I’ve been reluctant to write this column because, well - to be honest, I’ve just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s been almost eight weeks. That the other shoe isn’t coming. Lance Berkman is this good. At the age of 32, when most hitters are entering the tail end of their prime, the Big Puma has found the fountain of youth.
In an era where players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens find their second primes well after their social security years, players having a career year when they should be compiling their references for life after baseball should come as no surprise. It’s normal, routine, the norm. That is, of course, for the cheaters. Berkman doesn’t fall into that category.
By all accounts he lost a step last season, his bat had slowed down, it was time to queue up his swan song and get ready to watch him as he slowly made his way to the Retirement Home, or wherever baseball players when they’re of no use to anyone anymore. There was plenty of evidence to support this hypothesis. Berkman, a career .304 hitter, batted 26 points lower, set a career high in strikeouts and a career low in doubles in 2007. He watched his homers drop by 11 and RBIs by 34 from the previous season despite recording 25 more at-bats. If that wasn’t enough, he was moved from the outfield to first base because he no longer had the range to be effective. Yeah, this was a player in decline.
He still hit .278/.386/.510 with 34 homers and 102 RBI, which is a great year for most players, but not by Berkman’s standards. The same way that Ken Griffey Jr. isn’t Ken Griffey Jr. anymore, Lance Berkman wasn’t the Big Puma. You knew that he could still beat you but he no longer put of God. He became fallible.
Well, you can tell the band to go home. There will be no Swan Song, at least not for a few more years. Berkman’s back and he’s making pitchers look foolish. Like, George Lucas foolish for trying to revive the Indiana Jones series with a garbage movie (seriously, can someone please tell this guy to stop ruining his legacy). We’re 23 days into the month and the guy is hitting .500 for May. Most players can maintain that pace over a four game series, maybe even a week, but for 23 days? That’s silly. That’s not all though, he also has a .931 slugging percentage and 1.502 OPS for the month, and is currently on pace to hit 55 homers and drive in 151 runs, both of which would be career highs.
The decline is inevitable, there’s absolutely no way that he’s going to maintain his current .382 average, the outrageous May is the only reason he’s sitting so pretty right now after hitting .297 in April. But a career year isn’t out of the question, though. The last time he had an early surge was in 2006 when he was hitting .350 at the end of May. That didn’t turn out too bad for him either as he ended up finishing with, arguably, his best season to date by hitting .315 with 45 homers and 136 RBI.
Looking back now it seems as though 2007 was the fluke, not this campaign. There’s nothing out there stating that he was fighting through injuries, but Berkman isn’t the type to complain either. In his previous seven seasons as a full-time player he’s logged 150 games six times, so it’s possible he was going through some stuff but didn’t want to miss time.
It’s all moot now anyways, Berkman’s playing like a Triple Crown threat, and he’s re-established himself as on the premier hitters in the game today. As earth awaits him in June, and Berkman touches back down, he’ll still continue to make National League pitchers his prey, like he always has. They’ll just escape his bat a little more often.
Until then, good luck.
Bringing the Noise
- Mike Piazza announced his retirement on Tuesday after a complete lack of interest in him. He’s 39 years old, but he’s not useless. Just last year he hit 8 homers with 44 RBI and a .275 in 83 games. I image he still has 20 home run power and could provide a spark at DH for some American League team.
-Pedro Martinez says that he’s healthy and ready to go after a 73-pitch outing in extended Spring Training. He also stated that he doesn’t need to go to the minor leagues for a rehab stint and that he plans to play two more seasons in the Major Leagues. He may be ready to pitch, but he needs to head to minors for a week to get sharp, I don’t care how talented he is, or was. Then there’s the whole two year thing, it’d be great and all, but I highly doubt that he’ll hold up for two more years. I’d be surprised if he logged 20 starts over the next two years.
-The Padres may seriously be done. First Mark Prior suffers a setback, then Jake Peavy hits the DL, and to make matters worse, Albert Pujols took out their whole battery by hitting a line drive at Chris Young, and then sliding into Josh Bard at home. This team is 17-31, the worst record in the bigs, and is currently 12 games back. Now that their pitching staff is knocked out it’s up to the offense, which ranks last in average, OBP, slugging and runs, to carry them. Yeah, they’re done.
- Looks like Hank Steinbrenner won the cold war in New York, Joba’s moving into the rotation. Start filling out your resume Mr. Cashman.
-Is that Tom Glavine beating guys with an 82 mph fastball?
-What are the Reds waiting for? I know they have to feature Griffey Jr and Adam Dunn. while they shop them, but they need to get Jay Bruce on the field somehow. He’s currently hitting .369/.397/.661 with 10 homers and 37 RBI in 45 games at Triple A Louisville. If that isn’t enough, how bout his .529 average and 16 RBI over the last 14 games?
-If your looking for more to read, then check this out. Apparently the feds are moving closer to being able to use the 2003 positive drug tests, which were supposed to be used for research purposes only, as evidence in their crusade against performance enhancing drugs. Anyone ready for more Federal Witch Hunts, errr, investigations into baseball? Enough is enough. The game is finally recovering, the product and parity is as good as it’s ever been, and attendance is the highest it’s ever been. Leave it alone.
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