Tatis and Park

Back towards the beginning of the year, over at Statistically Speaking, I posted twenty questions ranging in difficulty as a fun little break. The third question—Who is the only player to hit two grand slams in the same inning and off whom did he hit them?—can be answered with the names Fernando Tatis and Chan Ho Park. Tatis mashed two grand slams off of Park back in April, 1999. With their careers seemingly over, both players had become answers to that question as opposed to players teams rely on or employ.

After several injury-plagued years with the Cardinals and Expos, Tatis returned home to the Dominican Republic to spend time with his family. He did not play baseball in 2004 or 2005, save for some spring training with the then Devil Rays in 2004. The desire to build a church in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris prompted his return to baseball. He appeared in 28 games for the Orioles in 2006, producing an .813 OPS in limited action.

Last season, he signed a minor league deal with the Mets and spent the entire year on their AAA squad. One of his teammates was none other than Chan Ho Park, also looking to get his career back in order, albeit under different circumstances. Tatis was out of baseball and Park, well, ought to have been. Park ended up making one mostly terrible start for the Mets while Tatis awaited his chance. Meanwhile, the church he had been saving money to build was built while he played in the minors.

This year, Park returned “home” to Los Angeles, going back to where his career began. Though his controllable skills are nothing to write home about—a 4.56 FIP—his ERA is a mere 3.05 and he has been very effective out of the Dodgers bullpen. Tatis finally got his callup thanks to injuries to both Moises Alou and Ryan Church. He has not disappointed either. In just 83 games, Tatis is hitting .291/.360/.482, with 11 home runs.

His knack for timely hitting has resulted in a 2.34 WPA, which, even in just half of a season, outranks Nick Markakis, Kevin Youkilis, and Jason Giambi. Now, his WPA/LI is 0.57, much lower than the standard win probability metric suggests, which portends much clutch hitting. Park has been the same way, as his 0.75 WPA exceeds his -0.14 WPA/LI. However, as we mentioned yesterday, WPA isn’t a bad stat to use when looking at relievers, since the situations in which they pitch are usually so crucial.

Tatis has spent most of his time in the outfield, where he is a +3 defender in LF and a -2 in RF. Basically, he is an average fielder with an above average hitting line. If this was some youngster called up from AAA, we would likely be praising him, but because of the name recognition and the semblance of shock that Tatis is still playing baseball, that wow factor does not seem to exist as much. Something we can wow at, however, is that Park has somehow increased his fastball velocity from 88.4-88.5 mph in recent years to just about 93 mph this year. It’s normal for players to fluctuate within maybe 0.3-0.5 mph from one year to the next, but 4.5-5 mph?

Tatis and Park might no longer be the versions of themselves from the mid-90’s, but the 2008 editions have been quite productive.