Scotty Pods' Royally Wacky Start

Scott Podsednik has been an on-base machine this season. He leads the AL in batting average, he's third in OBP, and he's even third in the AL with 8 steals to boot. Yet, Podsednik has scored just 7 runs this season. Scroll down the list of OBP leaders, and you have to go 25 spots until you hit Nick Johnson to find another guy who's scored less than 8 runs so far this season. And let's remember that Johnson has been hurt pretty often this year and isn't exactly what you'd call a burner on the basepaths.

Pods has done this in spite of whats been a shockingly impressive season by the Royals' No. 2 hitter so far. He's gotten on base in all but two games this season, and he's had a hit in 14 of his 17 games played so far this season. But this is a guy who has hard a really hard time getting around the bases. Now, this isn't just about his team, because the Royals' offense has actually been pretty good this season, Podsednik is actually sixth on the team in runs scored.

A good deal of this is probably attributed to Podsednik's utter lack of power so far. He's got a .016 isolated power on the year, which is what happens when you hit 1 double and 24 singles in 78 plate appearances. And of his eight steals, he's scored on five of those occasions.

Pods has gotten to first base 34 times already this season. Just twice has Podsednik scored from first base without stealing a base. One of those occasions was on a Jose Guillen home run, the other was yesterday after Podsednik advanced a base on an error by Felix Hernandez. He's been getting on base in front of hitters who have been hitting the ball with authority, but the end result just hasn't been a whole lot of runs scored for him.

Right now, Podsednik is on pace to hit 226 singles and 9 doubles, with 85 walks, 75 stolen bases, and just 66 runs scored on the year. We're almost an eighth through the season, and I can tell you that Mr. Podsednik has had one of the weirder seasons thus far. Now, we can pretty much all be assured that Podsednik won't maintain his .436 BABIP, and he'll probably finish the season with something resembling a league average offensive performance. But for now, let's admire the wackiness of Scotty Pods' first few weeks as a Royal.