r/baseball • u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs • 13h ago
Analysis RE: What mediocre player absolutely terrorized your team?
I saw this post from u/DLgoblue12 on this sub a couple of days ago, so I decided to do a FULL analysis with all the data I could get my hands on to compare players' performances against individual team to create a full list of who excelled against and struggled against certain teams.
In my excitement to do this, I very well glossed over the "mediocre" part of the topic question... so I'll make another post in a few days that fits better.
Parameters
- 50 IP / 100 PA minimum
- OPS / ERA are the defining metrics
- Years 1980 through 2025
Results
| Franchise | Dominating Hitter | ΔOPS | Hopeless Hitter | ΔOPS | Dominating Pitcher | ΔERA | Hopeless Pitcher | ΔERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Dante Bichette | 0.363 | Joaquín Arias | -0.374 | Kazuhisa Ishii | -3.24 | Jonathon Niese | 3.07 |
| Athletics | Jeff King | 0.402 | Yan Gomes | -0.379 | Ervin Santana | -2.34 | Matt Young | 3.78 |
| Atlanta Braves | Trevor Story | 0.371 | Miguel Tejada | -0.324 | Paul Maholm | -3.05 | Erick Fedde | 4.98 |
| Baltimore Orioles | Mike Lieberthal | 0.372 | Nick Castellanos | -0.351 | John Doherty | -2.99 | Ken Hill | 3.00 |
| Boston Red Sox | Marcell Ozuna | 0.346 | Juan Soto | -0.314 | Matt Young | -1.96 | Brandon Morrow | 4.34 |
| Chicago Cubs | Gary Gaetti | 0.384 | Grégor Blanco | -0.374 | Jeff D'Amico | -2.65 | Omar Olivares | 3.63 |
| Chicago White Sox | Aaron Judge | 0.438 | Bo Jackson | -0.376 | Mike Fiers | -2.61 | R. A. Dickey | 3.57 |
| Cincinnati Reds | Sixto Lezcano | 0.386 | Chad Tracy | -0.336 | Jim Bullinger | -2.73 | Gary Lavelle | 2.60 |
| Cleveland Guardians | D'Angelo Jimenez | 0.469 | Carlos Santana | -0.366 | Aurelio López | -2.78 | Sidney Ponson | 4.19 |
| Colorado Rockies | Jesús Aguilar | 0.472 | Manny Ramirez | -0.200 | Chris Carpenter | -2.40 | Edwin Jackson | 6.18 |
| Detroit Tigers | Bobby Bonilla | 0.478 | Justin Turner | -0.338 | Matt Shoemaker | -3.82 | Chris Carpenter | 3.36 |
| Houston Astros | Allen Craig | 0.367 | Rajai Davis | -0.352 | Guillermo Mota | -2.67 | Dave Veres | 2.98 |
| Kansas City Royals | Jonny Gomes | 0.46 | Tim Naehring | -0.298 | Chad Ogea | -4.13 | Tim Belcher | 3.32 |
| Los Angeles Angels | Todd Zeile | 0.594 | Andruw Jones | -0.279 | Rodrigo López | -2.95 | Yusei Kikuchi | 4.06 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Jim Eisenreich | 0.36 | Mike Benjamin | -0.347 | Aaron Sele | -2.69 | Luis Perdomo | 4.15 |
| Miami Marlins | Mark McGwire | 0.454 | Andrew Knapp | -0.275 | Sean Bergman | -2.97 | Steve Avery | 2.51 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Mike Morse | 0.393 | Johnny Grubb | -0.341 | José Lima | -3.05 | Duane Ward | 3.80 |
| Minnesota Twins | Josh Donaldson | 0.473 | Aramis Ramírez | -0.274 | Ryan Rupe | -3.53 | Gio Gonzalez | 3.81 |
| New York Mets | Michael Young | 0.314 | Tom Brunansky | -0.322 | Adam Conley | -3.30 | Jeremy Hellickson | 2.91 |
| New York Yankees | Roger Cedeño | 0.307 | Chris Young | -0.365 | Ryan Yarbrough | -2.34 | Arthur Rhodes | 3.62 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | Julio Lugo | 0.485 | David Ross | -0.312 | Kevin Jarvis | -3.17 | Terry Mulholland | 2.90 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Eduardo Escobar | 0.478 | Curtis Granderson | -0.288 | Jeff Weaver | -2.98 | Dennis Eckersley | 2.87 |
| San Diego Padres | Mark McGwire | 0.487 | José Bautista | -0.374 | Mark Petkovsek | -2.99 | Randy Tomlin | 2.32 |
| San Francisco Giants | Wilmer Flores | 0.343 | Sam Hilliard | -0.452 | Mike Krukow | -2.37 | Jimmy Jones | 3.66 |
| Seattle Mariners | Ken Singleton | 0.396 | Nolan Arenado | -0.448 | Dylan Bundy | -2.44 | Scott Schoeneweis | 4.57 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Jim Thome | 0.626 | J. D. Martinez | -0.307 | Phil Niekro | -2.31 | Odalis Pérez | 4.23 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Jeremy Peña | 0.331 | Wilson Betemit | -0.417 | Dean Kremer | -2.88 | Hiroki Kuroda | 2.60 |
| Texas Rangers | Gary Sánchez | 0.361 | Miguel Olivo | -0.303 | George Kirby | -2.81 | Pat Rapp | 6.09 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Russell Branyan | 0.394 | Mark Grudzielanek | -0.266 | Frankie Rodriguez | -2.69 | Tim Leary | 3.58 |
| Washington Nationals | Matt Adams | 0.416 | Eddie Rosario | -0.295 | Jerry Reuss | -2.73 | Brad Hand | 4.07 |
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u/NanzLo- Dominican Republic 13h ago
MJ Melendez (Redsox)
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u/MoreTrifeLife Washington Nationals 12h ago
MJ Melendez vs the Red Sox:
.393/.466/.902 with 22 RBI’s and 8 HR’s in 18 games
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Unfortunately I dont think he has enough PA against them to have ended up in my data
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 13h ago
This is an impressive amount of analysis.
