J-Roc wrote:This sounds like a discussion from last year, when we should have signed Barry Bonds.
For now, this lineup of consistent threats seems to be working. Kinda like the World Series years when Joe Carter was our "power" hitter.
Yeah, but lest you forget, Carter was a 34/119 and 33/121 player (HR/RBI) with 30+ doubles both years, an All-Star both years, top-3 in the MVP vote and a Silver Slugger in '92 and top-12 in the MVP vote in '93. It's not like he wasn't a good player, nor that he wasn't clutch. More importantly, we had 4 other guys hit 15+ homers (two of them hit 20+ and of those, Winfield hit 26), so it's not like we lacked for power. What we did also have was a lot of high-average contact hitting from Alomar, Olerud and Winfield (who hit .290) in that first year and 83 stolen bases between Alomar and Devon White.
Then in '93, Olerud and Molitor both jacked 20+, Carter jacked 33 and Alomar and White both jacked 15+ HRs. Meantime, we had 4 regulars hitting over .300 and three of them over .320. Rickey Henderson had 22 stolen bases in 44 games for us despite his crappy batting average and 48 on the season. Olerud drew almost 114 walks that year.
There's a DRAMATIC difference between Joe Carter not being as potent a power hitter as, say, Carlos Delgado and what we have now. We don't have the same kind of absurd collection of contact and power hitting in tandem with speed, so you really can't make that kind of comment. Our offense worked those years because we had a lot more than we have now in terms of every aspect of offense.
EDIT: That said, if Snider, Hill and Lind continue to maintain and otherwise develop, then what I said above is less important because we will be building that same kind of balance.
