Can the D-backs go into the break on a winning note? Does it matter?
It seems increasingly likely that Eugenio Suarez’s charge towards a high ranking on the D-backs list for single season home-runs, will come to an end. After yesterday’s double helping took him to 31 bombs, Suarez is in the top twenty all-time. It’s an impressive feat, considering we’re not (quite!) at the All-Star break. For comparison, he is currently tied with Luis Gonzalez (2000), Justin Upton (2011) and, most recently… Yasmany Tomas in 2016. All of whom played considerably more games than Suarez has so far. A better yardstick would be home-runs hit in the first half. There, he sits second, behind only Gonzo’s 35 home-runs in 2001. They’re only two with more than 25 by the break.
It’s worth remembering how staggering Gonzalez’s performance was. He hit four more homers than Suarez, but did it in seven fewer games. Even more impressively, his batting average was OVER A HUNDRED POINTS HIGHER: Gonzo reached the break hitting .355, and he wasn’t selling out for power either, with only 48 strikeouts. That’s less than half as many K’s as Suarez (105), and barely more than Gonzalez’s walks (46). All told here are the slash lines for the two players:
Luis Gonzalez: .355/.443/.745 = 1.189 OPS
Eugenio Suarez: .249/.318/.568 = .886 OPS
Yes, Luis’s OPS was more than three hundred points better than Suarez. Yes, it was a different, and more offensive era. But that only explains part of the difference. The collective AL OPS (I’m using that because the NL didn’t have the DH) in 2001 was only 45 points higher than it is this season. Interestingly, and quite surprisingly, home-runs are being hit in the AL at a higher rate this season (1.16 vs. 1.11): the different in OPS is mostly due to a higher rate of doubles and triples. However, that didn’t apply in the NL, even with pitchers hitting: 2001 is ahead, at 1.08 vs. 1.14. Gonzalez, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa combining for 194 HR is likely a factor!