There’s a lot of projecting Miguel Cabrera’s season forward going on today. Saw Buster Olney doing it on Twitter. They’re doing it at High Heat Stats today too. If you play the on-pace game, Cabrera could have, like, 200 RBI.
Odds don’t favor that, of course. He’s likely to slump at some point. Well, maybe. He kind of looks like he’s NEVER going to slump, to be honst. He’s just impossible to pitch to these days. If you haven’t had a chance to watch many Tigers games lately make a point to see some, because it’s not often you see someone toying with pitchers the way Cabrera has been lately.
But I am torn about this whole on-pace thing. On the one hand, I’d like to see him challenge a record of some kind because history is fun. And the record most in need of challenging in my view is Hack Wilson’s RBI record. That needs refreshing, I think, if for no other reason than that I selfishly and subjectively think a player better than Hack Wilson should hold that record.
On the other hand, I’m not sure what I’d do if a historic season for Cabrera turned into months of people talking about how what Cabrera is doing proves that RBI is a be-all, end-all statistic when it clearly isn’t in terms of individual player evaluation. Man, that would make the old school crowd insufferable.
Maybe we can compromise and he can challenge .400. Batting average is flawed too, but not nearly as much as RBI. I think I could live with overheated batting average talk better.
