It’s Monday, right? Days of the week always blur for me over the holidays.
This week, I’m choosing 2021 Fernando Tatis Jr. who has a very juicy hitting card. The NL homerun champ with 42 dingers doesn’t disappoint. Padre shortstop Tatis hit .282 and barely missed the century mark in both runs scored (99) and rbis (97).
Tatis stole 25 bases while getting caught just four times. His steal rating in the Master Game should be pretty high. He walked 64 times while striking out in 153 at-bats.
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Totals | 130 | 546 | 478 | 99 | 135 | 31 | 0 | 42 | 97 | 25 | 4 | 62 | 153 | .282 | .364 | .611 |
You know the drill. Look at the power numbers first (unless you’re perusing Mr. Ohtani who can pitch too). Tatis gets two 1s and three 0s. His second column is pretty solid too. Not only does he have eight 1s in the second column but his only singles are three 11s (“as good as a double with the bases empty”). Yes, he has a 65-6 in the second column.
Speedy Tatis Jr. has a 15-11 too, of course. In addition, he sports a 45-14* to help replicate his 25 steals. In all, he earns four 14s. Not surprisingly, he has eight 13s but on the pleasant side, one is a 41-13. Nope, no 24s for Fernando.
If I time-traveled back to the 1980s and you told me a player struck out 153 times and got two 31s from APBA, I would think it was a printing error. It is a different era, I guess. Now get off my lawn.
Tatis does all this as a SS-8. If he needs to play the garden, he doesn’t totally suck either as an OF-2.
I know my IAL friend Dennis is thankful for Fernando Tatis Jr. too. He will most certainly enjoy this card this coming year probably at my expense.
Thanks for the note Tom and Tatis coming off a 57 homre relay season – will be fun again.