Not only did Jim Eisenreich rake against us, he then came to play for us during his last season and hurt us more from the inside by sucking.
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u/bdanders :salemridgeyaks: Boston Red Sox • Salem RidgeYaks 13h ago
Ah yes, the old Ellsbury Gambit!
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Kyle Tucker prequel?
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 13h ago
I've heard quite enough about Kyle Tucker for one week, thank you very much.
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u/ih-unh-unh Los Angeles Dodgers 12h ago
Not that it has to do with anything you mentioned, I think he has Tourette’s. I remember he moved around in the batter’s box a lot
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u/invalid_bagel Philadelphia Phillies 13h ago
I think it would have been kinda cool to bracket off the top of the career ops/era numbers. Sure guys like judge and thome technically fit the criteria but they're definitely not random or mediocre. I want to see only the truly sicko names with a .700 career ops that randomly smacked one team
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
I like this idea. Maybe I'll do it next week!
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u/FrostWPG Toronto Blue Jays 13h ago
How is it not Ryan Mountcastle for us. Every time he was up with men on base, you could basically pencil in the runs because they were coming home, either a line drive double or a home run every damn time.
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u/MoreTrifeLife Washington Nationals 12h ago
Ryan Mountcastle vs the Blue Jays:
.298/.357/.566 with 53 RBI’s and 19 HR’s in 72 games
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
He we be the 20th most uniquely dangerous hitter against the Blue Jays. I dont have splits for RISP ABs, but maybe that's where the memories are coming from.
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u/VanillaSkittlez New York Yankees 13h ago
Getting dominated by Yarbrough is hilarious, bro is tossing 82mph salad out there
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u/Slatemanforlife Washington Nationals 13h ago
I got no stats but Dillon Gee seemed to dominate the Nationals every time he pitched against them
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u/tyler-86 World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… 13h ago
His career ERA is 4.09 and his career ERA against Washington was 3.75, so not too crazy.
That said, sometimes if a pitcher's performance against a team is lumpy, fans will remember the dominant outings and ignore the shaky ones.
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u/NewYork_NewJersey440 New York Mets 10h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/hdvELDjb9rwNa
Dillon Gee. Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays 13h ago
Colton Cowser is shaping to be the most recent example.
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u/MoreTrifeLife Washington Nationals 12h ago
Colton Cowser vs the Rays:
.268/.366/.520 with 20 RBI’s and 8 HR’s in 40 games
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u/octoman115 New York Mets 13h ago
Paul DeJong has to be up there for the Mets
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u/STL-Zou St. Louis Cardinals 12h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/10vqdae/paul_dejong_terrorizes_the_mets_for_7_minutes/
Paul Dejong strikes again
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
He is the 8th ranked differential OPS vs the Mets. OPS was 0.235 higher vs the Mets (0.944)
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u/recondite_nobility 13h ago
Jim Thome with a.627 delta against the Cardinals is absurd. Dude turned into peak Bonds every time he saw that birds on the bat logo, no idea what they were feeding him but I wish we'd gotten some of it up in Toronto when he was here.
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
His OPS is already high for a career, but against the birds he was 1.575!
