Let’s see if I can come up with a post every day of the rest of the offseason. Today, there are 44 days left until Opening Day on April 6.
Moustakas contributing to Omaha's team stats.
44
is the number of RBIs Mike Moustakas had in Omaha last year, before he got called up to Kansas City in June. This isn’t of great statistical significance on its face, but it did make me take a look at the team on the field around Moustakas, since RBIs have more to do with the guys already on base than the guy in the batter’s box.
The Omaha Storm Chasers in 2011 were the youngest offense in the Pacific Coast League. Weirdly, despite the fact that they were league champs, they were toward the middle or bottom in a lot of offensive categories. They were squarely in the middle of the pack in hits, total runs scored, RBI, and runs per game. They hit fewer homers than almost any other team, but of course many PCL teams play in thin mountain/desert air, and Omaha…is not that.
On the basepaths, the Chasers fared well in the league, ranking toward the top in triples, and 2nd in the league in steals. Somehow Fresno had 209 steals, which ran away with the lead. (And by “somehow,” I mean that Fresno had Tyler Graham (60 SB) and Justin Christan (36) bolstering their team total.)
The Chasers walked fewer times than most of their leaguemates, but struck out the least by far – 826 total, with the next-closest team at 899. (Holy cow, Tacoma. The Rainiers, as a team, struck out 1169 times. In a single season. One thousand, one hundred sixty-nine Ks.) This all led to the Chasers being right around the median in all the slash stats.
Really, other than avoiding strikeouts, the PCL Champion Chaser offense didn’t look too good on paper. But, scoreboard.
ANYWAY, Mike Moustakas wasn’t a Chaser for very long. And now that he’s in the best shape of his life, he probably never will be again, barring a rehab assignment KNOCK ON WOOD.
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