Fun With Baseball-Reference

A lazy July morning means taking a few hours to look at the statistics on Baseball-Reference.

Let's see if you can guess who Player A and Player B are from looking at the numbers from the season in which they were 26-years-old (hint: the number 26 is important in this game).

Player A: .326 BA, .369 OBP, .457 SLG, .826 OPS, 19 2B, 4 3B, 3 HR, 23 RBI, 19 BB, 54 K
Player B: .325 BA, .407 OBP, .416 SLG, .823 OPS, 31 2B, 4 3B, 6 HR, 55 RBI, 89 BB, 44 K

I'll give you a minute.

Player A?  Give yourself a round of applause if you said current Red Sox do-it-all guy Brock Holt.

Player B?  I applaud you for knowing it's Wade Boggs.

Before you write this post off as a weak attempt on my part to say that Holt is the second coming of Boggs, that's not what I'm doing here.  Wade Boggs is a Hall of Famer.  Brock Holt is an unproven journeyman. There's no comparison.

Look at Boggs career, especially the Red Sox years from 1982-1992.  It's an amazing run of consistent greatness at the plate by a man who seemingly flirted with a .350 BA every year.  Brock Holt can only dream of being the hitter that Wade Boggs was.

The reason for this post is to put Holt's 2014 campaign (through the 65 games and 299 plate appearances that he's had through last night) into perspective while also paying homage to a forgotten Red Sox great.

Holt has been a joy to watch in what has been an otherwise disappointing season so far.  He's taken command of the lead-off spot in Boston's lineup - which was a major question mark following the Boggs-like departure of Jacoby Ellsbury to the Yankees - and has played every position except catcher and pitcher.  If this team can overcome their terrible start to the season and get into the playoffs, Holt will be a major reason why.

As good as Holt has been, Boggs' age-26 season in 1984 was statistically his worst of the 1980's.  Boggs won all five of his batting titles in the '80's, with a .357 BA being the lowest average he had in winning the batting title.  In eleven seasons with Boston, Boggs' averages were:

.338 BA, .428 OBP, .462 SLG, .890 OPS, 38 2B, 4 3B, 8 HR, 62 RBI, 91 BB, 42 K

That's a Hall of Fame stat line.

Brock Holt's 2014 stat line is a nice story, but it's not that.

Again, don't take that as a shot at Holt.  It's just an excuse to appreciate the great career that Wade Boggs had in Boston.