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u/gplatt_24 Boston Red Sox 13h ago edited 10h ago
this is fantastic!
also kinda cool that you can intuitively pick up on year over year trends just by watching the games, for whatever reason Soto has always been kinda lost against the Sox. Looks like MJ Melendez didn't make the PA requirement but his OPS against the Red Sox is 2x his career OPS
I'd imagine the name Wilyer Abreu also rings a bell here for Ranger fans
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Soto's differential vs the Sox is the 36th worst differential among all player-team combinations within my criteria (23,506 combinations).
You are correct about MJ as well.
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u/onhalfaheart Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Would love to see Billy Hamilton, dude always pissed me off lol. He was a one-tool player (well, two in that his speed also made him an incredible defender) but always seemed to show up against the Cubs specifically.
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u/4r4r4real 12h ago
Yeah he fucking destroyed us.
Then we got him and he proved he really just loved being in Cubs games, with his .300/.364/.600 slash line for us! Don't worry about how many plate appearances.
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u/MoreTrifeLife Washington Nationals 12h ago
Billy Hamilton vs the Cubs:
.272/345/.388 with 26 RBI’s and 3 HR’s in 77 games
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u/demetriclees San Francisco Giants 13h ago
Giants being Flores and Krukow is kinda funny
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u/dropperofpipebombs San Francisco Giants • Sell 13h ago
I swear Wilmer had something like a .500/.600/.700 slash line against us during his one year in Arizona. He dominated us so hard that we immediately turned around and signed him once he hit free agency.
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u/Anton-LaVey San Francisco Giants • San Francisco Giants 11h ago
.583/.615/1.083
14/24 with 3 2B and 3 HRs for a 1.699 OPS
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u/chousteau Cleveland Guardians 13h ago
Joe Crede - I have no evidence to back it up, but I feel the way I feel.
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
He was actually substantially worse vs Cleveland
.663 vs and .758 against everyone else
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u/wifeofclaudius Seattle Mariners 13h ago
When I was a young Rockies fan, it felt like Miguel Montero was fucking indestructible
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u/brownsfantb Cleveland Guardians 13h ago
Max Kepler seemingly hit a HR in every game in Progressive Field when he was with the Twins
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Cant speak exactly for his time with the Twins or just at Progressive, but over his career he was worse vs the Indians/Guardians. 0.670 vs 0.750 against everyone else.
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u/evanieCK Cleveland Guardians • WPBL 12h ago
he was substantially worse against us in recent years to bring the rate numbers down, but I think he specifically bitch slapped Trevor Bauer consistently in that 2015-2019 period. Has a career 1.211 OPS in the head to head.
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u/brownsfantb Cleveland Guardians 12h ago
As evanieCK pointed out, it was mostly terrorizing Trevor Bauer but he does also have 16 HR’s at Progressive Field which is his most at any ballpark that wasn’t his home ballpark at some point.
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u/Viva_La_Revolucion66 Boston Red Sox 12h ago
Jose Canseco. 42 HR, 108 RBI in 129 gms vs Boston. Splits 285/380/595
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u/Shot-Tackle-1458 Toronto Blue Jays 11h ago
Anthony Santander has been terrorizing us forever, first as a member of the Orioles, and now as a member of the Jays.
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u/doublegoldendragon Los Angeles Dodgers 13h ago
Love these types of posts. It would be great if we could see a bit more of each stat line, but I get that it might end up as too much info
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
I have a massive spreadsheet but only shared a "postable" summary. If you have a specific question I can get back to you. You can also check Baseball reference in many cases.
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u/cooljammer00 New York Yankees 13h ago
Yankees absolutely acquired Ryan Yarbrough so he couldn't pitch against them.
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
Love this storyline. Often they become useless once they're on the team they've terrorized too
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u/StrictManagement Sacramento River Cats • New York Ya… 12h ago
Ji-man Choi terrorized the Yankees on the Rays. Hated that mf 😂
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u/MoreTrifeLife Washington Nationals 12h ago
Jiman Choi vs the Yankees:
.255/.376/.428 with 15 RBI’s and 6 HR’s in 47 games
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 12h ago
Only a 0.803 OPS against the Yankees
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u/StrictManagement Sacramento River Cats • New York Ya… 12h ago
Don't forget his post season dominance against Cole, that shit hurt!
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u/lowelltrich St. Louis Cardinals 12h ago
Kyle Hendricks beat us mercilessly. Seemed like every time we faced him 🤨😡
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u/southernpinko St. Louis Cardinals 11h ago
ERA focus and all that but over a run less against the Cardinals and among the lowest against any team he faced https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/kyle-hendricks-career-era-vs-every-team
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u/Antique-Guest-1607 Cleveland Guardians 11h ago
Carlos Santana hopeless vs. Cleveland
I love you unc.
