George Brett used to kill me when I was 10-13. Every year, he'd beat out my guy Nettles and be the All-Star Thirdbaseman; year after year it happened that way. It did add some joy that the Yankees went through kansas twice in their 77-78 seasons to win the World Series. Frankly though, Brett was a better hitter, but he wasn't anywhere near the fielder my guy was. But just how much better?When I look back, I realise now George Brett was actually one heck of a hitter - he scared the hell out of me every time he came to bat in those Play-Offs when the Yankees squared off against the Royals for good reason. He really could hit all the Yankee pitchers. Indeed, the rise and fall of the Kansas City Royals essentially is about how they rode the the career of George Brett and have been looking for his replacement since.
So, the arrival of Alex Gordon has been nothing less than galvanising for the Kansas franchise. I was so sucked in by the hype I picked him up and kept him in 2 leagues. Yes, it's crazy, but I bought into the hype, swallowed it whole, hook line and sinker. Put it this way, if this guy was going to be the next Brett, I wanted 'in'. Well, he's now had a season's worth of PAs under his belt so I think it might be time to see how he is living up to the hype.
First, is the OBP comparison:
On first glance, it's not too bad. Gordon is certainly hitting his stride at the same age. In terms of getting on base, he is on par with George Brett at a similar age.
Here's the Isolated Power comparison:
Gordon did better than Brett as a 23 year old, but Brett found more power in his age 24 season. Gordon has stayed essentially the same.Then there's this BB/K Ratio Chart:
Just look at the difference!Brett was simply an extremely difficult hitter to strike out. He didn't walk more than average - he didn't need to because as his ISO chart indicates, everything he could hit, he *punished*. The point of the above graph is that when it came to judging what to swing at and what to let go, George Brett was absurdly good. If you glance around, you'll find he's in league with the likes of Ruth and Gehrig. In fact, in his 24, 27 and 31 y.o. seasons, he was off-the-charts good as you can see above. Alas, Gordon, has no such eye.
Right now, Alex Gordon is about a 6 runs per 27 outs kind of hitter, which is probably a Top 50-100 hitter. He might even be Top 10 regularly through his peak, but he's simply not going to be the 9-12 runs per 27 out hitter George Brett was in his peak years. Not unless he starts seeing the ball like Brett.
Just for comparison, I've selected 2 other third basemen in the same age group: Evan Longoria (LOVE that name) and Blake DeWitt.
You can see that even the highly touted Evan Longoria is only managing League Average at 23, but the less-heralded DeWitt is ahead of both. Maybe this is an indication that DeWitt is under-appreciated - or perhaps his sample size is still too small. I've been watching this comparison for about 3 weeks now since Longoria got called up and I have to say it's remained pretty stable. DeWitt's been ahead of Gordon, Longoria, Reynolds and even the likes of Troy Tulowitzki for most of this season to date. If this keeps up, I'm guessing DeWitt is going to be the star out of this bunch.
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