Me, Elsewhere: Rizzo, Belt, and the Rest of the West

by Geoff Young on Mar 15, 2011

My latest at Baseball Prospectus ($) examines two top-shelf first base prospects in the NL West, San Diego’s Anthony Rizzo and San Francisco’s Brandon Belt. It also discusses Jon Garland’s recent oblique strain, recalling how badly Chris Young fared after a similar injury in 2007.

My favorite piece of information to come from researching this article concerns Russell Branyan. Through Saturday, Branyan had struck out just twice in 10 spring training games. His big-league low-water mark, going back to 1998, is three strikeouts over a 10-game stretch.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Branyan has fanned 20 times over such a stretch twice in his career:

Dates            AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
Aug 15-25, 2004  35 5 7  3  0  3   9  3 20 .200 .263 .543
May 15-28, 2002  34 2 7  1  0  0   1  5 20 .206 .308 .235

Relevance? Who knows… it’s just fun. Read the article if you’re so inclined…

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2 Responses »

  1. LynchMob
    March 18, 2011 • 5:03 pm

    How about Rizzo vs LA’s Sands?

  2. Geoff Young
    March 18, 2011 • 8:05 pm

    Are you reading my thoughts again? I’d intended to include Sands in the article but got sidetracked with the stuff about Garland. I may have to revisit Sands at some point…