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To keep things going in my recent "just how good are they" vein, let's move on to Josh Hamilton. Hamilton is probably another story that you are absolutely sick of hearing about. Ever since he's started mashing the ball this year, the former junkie has become a media darling, being the focus of numerous sappy TV clips and incredibly praiseful newspaper pieces. My fellow FanHousers and I are just as guilty as the rest of the world, we've written a ton of words on Hamilton thus far this year. It's not that Hamilton isn't an amazing and inspiring story, because he is. It's just that I'd imagine readers want to see something else at this point. That being said, let's shift our focus on Hamilton for a second here. Let's ignore how amazing his 8 homers in less than 100 plate appearences is, to go with that stunning .306/.398/.671 line. Instead, let's focus on the fact that I don't think anyone has any idea if Hamilton can keep this up. Usually when a player gets off to an insane start in his rookie year, you can look at his minor league stats and see if time is going to catch up with him. Hamilton has 50 minor league at bats since 2002. He played one full minor league season, and that was in 2000. His minor league stats are meaningless here.
The other way to do it is to find comparable players to the guy you're looking at and try to project his career from there. But who the hell is comparable with a 25-year old top overall draft pick that crashed and burned on drugs for five years, then bounced straight to the majors with almost no time in the minors? I mean, yeah, Hamilton is clearly a gifted athlete, but what else? When will he run out of gas? He hasn't played much baseball in the past seven years. Is there some Pedro Cerrano-like flaw to his game that the pitchers haven't discovered because no one has a book on him? That's likely some of the case, but admittedly, there doesn't seem to be at this point. Yesterday he hit two very different pitches to two different parts of the park with the same result, a home run.
It doesn't seem possible, but maybe the answer is that he's just really this good. Honestly, I have no idea. That's why everyone's so intrigued by Hamilton. With a long, rich history like the one that baseball has, it's pretty rare that something happens that no one has ever seen before and when it does, it's a big deal.
Previously at the Fanhouse
Josh Hamilton Tag
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