Monday, July 04, 2005

 

All Praise Moises

Let us all bow our heads and speak words of praise for the Giants' All-Star, Moises Alou. Simply put, Alou is the best player on the team, and it's not really close.

Alou leads the Giants in batting average (.323), on-base percentage (.413), OPS (.928), home runs (12), and walks (36). No doubt he leads in any number of sabermetric categories as well, but I'm too lazy to look them up.

Those stats are good even outside the context of the Giants. Alou is fifth in the National League in batting average and seventh in OBP. All this at the tender age of 39. (I say "tender" because if he isn't sore after slamming into that chain-link fence yesterday, he should be.)

Alou was widely expected to decline quite a bit this year. Between his advancing age and his extreme home/road splits with Chicago in 2004, there was little hope that Alou could be the second slugger that the Giants have lacked since the departure of Jeff Kent. Alou has, without a doubt, exceeded all expectations. His BA and OBP are above last year, and his slugging percentage, while down, is still at his career average.

It's not hard to imagine Alou and a healthy Barry Bonds terrorizing National League pitching. Brian Sabean deserves applause for signing Alou, who has been one of the few bright spots this season.

Jefferson 10:32 AM

|