Facing Facts: Match the Player to His Stats

Sometimes as sports fans our predetermined evaluations of players can

overhype or undervalue their true performance. This exercise helps to keep

us all honest and open-minded about the “stud” players around the MLB.

Each player performed well in at least one category, and all the numbers

are relatively close. It is interesting to see how our minds subconsciously

label players as “superstars” or “washed up,” often without checking the

stats from year to year.

Here is the list of players that own the stats below:

Jose Bautista, Carlos Correa, Bryce Harper, Carlos Beltran

Stat Line:

Player/ Average/ Home Runs/ Runs Scored/ RBI

A .243 24 84 86

B .234 22 68 69

C .295 29 79 93

D .274 20 76 96

Can you match each player with his stats? (Answers below)

Check the bottom of the page to see how you did!

As you can see from the numbers, sometimes players defy age, hype, and

statistical norms. I would have never guessed that Carlos Beltran would

lead this group in average and homeruns. Furthermore, these stats

highlight what an underwhelming year Bryce Harper and Carlos Correa

had, relative to other household names.

The moral of the story is, take time each year to do some homework and

brush up on the numbers. Stats will always mean more than hype!

(A: Harper, B: Bautista, C: Beltran, D: Correa)