Elvis Andrus Hit a Home Run

Elvis Andrus hit a home run. Elvis Andrus hit a home run!

He hadn’t hit one in 178 games.

It’s all good of course. His defense and speed make him a valuable part of the team, especially while he’s cost-controlled. But 178 games is kind of a long time.

Except it isn’t! The longest anyone has gone without a home run since 1993 is 328 games. Someone congratulate Jason Tyner for ending that streak. Otis Nixon also went 300+ games without. Miguel Cairo and Jason Kendall grace the list. Juan Pierre is on the list twice before Andrus comes in at 22nd longest between home runs in the ‘modern age.’ Rey Sanchez is on the list three times in the top ten alone. Andrus’ streak is just a blip on the radar.

On the other hand, as Dave Cameron noted on twitter recently, Andrus has 22% of his 2010 extra-base hit total so far. In 13 PAs, which seems pretty impressive.

Of course this is all sample size, but imagine if Albert Pujols had managed 22% of his 2010 extra base hit output in the first weekend this year. He would have somehow needed to turn out 18 extra base hits in his first four games. That’s not possible, right?

We know ISO doesn’t really even stabilize over a full season, so Andrus could return to swinging the light stick as soon as tomorrow. But he’s almost a quarter of the way to 2010 already, so he’s got a head start on the year.