How much power do you need to offset a bad on-base percentage and still be a good hitter in 2012? You don’t need to look any further than Pedro Alvarez’s FanGraphs page to find out! Pedro’s .349 ISO is higher than the batting averages of all but five qualified players in the National League. Jose Bautista lead all of baseball with a .306 ISO last year and after Curtis Granderson (.290), no one was above .275.
I think that probably the best news of all is that during his 11 game rampage (do you even need me to tell you how hot he’s been? .333/.381/.821, 9/13 hits for extra bases hot, in case you were curious), Alvarez has 12 strikeouts in 42 plate appearances. That’s a 28.5% K-rate, which is starting to bring him down under the 30% barrier, which is somewhere that I think he absolutely needs to be.
I’ll close with this: I think there are still some red flags in Pedro’s performance right now and I don’t think that this hot streak makes him immune to another awful slump like he had from Opening Day 2011 through two weeks ago. That said, you’re lying to yourself if you think I’m not going to wring this hot streak out for every last bit of enjoyment and hope that it’s worth. I have plenty more to say about Pedro Alvarez, but for now … I have to get these finals graded and turned in.
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