Hmmm. How 'bout posting them HR and RBI #s too
I hate to play conspiracy theorist here...but if he was on Roids or HGH or "Dominican Dandy Juice" and if he quit using 2 years.....and if he started getting injured...the ol' body breaking down...
Okay, first the RBI situation really has no correlation to power in general.
As for the HRs,
2003- 31
2004- 41
2005- 47
2006- 54
2007- 35
2008- 23
Sure there are some outliers there, I agree, but using the HR as a sign for a greater trend won't tell you the whole story. The more telling statistics are his ISO power and his SLG%. As his ISO went down (decrease in traditional power), his SLG% went up, increase in total bases hit for. And because we know he's not getting any faster, that basically means he's hitting the ball more consistently for more bases (i.e. hitting for more doubles etc...) which would mean his power is still there, seeing as how he is still hitting home runs, in addition to more bases. Add in that he is aging, and that's actually a decline consistent with age. In relation to injuries, I can't speak for the wrist injury, but I'd wager that the knee injury has more to do with him being 260 pounds (I'm being generous) than any steriod issue.
how you figure that JJ Putz is the best arm they got in the off-season? what about KRod you don't think he's the best pitcher in there bullpen? because to me he's definitively a better closer than Putz don't get me wrong i like JJ Putz. he has very good pitches but KRod is a better pitcher overall.
I figure because Putz has been the better of the two throughout their respective careers. Putz has only three times put up a higher adjusted ERA than K-Rod. Only once has K-Rod had a overall below average defense behind him, (-3 runs) versus Putz who outside outside of Adrian Beltre and Ichiro had a terrible defense (the average for his career there was about -30 runs). Their pitching statistics are similar, except that K-Rod walks nearly twice as many batters (career average) than Putz. K-Rod has also become a fly ball pitcher (and if you ask any pitcher, that's exactly what you
don't want to be), again nearly doubling Putz career fly ball percentage. Consider also that Putz played on a terrible team, that the vast majority of the time gave him a one run lead to work with, or his team was trailing. K-Rod on the other hand, had on the vast majority of appearances a three run lead to work with, so the save difference between the two isn't of much value. The Mets fell apart the past two years predominantly because of a bullpen that down the stretch walked
way too many people, and because they were working behind in counts, which is exactly what K-Rod does. You give Putz a decent defense, and he's a better pitcher, plain and simple.
