Should We Rename Feb. 14th “Happy Cano Day”?
Posted by Steve Lombardi on January 15, 2008
I was just playing around with Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder - looking for a batter who had the same type of, in relative terms, cumulative batting results as Robinson Cano, at the same age, and this is what I found:
Cnt PA OPS+ BB From To Ages G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-----+-----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 1 Ellis Valentine 1728 119 87 1977 1979 22-24 424 1626 211 465 92 7 71 234 9 220 3 2 10 50 37 22 .286 .322 .482 .804 *9/8 MON 2 Robinson Cano 1728 117 73 2005 2007 22-24 414 1621 233 509 116 12 48 237 9 207 13 9 12 54 10 10 .314 .346 .489 .835 *4/D NYY Seasons/Careers found: 2.
That's a pretty close comp in terms of PA, during those ages, as well as OPS+, BB, XBH, RBI and SO.
Ellis Valentine. Go figure.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
That reflects well on Cano. Here's what was written about Valentine in 1977.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/cover/2002/then_now/flashbacks/valentine_080877/
Unfortunately things didn't go so well after '79
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Nooch/2007/02/16/Ellis_Valentine_and_the_Heartbreak_of_Montreal
Steve, your other lists are interesting as well.
http://www.waswatching.com/archives/2008/01/robinson_cano_e.html