Extra Base Hit Monsters

There are a few skills that stand out in baseball even in a small sample size. Some guys just have them and others don’t, and even after just a few games, it’s usually pretty easy to tell which category a guy belongs in. Speed is one of the obvious ones, as you’ll never look in a box score and see that a lumbering slugger stole a couple of bags and hit a triple. Power is another one of these traits that’s fairly easy to identify. You can pretty much look at the extra base hit leaderboards on any given day and not be too surprised by the names at the top of the list. In fact, here’s the list of guys currently leading the majors in extra base hits:

Chase Utley – 20 extra base hits. Ridiculous.

Big Gap Here To Illustrate Just How Awesome Utley Has Been

This next group is all tied at 14 apiece.

Manny Ramirez
Derrek Lee
David Wright
Lance Berkman
Mike Jacobs
Nate McLouth
Rafael Furcal

Ramirez, Wright, Berkman – all elite sluggers. Jacobs is a power hitting first baseman, so while he won’t keep up this pace, it still fits. McLouth has shown some offensive promise in the minors, and it’s not a huge shock that he’s driving balls into the gaps. But, I’m sorry, what on earth is Rafael Furcal doing on this list? He’s a 5’9 shortstop with a career slugging percentage of .411, and he didn’t even get close to that last year, posting a wimpy .355 mark with 33 extra base hits the entire season. Now he has 14 extra base hits in three weeks?

Rafael Furcal could probably fit in one of Lance Berkman’s pant legs, but so far, the little guy is muscling up and driving the ball with the big boys. This isn’t going to continue (his career high in extra base hits is 60, back in 2003; he’s on pace for 110), but the Dodgers have to be happy with the production they’re getting out of their shortstop so far.