SIMILAR CAREER HITTERS
TOP THREE SIMILAR CAREER PAIRS OF HITTERS
by C.C. McCandless
The Omar Vargas Fun Fact got me thinking about which CBA players may have had similar looking careers to this point, so I decided to take a look. I’m not accounting for differences across leagues, and I’m not incorporating baserunning or fielding. With that in mind, let’s go looking for guys that have had similar careers at the dish.
#3. JOSE VILLA, CHICAGO, and KYLE GREEN, SALT LAKE CITY
Villa is a year younger and debuted one year later, but their numbers are strikingly similar. They are separated by just six points of career OPS. Villa has seven more hits and three more homers, while Green edges him in OBP by seven points thanks to more walks.
#2. DANIEL FERRARA, BOSTON and DANNY RAMIREZ, DETROIT
They’re both infielders over 30 that have been around since 2050. The careers OPS numbers are just five points apart. Difference in hits? 14. Runs? 19. RBI? 1! Batting average, OBP, and slugging are all within ten points. Good luck telling these two apart.
#1. ANGEL PEREZ, KENTUCKY and PRESTON FREEMAN, CLEVELAND
Raking twins! They’ve both been around since Inaugural 2.0. Their birthdays are less than two months apart. They have each reached the 900 games mark, with Freeman amassing 67 more plate appearances. Their career numbers are really, really close:
Hits: Perez, 1083-1073
HR: Freeman, 140-133
R: Freeman, 532-518
Perez: .296/.337/.470/.807
Freeman: .291/.345/.469/.813