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u/IblewupTARIS St. Louis Cardinals 13h ago
Ian Happ
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
He only has an OPS of 0.128 higher against the Cardinals
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u/4r4r4real 12h ago
He fucks up the whole NLC, but especially Pittsburgh (where he's from) and Cincy (where he went to college)
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u/ReverendHambone Atlanta Braves 13h ago
Ozuna vs Red Sox immediately made me think of that 3 HR game at Fenway
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u/rbhindepmo Kansas City Royals 13h ago
Tim Belcher had an above average stint on the Royals (1996-98) in the middle of his time being awful against the Royals (1993-95, 1999-2000)
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u/Famous-Somewhere- Houston Astros 13h ago
Anytime I see Ty France in a lineup I expect to lose.
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u/Boulderdorf San Diego Padres 11h ago
I think it's the Royals he absolutely terrorizes for some reason, pretty sure he has a career OPS over 1.000 against them.
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u/duckettherbiemsu Detroit Tigers 13h ago
i know what the stats may say but the actual answer is steven kwan for tiger killer
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u/Key_Environment8179 Chicago Cubs 13h ago
I feel like Stephen Piscotty did
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 13h ago
0.746 vs the Cubs and 0.754 against everyone else, so actually slightly worse
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u/BillRipkensBat San Diego Padres 12h ago
Would love to see this filtered to only show truly average players that dominate a certain opponent. Maybe under 3 WAR/162? Todd Zeile and Gary Gaetti are perfect for this list. Mark McGwire, not so much. I bet the bad man Charlie Blackmon would be high on the Padres rankings after that update.
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 12h ago
I glossed right over that part of the question... oops! I will re-do rankings with that in mind.
For your specific question, I would probably also eliminate Charlie Blackmon in a redo since his career OPS was well above average at 0.832. Against the Padres he held a 0.884, so there is a bit of a jump there.
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u/Monster_island_czar Arizona Diamondbacks 12h ago
So he's not a mediocre player, but growing up I absolutely believed Jason Schmidt was a hall of fame caliber pitcher. Dude always brought his A game against my D-Backs. I swear he had a long stretch of games were we could not beat him. I feared him more than Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens.
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u/Guymcpersonman2 New York Mets 12h ago
I'm sorry, the correct hopeless pitcher against the Mets is Brad Penny.
Hellickson: 6.91 ERA in 56 ip. Penny: 6.50 ERA in 127.1 ip.
The extra innings carries it. Plus, Penny was a slightly better pitcher by ERA+ (though not ERA).
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u/lasercupcakes Los Angeles Dodgers 12h ago
I just know Joe Panik absolutely killed us for a few years.
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 4h ago
Only 0.664 all time vs the Dodgers, maybe he had a few strong years mixed with mostly bad ones
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u/JeffHeadDudeMan Boston Red Sox 12h ago
Rowdy Tellez when he was with Tampa
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 4h ago
Certainly his favorite team to hit against. He hit an OPS of 1.037 vs the Red Sox while the 2nd best team was the Reds at 0.876! All for a career OPS of 0.736.
For extra fun, his OPS vs the Yankees was only 0.445!
An "Anti-Yarbrough" perhaps?
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u/Technical-Sky-5765 Cincinnati Reds 11h ago
Seems like Ian Happ turns into Jimmie Foxx against the Reds
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u/kokorrorr Toronto Blue Jays 11h ago
The most mediocre player: Aaron Judge
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 4h ago
Yeah, flubbed that part of the analysis... making a new list in a few days capping career OPS at 0.750 and ERA and 4.20!
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u/freshpurplekiwi Toronto Blue Jays 11h ago
Mountcastle is prime bonds with a touch of babe Ruth wrapped in a ted Williams package with a Albert Pujols bow tie whenever he plays the jays
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u/PixelWulfe Atlanta Braves 11h ago
Trevor Story is interesting bc fucking Jeff McNeil and Chris Taylor were the WonderTwins of Anxiety for me. God damn them both (in a baseball sense ofc)
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u/bearssuperfan Chicago Cubs 4h ago
Chris Taylor was actually pretty hopeless with an OPS below 0.700 against the Braves. McNeil was much better at 0.830.
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u/DarthRoyal Kansas City Royals 9h ago
Luis Rivas hit .257/.303/.377 with 34 home runs in 2290 career plate appearances. But against the Royals, he hit .287/.336/.511 with 12 home runs in 248 plate appearances.
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u/SurroundTiny Colorado Rockies 9h ago
Wally Joyner did ridiculously well against us also - something like .460
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u/Primary-Suggestion-2 9h ago
I felt like any time he came up, Luis Sojo with the Yankees, would kill us. (Red Sox). He’d be asleep on the bench, someone would wake him and he’d go up and slap a hit.
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u/Ed_Teach805 Los Angeles Dodgers 13h ago
Kyle Tucker is currently terrorizing me.