Today’s White Sox vs. Cubs series began with very little pomp and circumstance. Since 2008, when both teams were in first place upon meeting, the red line rivalry has approached with less excitement and intrigue every season. This year, both teams entered with very low expectations and so far living down to them, as each team is below .500.
The Sox are a slightly better team, as they are still a hot streak away from reaching the stop of their division. And although this series lacks hype it does possess one of the oddest statistical anomalies in MLB. It’s rare to see such a statistical spread among every day Major League regulars, like the one you’ll see between Cubs 1B Bryan LaHair and White Sox 3B Brent Morel. Yet both are relatively obscure.
You may not have heard of both of them, but it’s funny since one player is having as great a first 6 weeks as a player can have. And the other looks like a bad AAA level player. Seriously, LaHair should held to the All-Star game as a phenomenal player on a really bad team, while Morel is so terrible he shouldn’t be am MLB regular on a very bad team, let alone the mediocre squad he does play for.
LaHair is hitting .330 with 10 HR, 21 RBI, a .670 SLG and an OPS of 1.092. The very late round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners is among the league leaders in the NL for all the major statistical categories.
Morel, on the completely opposite side of the dichotomy, is hitting just. 177 in 113 AB with 0 HR, 5 RBI and a putrid .195 SLG percentage. He missed the first game of the intra-city series today with back issues. Maybe the injury explains why he’s been so terrible at baseball this season?
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, MSN and Fox Sports
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.