FanPost

A comparison of dueling DH's: Godzilla vs The Impaler

(small sample size warning!)

I realize that it is quite early to make comparisons. However, I saw a few posts here mentioning Vladimir Guerrero's hot start after only four games with the Angels division rival Texas Rangers.

One fellow commented, "Hey, look who is leading the league in batting."

At that very early juncture, Guerrero was hitting a blistering batting average of approximately 464. Since that time I was alerted to Guerrero leading the league in batting, I have been keeping my eye on how he is doing with respect to Hideki Matsui's performance.

One interesting trend (it is still early, I know) is that Guerrero only has 3 extra base hits out of his 18 hits. By comparison, Hideki Matsui has 9 extra base hits out of his 17 hits.

Vladimir Guerrero 18 hits, 2 2B, 1 HR 16% of his hits are for extra bases.
Hideki Matsui 17 hits, 6 2B, 3 HR 53% of his hits going for extras.

Total lines:
Vladimir Guerrero: AVG .327 18H 5R 1HR 6RBI 3BB 1HBP 4SO 1GIDP
Hideki Matsui: AVG .293 17H 5R 3HR 10RBI 8BB 0HBP 12SO 0GIDP

OPS+:
Vladimir Guerrero: 114
Hideki Matsui: 154

From the total lines, Guerrero has a higher average. Matsui, on the other hand, is driving in runs via extra base hits as well as getting on base. Matsui's strikeouts are considerably higher than Guerrero's though, which is not a good sign. However, if Matsui ends up with triple the home runs of Guerrero (highly unlikely), we will overlook the number of strikeouts.

Regardless, it is still too early to make a comparison, but this is a small snapshot of where we stand now. I am sure more comparisons will be made as we go along and, more importantly, at the end of the season.

Source:
Vladimir Guerrero (bb-ref link)
Hideki Matsui (bb-ref link)

This FanPost is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.

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