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Hooray for May

Posted by Andy on June 1, 2010

Here's a look at some of the best May performances this season.

We have to start off with David Ortiz:

I Year G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
1998 6 23 21 3 7 2 0 0 3 1 7 .333 .348 .429 .776 9 .467 90 105
2000 17 40 36 3 8 2 0 0 6 4 7 .222 .300 .278 .578 10 .276 45 48
2001 3 10 9 2 3 0 0 1 2 1 2 .333 .400 .667 1.067 6 .333 164 178
2002 15 66 58 2 14 6 0 0 7 6 10 .241 .303 .345 .648 20 .280 58 76
2003 15 56 51 7 17 8 0 1 13 5 8 .333 .393 .549 .942 28 .381 99 148
2004 29 133 120 11 31 11 0 6 27 12 34 .258 .323 .500 .823 60 .309 68 116
2005 28 128 106 20 35 10 0 5 22 20 20 .330 .438 .566 1.004 60 .366 104 168
2006 26 114 98 15 25 6 0 5 28 12 20 .255 .333 .469 .803 46 .263 54 110
2007 24 109 87 16 29 12 0 2 16 21 13 .333 .459 .540 .999 47 .370 90 168
2008 28 127 107 19 34 8 0 8 22 18 18 .318 .409 .617 1.026 66 .313 132 176
2009 24 108 91 6 13 6 0 1 6 15 26 .143 .278 .242 .520 22 .188 36 41
2010 23 92 80 16 29 4 0 10 27 10 24 .363 .424 .788 1.211 63 .396 158 224
Career Total 238 1006 864 120 245 75 0 39 179 125 189 .284 .372 .506 .878 437 .317 92
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/1/2010.

Ortiz has just finished his greatest month of May in history, clearly better than even in his monster seasons of 2004-2006. He's had more than 10 HR in a month only 4 other times: 14 in July of 2006, 11 in August of 2003, 11 in August of 2005, and 11 in October of 2005.

Let's move on to another guy with a career renaissance: Vladimir Guerrero.

I Year G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
1997 24 98 85 14 24 6 0 1 12 8 14 .282 .357 .388 .745 33 .319 82 99
1998 30 126 121 18 34 4 1 6 17 3 16 .281 .294 .479 .773 58 .277 61 100
1999 27 118 106 15 30 8 0 8 23 10 13 .283 .347 .585 .932 62 .256 89 133
2000 26 110 101 16 37 8 1 7 17 9 17 .366 .418 .673 1.091 68 .390 103 169
2001 29 119 108 19 31 9 2 7 19 9 17 .287 .345 .602 .946 65 .282 98 146
2002 28 120 106 12 29 4 0 7 17 12 11 .274 .350 .509 .859 54 .247 70 130
2003 23 102 84 13 29 7 0 3 16 16 7 .345 .461 .536 .996 45 .351 100 166
2004 27 115 106 28 39 7 0 6 23 8 14 .368 .417 .604 1.021 64 .384 108 169
2005 17 66 58 7 13 3 0 2 5 6 5 .224 .318 .379 .697 22 .216 48 87
2006 27 117 103 16 34 5 0 7 25 11 10 .330 .393 .583 .976 60 .307 108 154
2007 28 120 100 18 35 10 0 4 23 19 8 .350 .450 .570 1.020 57 .348 116 173
2008 25 104 96 11 21 5 1 4 14 5 16 .219 .260 .417 .676 40 .218 51 82
2009 6 26 25 1 6 2 0 0 2 0 6 .240 .231 .320 .551 8 .300 39 46
2010 27 115 109 18 36 3 0 10 31 2 13 .330 .339 .633 .972 69 .292 107 160
Career Total 344 1456 1308 206 398 81 5 72 244 118 167 .304 .364 .539 .903 705 .300 89
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/1/2010.

The Impaler just finished with 10 HR and 31 RBI in May. He had never had that many HR and RBI in the same month before in his career. (Cap-tip to MLB Network for that last stat, which I saw running on their crawl this weekend.)

Jose Bautista had 12 HR in May despite never hitting more than 16 in any entire season before. Unless he gets injured or suffers a major drop-off he will pass his career highs in HR (and also likely RBI) by the All-Star break. Bautista leads the majors in HR despite having only one season before this year with an OPS+ of 100.

Corey Hart had one excellent season, his first full one, in 2007. Now he'd leading the NL in homers and his 10 HR in May is the most he's hit in any month. He topped his 22 RBI once before, with 24 in June of 2008.

Other notable May numbers: 28 RBI for Troy Glaus, 27 RBI for Alex Rodriguez, 40+ hits for Denard Span (42) Michael Young (40) and Justin Morneau (40), and 29 runs scored for Kevin Youkilis.

Among pitchers, five different guys went 5-0: Carlos Silva, Shaun Marcum, Jon Lester, and Nick Blackburn. Ubaldo Jimenez and Clay Buchholz also won 5 games (along with 1 loss) as did Sean Marshall, who got all of his decisions in relief. Other good numbers: 48 strikeouts from Ricky Romero, 47 strikeouts from Adam Wainwright, 12 saves from Jonathan Broxton, no earned runs from Arthur Rhodes (12 appearances), Dennys Reyes (14), Joaquin Benoit (10), Rafael Soriano (12). Joe Beimel (16), Matt Thornton (10), and Hong-Chih Kuo (11), 2 shutouts and 3 complete games from Roy Halladay.

No related posts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 11:21 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Hooray for May”

  1. CKS Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    Honorable Mention to Martin Prado, with 38 hits for the month, and leaidng the N.L. in hits overall. His move to the leadoff spot has helped trigger ATL's offense & surge to first place (along with Glaus, whom you mentioned, who has certainly turned things around since a horrific April.)

  2. Gerry Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    The list of 5 guys who went 5-0 has only 4 names.

  3. Andy Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    That's because only 4 actually did it and my brain instructed me to write "five". Duh.

  4. RollingWave Says:
    June 2nd, 2010 at 4:47 am

    Arthur Rhodes is still playing baseball??? and actually playing well????

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