Barry Bonds and Splits
Anytime a new offensive statistic or function is added to the site, I tend to gravitate to Barry Bonds’ page to see what the outer bounds look like. The splits function is no different.
For instance, did you know that in his 268 high leverage plate appearances Bonds was walked intentionally 58 times. All told, Bonds walked in 42.2% of his total plate appearances. When he did hit, his ISO was a ridiculous .360. That’s good for a 1.354 OPS and a .524 wOBA. I don’t know if people will reference these numbers in 200 years after reading up on baseball history (folklore by then) and how Buck Showalter walked him with the bases loaded, but if they do, such a factoid should help to create understanding, if not acceptance.
Even the immortal saw the typical platoon advantage, which is to say that the left-handed Bonds was superior against righties. A .492 wOBA against them versus only a .480 wOBA against lefties suggests the Giants wasted a golden opportunity for a platoon. Bonds was more discriminatinh when it came to hitting the ball hard in certain directions. He hit the ball well to right (.524), center (.513), but not nearly as well to left (.394). Of course, a .394 wOBA is nearly .020 points higher than Evan Longoria’s career wOBA, but this is Bonds we’re talking about. Unacceptable, Barry.
Somehow he hit more home runs at home (one more, to be exact) than he did on the road. This came in light of nearly 40 fewer plate appearances at home, too, and while playing in one of the more homer-constricting parks in the National League. Oh, and this, well, this I just have to replicate in full These are Bonds’ 2002 month-by-month wOBA figures:
April: .563
May: .509
June: .536
July: .514
August: .607
September/October: .530
A .509 wOBA was a down month for him. Goodness gracious … goodness gracious.
The guy was a straight up monster at the plate. I still can’t get over his 04 season where he had 373 official ABs and he reached base in 367 of them. That is simply mindboggling.
haha um this is a little misleading. you can either say, “he had 373 ABs and recorded a hit in 135 of them,” or “he had 617 PAs and reached base in 367 of them.” both are incredible and the latter is ridiculously silly, but… you can’t really say it the way you said it.
Good call Hit Dog. Not sure why pot circle is getting all worked up. I was quite confused by the way that was said as well.
Right, Hit Dog. MattC can legitimately assert, “… he had 373 official ABs and he reached base 367 times.” But when he says “he reached base in 367 of them” he is incorrect. The clear antecedent for “them” is the 373 official ABs.
Yeah reading it again I did word it wrongly. I should’ve said “He had 373 official ABs and he reached base 367 times.” Didn’t mean to confuse anybody but I figure it would go without saying that I wasn’t talking about Plate Appearances because it’s obvious that he didn’t only get out 6 times all season.
MattC missed his 9 HBP that year – it is pretty amazing that Bonds reached base 376 times despite only recording 373 AB. His .609 OBP in 617 PA is definitely mind-boggling.