Tom Brennan - JUSTIN BOUR VS. YOENIS CESPEDES

Tom Brennan - JUSTIN BOUR VS. YOENIS CESPEDES

Maybe I am the only one who's noticed, but this Justin Bour dude is a Met killer.  Ouch!

In fact, in 159 plate appearances against the Mets, he is .302/.384/.568 after his two 2 run opposite field homers Tuesday night.  Shades of Freddie Frickin' Freeman.

Our superhero offensive guy is Yoenis Cespedes - "how does he compare to Bour?" I asked myself?

I thought lightning would strike me - at first thought, offensively, I assumed Cespedes has been so much better. 

But actually, although Cespedes has been up 2,000 more times in his career, they proratably are pretty close, which is a mighty big tribute to a former 2009 25th round pick named Bour (which his Baseball Reference page has the nerve to tell us is pronounced "BORE.")   I pronounce his name "Dangerous" myself.  

And he is yet another of many example of why drafting guys with big power throughout a draft is a great thing to do - sometimes, it works out big for a team to draft a lot of high octane power bats. 

Let's compare the Cespedes and Bour bats:

CAREER:

Cespedes: .273/.327/.497.   Bour: .270/.342/.485   Edge: EVEN

RISP:

Cespedes: .299/.362/.528.   Bour: .304/.384/.606.  Edge: BOUR

RISP, 2 OUTS:

Cespedes: .291/.366/.509.   Bour: .311/.440/.608.  Edge: BOUR

HIGH LEVERAGE AT BATS:

Cespedes: .313/.367/.564.   Bour: .263/.338/.541.  Edge: CESPEDES

Cespedes certainly came through big in his high leverage 9th inning at bat Tuesday night, when he drove in 2 go-ahead runs with a double, and on a recent previous night when he had the game winning RBI in extra frames. He's a clutch dude.

To be fair, Cespedes drives me nuts a bit, though, when I watch how many fat first pitches he does not swing at...but Cespedes' at bats end on the first pitch 7.98% of the time, while Bour's is 8.00%.  Identical. 

When Cespedes does end his at bat on the first pitch, he is a career .363/.375/.649, so if I were him, I would rather swing at a lot more first pitches than wait until the count gets to 0-2, because after 0-2, he is a mere .173/.193/.309.

AT BATS ENDING AFTER 0-1:

Cespedes: .247/.278/.437.   Bour:  .235/.268/.388.  Edge: CESPEDES

Hats off to both of these fine hitters.

P.S.  With Cespedes over the flu, it is great to see him playing a strong defensive outfield - and getting his bat rekindled.