More on the Empire

Bruce Markusen write a thoughtful version of my previous post at http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/main/article/june_13_2005/:

He has five suggestions: (1) trading for a centerfielder, (2) putting Bernie Williams at DH every day, (3) platooing at 1B with some guy I've never heard of, (4) benching Tony Womack, and (5) Randy Johnson returning to form.

I think the most interesting of these is the benching of Giambi. I look at Roid-Boy's stats and the thing that jumps out at me is the OBP -- .383 as of this writing (and .425 in 22 home games). I'm not saying he's a complete player, but that OBP is better than David Ortiz and Raphael Palmeiro (and Carl Everett, Erubiel Durazo, and Ruben Sierra). One stat does not tell the whole story, of course. He hits so rarely and with so little power that he's dead last in slugging percentage among that same peer group of AL DH's.

So, I'd figure that there's a place for him -- but Markusen disagrees, noting that without any speed, it takes three hits (or presumably a homerun) to knock Giambi home when he does reach base. This all makes sense, and I think it highlights the importance of not overestimating OBP as the end-all-be-all of statistics, something that I'm often guilty of.