Idiots Write About Sports

Scott Podsednik is one of the best in baseball when it comes to getting on base.

Don’t know where I heard this one. Maybe it was in the scant few minutes of the Fox broadcast that I saw before leaving for the Cal-Washington St. game. Maybe it was on ESPN Radio’s broadcast on the way to the station. Maybe it was the voices in my head. But the point is, I heard someone say it, and it’s a commonly-enough accepted analysis to where I don’t feel too guilty about not being able to attribute it to anyone specifically.

Scott Podsednik is one of the best in baseball when it comes to getting on base.

And that’s true, so long as you definition of “one of the best” is “toward the tail end of the top 70.” Scott Podsednik’s on-base percentage of .351 puts him at No. 68 among the Major League Leaders — good enough to tie Brad Wilkerson and best Craig Counsell by a percentage point, not good enough to top Chone Figgins, Jorge Posada and Felipe Lopez. People who are better than Scott Podsednik at getting on base — Greg Zaun, Geoff Jenkins, Lyle Overbay. Table-setters one and all!

Podsednik’s on-base percentage would be higher, were it not so dependent upon his batting average. Podsednik walked all of 47 times this year, which seems a might bit low for a leadoff hitter tasked with sparking his team’s offense.

In fairness to Scott Podsednik, his on-base percentage of .351 is a vast improvement over his 2004 OBP of .313. Presumably, he wasn’t among the best in baseball at getting on base back then.

This is not to say Scott Podsednik is a bad ballplayer or that he didn’t have a worthwhile season. It was very useful of him to be standing base when Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko hit all those home runs. I’m just having a hard time trying to grasp how a guy with a good-but-not-great OBP and who gets thrown out nearly 30 percent of the time when he decides to steal a base is the offensive sparkplug that he’s made out to be by the commentariat.

[Edited to Add: Other things Scott Podsednik is among the best in the league at: putting on his pants, combing his hair, giving you a polite nod when you see him on the field before a game. See? I’m a master of piercing insight and analysis, too. Where’s my cushy analyst job, Fox?]

How about, "Scott Podsednik is so powerful, he can hit a walk-off home run with ease?"

Naah. WAY too outlandish to be believed.

Posted by Jason at October 23, 2005 10:48 PM

I will be accepting offers from White Sox and Astros fans alike on which player to slag prior to Game Three, thus ensuring his place in the pantheon of World Series heroes.

Bigggio? Dye? Wandy Rodriguez? Your generous cash bribes will tell the tale, people.

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