Michael Bourn is a decent baseball player. There, I said it. Not great, not so spectacular that we need to read everyday that he is still sitting on the top shelf at the market. Wonder why?
For starters, let us look at his numbers. Always go to the numbers. The first thing that I see instantly is that he is 10 degrees below zero in OPS+. For his career Bourn sits at 90. In only two of his seven years in MLB has he been at least average in that department. If you aren’t aware, 100 is the league average, everything above is good, everything below is, well..below average. He has played with the Phillies, Astros and Braves thus far.
One of his strengths is his speed and therefore base-stealing. His last two seasons of stolen base ratio has been below the level of greatness, which many consider to be 80 percent success. In 2012 his was 76 percent and he led the league in ‘caught stealing’ for the second time in his career. He was the Grand Theft Bases champ from 2009-11.
His average is decent, but his OBP for a lead-off hitter is not that hot. Plus his K/BB% is 2.29 which is just a little below league average of 2.13. He has never scored 100 runs. His XBH% is 5.7 percent, 2.1 percent below the league average. He has been selected to two All-Star teams and has two Gold Glove trophies on his mantel. He is not Ty Cobb. Why does Scott Boras think he is worth so much money?
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