There are some pros and cons to the whole small sample frenzy that we go through at the beginning of every season. You get the usual array of posts reminding you about the small samples while proceeding to analyze them anyways. You get the frustrating realizations that, no, Carlos Quentin isn't going to keep batting .350.
But on the other hand, you get some truly wacky batting lines. The kind of lines that only small sample sizes that can produce. And while they may not offer any value in terms of projection, that's not always the point. Sometimes you can look at batting lines just for fun, you know? So let's do that here. Let's go over a few truly weird batting lines, and enjoy them while they last. And of course, I'm sure I missed some pretty fancy ones, so shoot any wacky lines that I missed through the comments. We won't be able to do this in September, people.
(Note: Statistics were previously through Sunday's games; I've updated the numbers to include yesterday. I've removed Jose Reyes' blurb because his line is significantly different now, but generally speaking the observations below still stand.)
Jonny Gomes - .231/.462/.615
You see? When's the last time that anyone had a .462 OBP while batting .231, huh? Gomes has had 39 plate appearances so far. 31 percent of those have ended in a walk. 8 percent have ended in a home run. 18 percent have ended in strikeouts. It's been a weird year so far for Mr. Gomes.
Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada - .182/.325/.545 and .138/.194/.448, respectively
Look at these two guys. They have 10 hits and 7 home runs so far this year. Teixeira's BABIP is at .105, while Posada's is a league-low .059 so far this year. So no, these two haven't been plotting to turn the Yankees into a small-ball team this year.
Bobby Abreu - .378/.511/.514
Now, we've seen batting lines where the on-base percentage is higher than the slugging percentage before. But what about with a .514 OBP? Abreu has 14 hits and 10 walks in 47 plate appearances so far. But Abreu probably isn't going to get to get close to the 62 extra-base hits he had last season; he's only got 3 so far this year.
Albert Pujols - .150/.222/.225
I don't care if it's early April. Seeing Albert Pujols as one of the worst 20 hitters in baseball so far is weird.
Ian Kinsler and Nelson Cruz - .250/.372/.639 and .273/.359/.782, respectively
And you wonder why Texas has done so well this year? There are six players who have made it this far into the season with isolated power marks over .385, and two of them play for the Rangers. The two sluggers have played ten games together this year, and so far they've combined for 9 home runs.
Brian McCann - .361/.395/.361
It's been a very odd year for McCann so far. Last season, McCann provided most of his offensive value through 74 walks, 25 doubles and 21 homers in 143 games. This season, McCann has still been productive, but with 2 walks, 0 doubles and 0 homers so far this year, it's been in an entirely different way.
Dan Johnson - .079/.125/.184
This probably makes the Manny retirement sting a little more. Johnson's been very, very unlucky so far this year (.065 BABIP), but that shouldn't excuse a two-digit batting average (think about it, he's batting "seventy-nine") and a .309 OPS.