.341 – The batting average of Jose Altuve this season. He hit exactly .341 in 2014. He’s hit .350 over 814 career at-bats against lefties. No one does it better.
.382 – The OBP this season of Wilson Ramos. His SLG last year was .358 and it was .399 in 2014. If we look back at the OBP column we see that the last three years he failed to reach .308. You really think he’s going to hold on to his .382 mark? He’s also batting .330 a year after he hit .229. You think he’s going to hold on to that mark too?
.411 – The batting average of Marcell Ozuna in the month of May helping him to hit .307 this season. However, if we remove his 112 May at-bats we’re left with a fella who is batting .251 over 211 at-bats in 2016. Are you sure Ozuna is a .300 hitter? For two thirds of this season he’s hit .251 and the last three seasons he hit .265, .269 and .259.
.873 – OPS of Christian Yelich who is batting .317 with a .398 OBP and .475 SLG. Do you know how many other players can match those three numbers in AVG/OBP/SLG? Four: Jose Altuve, D.J. LeMahieu, David Ortiz and Mike Trout.
1.10: The difference in ERA this season (5.15) compared to his career mark (4.05) of Francisco Liriano. Amazingly, despite his massive ERA, Liriano has still walked more batters per nine, 5.63, than the number in the ERA column. Flat out stunning.
2.68: The AL leading ERA of Steven Wright who wasn’t drafted this season. Teammate David Price, a top-10 SP this season, has a mark of 4.34.
3.21: ERA this season of Colby Lewis, this after seasons of 5.18 and 4.66 the last two years. Lewis has a better ERA than Chris Sale (3.38). The mark of 3.21 also happens to be a match for the ERA’s of Cole Hamels and Jose Quintana.
4.38: The ERA of Jake Arrieta over his last nine starts. The strikeouts are there, 10.17 per nine, but the 4.03 per nine walk rate and the 1.40 WHIP speak to a guy who has struggled pretty substantially of late.
12: The victory total this season of Stephen Strasburg who also has zero loses. Strasburg has never won more than 15 games in a season, a direct result of him failing to reach 160-innings in four of six seasons. He’s been great this season. I still don’t trust him.
26: The league worst homer allowed mark of Chris Young in his 61.0 innings. Max Scherzer, Josh Tomlin, Ian Kennedy and Jered Weaver have all allowed 21 homers. Amazingly, Young has allowed five more homers than Scherzer despite the fact that Max has more than doubled the innings mark of Young at 127.2 frames.
66: RBI this season of Daniel Murphy in 87 games. For his career, per 162 games, he’s averaged 77 RBI. Oh, he’s also averaged 13 homers per 162 games. He has 17 homers this season, already a career best. Yeah, he’s been tremendous.
154: The strikeout total of Jose Fernandez this season in 107.1 innings. The last two seasons he threw 116.1 innings with 149 strikeouts. Add it up and we have 303 strikeouts in 223.1 innings. In the 21st century there have only been five seasons of 300 strikeouts: Randy Johnson three times, Clayton Kershaw and Curt Schilling once each.
.271 – The OPS difference for Jake Lamb between his marks against lefties (.769) and righties (1.040).
750: Plate appearances since the start of last season needed to qualify for inclusion in this study. Here are the batting average leaders in that time:
.324 Dee Gordon
.323 Jose Altuve
.323 Xander Bogaerts
.381 Miguel Cabrera
.315 Yunel Escobar
.313 DJ LeMahieu
.312 Paul Goldschmidt
THE LAST CALENDAR YEAR LEADERS
The leaders the last 365 days…
AVERAGE: Jose Altuve .336, Xander Bogaerts .332, David Ortiz .331, Christian Yelich .330, Francisco Lindor .321, Daniel Murphy .320, Robinson Cano .318, Martin Prado .316, DJ LeMahieu .315, Yunel Escobar .314.
HOMERS: Chris Davis 50, Carlos Gonzalez 47, Nelson Cruz 46, Edwin Encarnacion 45, David Ortiz 44, Josh Donaldson 43, Yoenis Cespedes 43, Nolan Arenado 41, Khris Davis 40, Kris Bryan 39, Mark Trumbo 39.
RBI: Edwin Encarnacion 140, David Ortiz 137, Nolan Arenado 131, Josh Donaldson 1236, Chris Davis 123, Carlos Gonzalez 119, Adrian Beltre 116, Anthony Rizzo 116, Kris Bryant 114, Matt Kemp 113, Daniel Murphy 110.
RUNS: Josh Donaldson 137, Mookie Betts 121, Chris Davis 120, Ian Kinsler 115, Kris Bryant 114, Xander Bogaerts 111, Bryce Harper 110, Manny Machado 109, Jose Altuve 109, Matt Carpenter 109, Robinson Cano 109.
STEALS: Starling Marte 44, Billy Hamilton 37, Jose Altuve 36, Jonathan Villar 34, Dee Gordon 31, Charlie Blackmon 30, Elvis Andrus 29, Rajai Davis 28, Jean Segura 28, Jarrod Dyson 27, Eduardo Nunez 26.
WINS: Jake Arrieta 25, Clayton Kershaw 21, Zack Greinke 21, Chris Sale 20, Madison Bumgarner 19, J.A. Happ 19
ERA: Clayton Kershaw 1.56, Jake Arrieta 1.72, Madison Bumgarner 2.16, Stephen Strasburg 2.34, Zack Greinke 2.85, Jacob deGrom 2.85, Noah Syndergaard 2.90, Danny Salazar 2.92, John Lackey 3.09, Jon Lester 3.09.
WHIP: Clayton Kershaw 0.72, Jake Arrieta 0.89, Stephen Strasburg 0.91, Madison Bumgarner 0.93, Marco Estrada 0.95, Corey Kluber 0.99, Max Scherzer 1.00, Josh Tomlin 1.01, Zack Greinke 1.01, Jon Lester 1.03.
STRIKEOUTS: Max Scherzer 297, Clayton Kershaw 286, Madison Bumgarner 259, David Price 259, Chris Sale 250, Jake Arrieta 243, Stephen Strasburg 224, Noah Syndergaard 222, Corey Kluber 219.
SAVES: Mark Melancon 49, Jeurys Familia 49, Kenley Jansen 48, A.J. Ramos 45, Francisco Rodriguez 43, Zach Britton 40, Santiago Casilla 38, David Robertson 38, Trevor Rosenthal 36, Craig Kimbrel 35.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).