    .935
Curtis Granderon  Yankees      .930
Jhonny Peralta    Tigers       .901
Boston has five of the top 21 players in OPS in MLB. Only four other teams have as many as two (Tigers, Cardinals, Brewers, Mets). ... Josh Reddick, with only 120 PA, is not among the qualifiers, but he has a 1.013 OPS.

Two weeks ago, I wondered if this team was the best hitting Red Sox club of all time. There are still two months of baseball to play, so it's far too soon to know where the 2011 quintet will rank historically, but SoSH, using a variety of metrics, has been looking for the best 1-5 in baseball history.

2 comments:

laura k said...

Very cool! Although not surprising. After all, we are UNSTOPPABLE.

This goes a long way towards explaining our UNSTOPPABILITY.

Tom DePlonty said...

I was wondering last night just how many times this season the bats (and awfully good performances from the bullpen) have redeemed a mediocre-to-crappy start. It seems like it's happening quite a bit.