October 22, 2003
Patient Posada
Mark Hale of the NY Post picks up on Jorge Posada's remarkable World Series, in which he has a .000 BA but a .417 OBA.
Calling Jorge Posada "patient" isn't enough anymore. He's way past that.
Posada's the man waiting on line to ride Space Mountain. He's the guy waiting for his girlfriend to finish in the bathroom. He's the fellow who could join an FBI stakeout team and feel right at home. And he's the Yankee who drew the key walk last night.
Posada's remarkable patience continued to pay dividends last night, as his fourth-inning, bases-loaded walk drove in the Yankees' first run in their 6-1 win.
Incredibly, Posada now has drawn six bases-loaded walks this season. And he now has five walks in the World Series, good for a .417 on-base percentage that masks his, ahem, .000 batting average (0-for-7).
Of players who had at least five AB in a World Series without a hit, Posada's .417 OBA is way beyond the best. Darrel Chaney of the Reds was 0 for 7 in 1972 with 2 walks and a hit by pitch for a .300 OBA. Unlike Posada, however, Chaney's two walks were intentional.
Before the Red Sox-Yankees series, I wrote about the versatility of the NY offense. They can score runs with hits, they can score runs getting on base and they can score runs with power. The Marlins pitchers and defense are preventing hits. The Yankees are hitting just .258 in the three games so far. But they aren't stopping the other two parts of the Yankees offense. NY has a team OBA of .374 and a team slugging percentage of .464, based on five HR. In addition to the hits, the Marlins are going to have to stop the walks or the power if they hope to come back in this series.
