FIRE JOE MORGAN: Total Nonsense from Jeff Brantley

Total Nonsense from Jeff Brantley

Jeff Brantley, during ESPN’s Red Sox-Rangers broadcast, on underachieving Sox first baseman Kevin Millar:

“I think a lot of his power numbers have suffered simply because he’s had to share time with John Olerud, who’s now on the DL.”

Let’s look at a little timeline:

Kevin Millar’s April SLG: .307

Kevin Millar’s May SLG: .327

John Olerud is added to Boston’s 25-man roster on May 27.

Kevin Millar’s June SLG: .574

Aha, you say, perhaps Brantley was talking about raw power totals, like number of doubles and home runs. Nope. Despite getting fewer at bats in June, Millar posted his highest double total (per month) and his highest homer total (a modest 2, tied with May).

So not only is Brantley wrong, the exact opposite of what he said is true. Kevin Millar’s ability to hit for power increased dramatically immediately after John Olerud arrived and supposedly took away his rhythm as a hitter. June was by far Millar’s best month.

Maybe the fact that Millar no longer had to face lefties (against whom he has a .604 OPS) was more important than the hypothetical (psychological?) disadvantage of sharing time.

Labels: jeff brantley, kevin millar

posted by Junior # 12:17 AM

Comments:

The truly hilarious thing about this, to me, is that when Olerud arrived several analysts noted that Millar's play had picked up considerably, and attributed this to the "fire lit under his butt" by the Olerud move. At the time I thought that itself was nonsense, since anyone who knows Kevin Millar knows that he is the definition of "streak hitter," and he was just as likely to have a good month due to switching to Splenda instead of Equal in his morning Earl Grey tea. Or whatever. But Brantley has gone one step further in the nonsense department, and for that, I salute him.

# posted by

Unknown : 8/11/2005 1:29 AM

FIRE JOE MORGAN

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Total Nonsense from Jeff Brantley

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