George Brett is undeniably the greatest hitter in the
history of the Kansas City Royals. Brett
accumulated 3,154 hits, 665 doubles, 137 triples (yeah, you read that right),
and 317 home runs. He had 1,583 runs,
1596 rbi, and a .305 average on route to a first ballot Hall of Fame
career. As far as the Royals are
concerned, no player is even close and I think Brett would be listed on most
lists as a top 3 all-time third baseman, even though he played a lot of games
at first and DH.
The Royals have a hitter on their team right now that
compares favorable to Brett at the same age.
No, it’s not phenom Eric Hosmer.
No, it’s not emerging Alex Gordon.
It is the veteran Billy Butler.
It seems like Billy “Country Breakfast” Butler
has been around forever but did you know Butler
just celebrated his 26th birthday less than two weeks ago? He has amassed some really impressive
statistics at a very young age.
George Brett basically got started a year earlier than Butler. Butler
got 390 AB at the age of 21 while Brett received 41 AB at 20 and 486 AB at 21
years of age. For comparative purposes,
I am going by games. Brett had 731 games
by the end of 1978, when he was 25. Butler
has 712 games through 04/28/2012,
after just turning 26. There isn’t that
much difference in age between these two hitters after a similar number of
games played
Brett had 3114 PA to Butlers
2947 at this stage. Brett had an amazing
2850 AB with 870 hits. He had led the AL
in both of those categories twice by the time he was 24 years old. Billy has 2653 AB and 789 hits. Brett’s average in that time was .305 (a
match for his career) and Butler is
hitting .297. The biggest thing that
these numbers illustrate is that in his early 20’s, George Brett was already a
hitting star. We all know he was playing
on a great team, one that won 3 division titles during this time. Butler
has been in the middle of the lineup for some of the worst teams in the majors
so far in his career.
If you delve deeper though, Butler
compares even more favorably in some of the other stats. Butler
has 191 doubles to Brett’s 169. Keep in
mind that George Brett is 6th all time in doubles. Butler
has been criticized that he doesn’t hit for power, yet he has out homered Brett
during this stretch 79 to 51. In fact, Butler
has more extra base hits than Brett during these similar periods of their
careers, 279 to 273. This is despite the
fact that Brett already had an incredible 53 triples by the end of 1978.
(An interesting side
note – George Brett ranks 67th in triples with 137. Of players who played in a significant number
of games after 1970, only Lou Brock and teammate Willie Wilson hit more triples
than Brett. I think this is one of the
more amazing stats of Brett’s career because he only stole 201 bases – he was
not known as a speedster at all.)
As I mentioned before, Brett was in the middle of a terrific
lineup and he scored 413 runs in those early years while Butler
is quite a bit behind him with 321. Butler
is as slow on the base paths as any player you will see, plus Brett hit himself
into scoring position a lot more with all of those triples. This being said, Butler
has more RBI through this point in their careers, 389 to 354, and impressive
stat for Butler.
I am not saying that Billy Butler is the player George Brett
was. Brett played in a much different
era, on a much different team. Butler
will be forever cursed by the reality that he is a DH. My point to this exercise is that Royals fans
have been slow to embrace Butler as
a favorite. I think this is a
mistake. Butler
is a consummate hitter and the ultimate leader of the Royals youth
movement. Butler
is a very similar type of hitter to Brett.
His home run power will eventually develop, just like Brett’s did. Even so, just like Brett’s, Butler’s
power will probably top out around 30. Butler
will obviously never hit the triples King George did but his doubles’ numbers could
be comparable. The terrific stat site
baseball-reference.com, has a great feature where they break down players careers
into 162 game averages. This is a good
tool for comparative purposes. Taking a
close look at this, George Brett does have a slight edge over Butler
in nearly every category. That advantage
though, is slight.
George Brett was a first ballot Hall of Famer who received
over 90% votes on that first ballot. It
is doubtful that Butler will play
into his 40’s but I will tell you something.
As long as Butler continues
to hit like a poor man’s George Brett, I want him penciled in my lineup
everyday at DH. Fans need to start
appreciating Billy Butler. The man can
hit.
Check out other small market baseball news at bigbotherbaseballproject.blogspot.com and get movie and TV reviews at jawsrecliner.blogspot.com. Follow me on twitter @jawsrecliner
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