Youkilis actually has hit this well before...in NCAA and his last bit of time in AAA ball when he was 26 years old, which means it's somewhat less impressive (great looking numbers post-age 25 are suspect). Youkilis in his 5 years in the minors had this line:
1407 AB - 30 HR/.444 OBA/.441 SLG
He gets on base a ton. I am perfectly willing to give him credit for this. It's super-valuable, especially when hitting in front of Ortiz and Manny (at least he should be their number 2 hitter, I think I've seen him hitting 5th in the lineup too). He's a very disciplined hitter with so-so pop. The latter is what's driving me nuts. He has fucking so-so pop and yet he's slugging .561 right now (17 2B and 8 HR, one being an incredibly fluky inside-the-parker). This is a little ridiculous. Mike Lowell is also swinging on another planet right now with 15 2B and 10 HR adding up to a .573 SLG. Just goes to show you how things just refuse to go wrong for those Bostonian fucks. Gotta love their home/away splits:
Blowell (2007 home/away): 1.027 OPS/.856 OPS
Pukelis (2007 home/away): 1.057 OPS/.924 OPS
And Pukelis' OPS on the road is definitely luck (projected OPS is .866 and actual is .987) and no worries, it will go down. The big difference between home and away for both of them demonstrates how Fenway Park is a shithole-haven for crappy hitters to revitalize their careers. Let's look at some other great home/away splits:
Kevin Pukelis (2006 home/away): .844 OPS/.774 OPS
Jason "I'm a bullshit captain, a huge prick, and I have a surname that sounds like a pathetic, bankrupt technology company" Varitek (2007 home/away): .910 OPS/.729 OPS
Mark Loretta (2006 home/away): .787 OPS/.622 OPS
Kevin "Cowboy (take it) Up (the ass)" Millar (2004 home/away): 1.017 OPS/.689 OPS
Bill "No one will ever remember I won the 2003 Batting title" Mueller (2004 home/away): .992 OPS/.638 OPS
Johnny Damon (2005 home/away): .837 OPS/.780 OPS (Though I will give him more of a pass since he left that overly bearded asylum for assholes and morons.)
I fucking hate ballparks that favor hitters like that, especially shitty ones. I also hate ballparks that have classless dumbass fans fill up 80% of the seats. I strongly prefer parks that help pitchers in this ridiculous live ball era.
Fenway Park Park Factors:
2003 - 105/104
2004 - 106/105
2005 - 101/101
2006 - 102/101
Yankee Stadium Park Factors:
2003 - 96/97
2004 - 96/97
2005 - 103/102
2006 - 95/96
Over 100 favors the batters. Under 100 favors pitchers.
Come on, Yankees. Pull off another 1978.
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