Yordan Alvarez: The Greek God of "I'm the Best Hitter on the Planet Right Now"

Even though his team's out, and even though Aroldis Garcia stole much of his postseason thunder, he just might be.

He's not eligible for leaderboards yet, but here's where he'd sit on the active OPS+ list if he were:

1. Trout - 173
2. Alvarez - 165 (14th all-time)
3. Judge - 164
4. Soto - 157
5. Votto - 144
6. Goldschmidt - 143
7. Harper - 143
8. Freeman - 142
9. Acuna - 141
10. Betts - 138

Removed Cabrera, which gets Betts on there.

He's not the all-around force that Acuna and Betts are, doesn't have Judge's power, isn't as metronomically consistent as Freeman or Goldschmidt. But it feels like he's just entering his prime now, and I wouldn't be shocked if he were to win a Triple Crown in the next few years. An Astro that I think even Astro-haters like. The beauty of his swing and his postseason heroics add to his stature.

https://i.postimg.cc/Fsw0t5X7/yordan.jpg

I don't know if Votto's done or not; if you take him off, Matt Olson and Giancarlo Stanton are both at 137.

Sotto Voce...Soto Votto!

He is a massive injury liability.

Always a risk with big DH/1B-types (even though he's in left when he plays the field). Has already lost at least 50 games to injuries.

I mean, probably could have started the same thread about Stanton after his MVP year. So I get that.

read this as "best hitler" every fucking time

Your favourite misread ILX thread titles!

well I don't know about "favourite"

I have nothing to add except my general agreement that the man is a stud and I fear his bat

You gave me a start--I do leave typos all over the place here.

Also, I left out Ohtani from the Top 10, duh, similarly not enough AB for bREF lists. He's at 148, which would put him fifth.

Following up on the WS thread, where I compared Alvarez to Frank Thomas, the gap is a wider than I thought at first, tribute to how unbelievable Thomas was his first few years. Alvarez will still get better, though, I think.

Through age-26 season:

Alvarez: .295/.390/.588, 165 OPS+, 43 HR/162 games, 6.1 bWAR/162 games
Thomas: .326/.449/.591, 184 OPS+, 36 HR/162 games, 6.6 bWAR/162 games

Ted Williams' OPS + through his age-27 season (including 1941, and extended by a year because of the war) was 195. Frank Thomas was closer to Ted Williams than Yordan Alvarez is to Frank Thomas.

Omg this thread title

Gushing fan hyperbole, based on a famous description of Kevin Youkilis. Alvarez is actually about as quiet and modest as it gets, from what I've seen.

Brutal start--just dipped under .100.

He's a notorious slow starter but yeah that's not pretty.

Didn't know that...His April numbers aren't too bad for his career, but definitely his worst month: .272/.361/.517 (June and September his best).

.272/.361/.517

lol this is an all-star-type line

he's lurking...

You guys woke him up. Hope you’re happy.

Apropos that they were playing the Rockies:

https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-mexico-city-series-win-over-rockies

Cycle! They're kind of gimmicky--one of the two Jays who've done it, either Gruber or someone else, pulled up at first base on a clear double to complete it--but cool nonetheless. Guessing he's one of the greatest hitters ever to pull it off, assuming that many of the greatest never did.

Well...Scanned the full list quickly, and let's say Top 35. Gehrig, Williams, DiMaggio, Musial, and Mangle all hit for the cycle, plus lots of other inner-circle guys. Ruth, Mays, and Aaron didn't. (Hank, that is--Aaron Hill did it twice.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_to_hit_for_the_cycle

Sir, mangle was his liver

Morky Mangle

Clem: three jays have done it now. The Grubermeister, Jeff Frye (who did indeed pull up short on what could have been a 2nd double)(also Gruber was randomly at the game) and Cavan Biggio

Jeff Frye blocked me on Twitter for making fun of that, which was easily my second best baseball Twitter block. He’s a total prick on there, constantly complaining about younger players.

Ha ha amazing

I'm looking at those Mangle posts trying to figure out what I'm missing...oops. Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin once blocked me at the doorway as I tried to get into Toots Shor's.