| Authored by Scott Essman - 3rd May, 2008 - 5:08 pm
 A record number of heretofore top baseball hitters are unthinkably slumping, and there's no clear indication as to why. Now a month into the Major League Baseball season, many former All-Stars are in danger of not hitting their weight. Oddly, the phenomenon is spread across all divisions in both leagues.
Most prominently, David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox is incredibly light at the plate this year. Only 32, Ortiz is hitting .198 with 5 home runs and 21 RBI as of May 2. Despite his ineffectiveness, the loaded Sox are 17-13 and in first place. In the previous five seasons, Ortiz hit at least 30 home runs and had 100 RBI.
On the Mets, Carlos Beltran is hitting .204 as of May 2, with two home runs and 13 RBI. Teammate Carlos Delgado has surged recently to .210 with a total of three home runs and 12 RBI. While Delgado will be 36 in June, Beltran is only 31. A career .279 hitter, the latter has over 200 home runs and nearly 900 RBI in his career while the former, also a career .279 hitter, has over 400 HR and nearly 1400 RBI. Like the Sox, the Mets, being picked up by other players, are 15-12 and a game out of first as of May 2.
Across town, the mighty Jason Giambi, a perennial All-Star and onetime Hall of Fame candidate, is at a putrid .160 with five HR and 13 RBI. At one point in his career, Giambi hit .300 four straight seasons, but now, at 37, he is at a seriously low point and hasn't even broached .300 in six years. His teammate second baseman Robinson Cano, only 25, is similarly in a terrible funk, hitting .155 with four extra base hits and only seven RBI. Until this year, he had been thought of as the Yankees' second baseman of the future with a .300 career average. Now, in the short-attention-span theater of the Bronx, he is facing a benching with the lowest batting average among all major league second basemen to date.
In Philadelphia, first baseman Ryan Howard, coming off two monster seasons, including an MVP win, is dumbfounded this year. He's hitting .176 with six home runs and 14 RBI, making him the biggest disappointment comparative to last year when he notched .268, 47, 136, or 2006 when he went .313, 58, 149. Nevertheless, his Phillies are battling for first place as of May 2.
In 2007, young Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, then 22, hit an amazing .291 with 33 doubles, 24 home runs, and 99 RBI, which might have been inflated playing 81 games in Denver. Alas, this season, he's hitting .152, worst in baseball among shortstops, with one home run, six doubles, and 11 RBI's. Might last year have been a total fluke?
Finally, three formerly top outfielders are facing horrifying numbers in 2008. At third worst is Detroit's Gary Sheffield, a career .294 hitter with nearly 500 home runs and over 1500 RBI. This year, at 39, he's hitting .179 with two home runs and five RBI as of May 2. The Tigers got off to a miserable 0-7 start, but, despite Sheffield's shortcomings, are back within shouting distance of .500 baseball even though a 11-1 shellacking in Minnesota on May 2 did not help - Sheffield had a double but no other hits or RBI's in that game once again.
In Kansas City, Jose Guillen is second worst in baseball's outfields, with an average of .176 and three home runs and 15 RBI's. Now on his tenth team, earlier this decade, Guillen hit .337 with Cincinnati and drove in 104 with the Angels. It seems those days are gone.
With high hopes, the Dodgers acquired Andruw Jones in this last offseason despite his hitting .222 with the Braves last season, but it seems 2007 was a banner year for Jones. He is now off to a .161 start as of May 2, with one home run and four RBI. Even in 2007, he managed 26 home runs and 94 RBI's. So far, Jones is on a pace to hit six home runs with 24 RBI's. Is it over for him at 30? Certainly, the Dodgers hope not, but all indications are that Jones is in more than a slump. He's statistically the worst-hitting outfielder in baseball thus far. |
