Melky Cabrera? Really?

[Frobby]

I was skimming down the list of wOBA and OPS leaders this morning, and came across this:

Melky Cabrera, .945 OPS, .406 wOBA.

Slash line: .369/.405/.540

This from a guy with a career .747 OPS and .327 wOBA, who looked like he was toast two years ago.

What's going on here?

[sangar]

I've been watching him a little bit too. He put up an OPS of .809 last year and he is just getting into what are the typical prime years at 27. Although, nothing he has previously done would suggest this sort of breakout was possible. I've got to think it's just an extended hot streak, but ya never know.

[NewMarketSean]

It seems like he's been around forever and is only just 27 years old.

This will probably be a career year for him.

[Don Quixote]

I haven't seen him much, but he had a pretty good year last year in KC, finally cresting the .300/.800 marks with 201 hits. His wOBA was also a single-season high, though not tremendously higher than other seasons like it is so far this year. He's been away from the eastern divisions the past two years and is hitting the peak years. Walk rate returning to career norms this year. Speed could be a factor - on pace for more SB than last year, and those triples are really helping the SLG and OPS by extension, though he isn't on pace to have more HR/2B/total XBH over last year. I wonder how many infield hits he's legged out. Maybe some things are coming together the right way and he's really having just a good year. That BA is big, though, and it's driving a good portion of the Y-o-Y increase in a lot of the numbers. The BABIP is ridiculous - .409?? Some things must moderate, and the numbers probably won't look quite as good at year's end, but at any rate, compared with '10, he seems to be on a different planet, for sure.

[Barnaby Graves]

.409 BABIP versus .308 career. ISO is only up 8 points only last year. His GB/FB is 2.31, the highest of his career by a substantial margin. He also has a record HR/FB. LD% is also at his highest ever.

Definitely a strange year for him, but he's certainly turned into a fine player in any case. If this was fantasy baseball I might be selling high though.

[Nigel Tufnel]

50 game suspension for PED's - out for the rest of the season.

Ken Rosenthal ‏@Ken_Rosenthal

Just announced by #MLB: #SFGiants' Melky Cabrera suspended 50 games without pay after testing positive for testosterone.

[Tony-OH]

I was skimming down the list of wOBA and OPS leaders this morning, and came across this:

Melky Cabrera, .945 OPS, .406 wOBA.

Slash line: .369/.405/.540

This from a guy with a career .747 OPS and .327 wOBA, who looked like he was toast two years ago.

What's going on here?

There's your answer: "50 game suspension for PED's - out for the rest of the season."

[blahblah]

Had a bet with a guy that Markakis finished the year with better stats than Melky...*leaps off hook*

[Don Quixote]

Weh-heh-hell now....

[Tank]

So thats why he got good all of a sudden last year.

[BmoreMatt]

Yea, testosterone too... not good stuff to play around with.

[NewMarketSean]

Had a bet with a guy that Markakis finished the year with better stats than Melky...*leaps off hook*

Agrippa on the Sun boards?

[Migrant Redbird]

Yea, testosterone too... not good stuff to play around with.

Really? My former urologist prescribed it for me a few years ago. According to the lab results, my T level was 30 percent low. The doc promised me that I'd "feel like a new man" after 30 days on the stuff.

After a couple months, I got tired of rubbing the 'clear" on my chest, got another urologist, and my regular doc said he didn't think I needed it. I took my remaining prescription to the pharmacist and asked him to dispose of it. I didn't want a trash hauler finding the tubes in my trash and selling it to a high school kid.

Now I'm seeing a lot of ads on TV claiming that testosterone levels decline dramatically in middle age (I'm 65) and touting supplements. Maybe I missed the boat?

However, the one thing of which I'm sure is that not everyone will have the same results from using PEDs. It didn't seem to do Ryan Franklin, Ross Grimsley, or Larry Bigbie much good. Maybe Melkie was an exception.

My enduring memory of Melkie was that great catch he made in the 2006 NLCS.

[crissfan172]

Really? My former urologist prescribed it for me a few years ago. According to the lab results, my T level was 30 percent low. The doc promised me that I'd "feel like a new man" after 30 days on the stuff.

After a couple months, I got tired of rubbing the 'clear" on my chest, got another urologist, and my regular doc said he didn't think I needed it. I took my remaining prescription to the pharmacist and asked him to dispose of it. I didn't want a trash hauler finding the tubes in my trash and selling it to a high school kid.

Now I'm seeing a lot of ads on TV claiming that testosterone levels decline dramatically in middle age (I'm 65) and touting supplements. Maybe I missed the boat?

However, the one thing of which I'm sure is that not everyone will have the same results from using PEDs. It didn't seem to do Ryan Franklin, Ross Grimsley, or Larry Bigbie much good. Maybe Melkie was an exception.

My enduring memory of Melkie was that great catch he made in the 2006 NLCS.

The Yankees were in the NLCS?

[Migrant Redbird]

The Yankees were in the NLCS?

Melky was with the Mets, when they lost the 2006 NLCS to the Cards.