2009 Surprising Numbers

[Grit amp Heart]

Im going to throw out guys like Morales, Kubel and Lind who had a great seasons, but we all knew they were capable of having seasons that good. Some guys that don't really fit under that are:

 

Randy Wells

Joel Piniero

Raul Ibanez

Jayson Werth

[NCCubFan]

For much of the year I would have put Russell Branyan in the surprising category, but by the end of the year he seemed to remember that he's Russell Branyan.

[Rob]

Branyan's .297 EqA would have put him behind only DLee and Aramis on the Cubs (at .319 and .303 respectively). It boggles the mind that he can't get consistent playing time anywhere...

 

Yeah, I'm still bitter about how many times we've passed on him as a bench player. He'd have been a perfect fit for our team.

[TruffleShuffle]

For much of the year I would have put Russell Branyan in the surprising category, but by the end of the year he seemed to remember that he's Russell Branyan.

 

he might have slumped, but he was worth way more than the $1.4M he was paid this year. he was always a guy who was going to strike out a lot, but would also draw a decent share of walks and hit a lot of home runs if given enough playing time.

the only really surprising part about his numbers this year is that someone finally let him bat 500 times.

[Exile on Waveland]

Im going to throw out guys like Morales, Kubel and Lind who had a great seasons, but we all knew they were capable of having seasons that good. Some guys that don't really fit under that are:

 

Randy Wells

Joel Piniero

Raul Ibanez

Jayson Werth

 

How much better was Ibanez this year than normal, though? Sure, he had a great start playing in a bandbox in the NL, but he settled into the norm. He finished with a 130 OPS+, quite comparable to his 125-121-124 the previous three seasons. Over the course of the season, he was mostly as expected (unless one was expecting him to regress due to age).

[laurens]

Im going to throw out guys like Morales, Kubel and Lind who had a great seasons, but we all knew they were capable of having seasons that good. Some guys that don't really fit under that are:

 

Randy Wells

Joel Piniero

Raul Ibanez

Jayson Werth

 

How much better was Ibanez this year than normal, though? Sure, he had a great start playing in a bandbox in the NL, but he settled into the norm. He finished with a 130 OPS+, quite comparable to his 125-121-124 the previous three seasons. Over the course of the season, he was mostly as expected (unless one was expecting him to regress due to age).

 

1st half: 1.015 OPS

2nd half: .774 OPS

[ISUCubsFan]

Wow, I forgot about Zobrist. Fangraphs' WAR leaders (for position players):

 

Ben Zobrist      8.5
Albert Pujols    8.4
Joe Mauer        8.2
Chase Utley      7.7
Derek Jeter      7.4
Hanley Ramirez   7.3
Evan Longoria    7.3
Ryan Zimmerman   7.1

 

That's incredible.