Dodgers @ Diamondbacks April 10, 2015: Fun with Adrian Gonzalez’s numbers

Before I get to Adrian Gonzalez, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that tonight is Brett Anderson‘s debut as a Dodger. He’s going up against the team that originally drafted him in the second round of the 2006 draft.

Anderson used spring training to post a ridiculous 7.25 ground out-to-fly out ratio. While that isn’t sustainable at the big league level, he could very well be the Dodgers’ best ground ball pitcher. So, expect the A+ infield defense whenever Anderson toes the rubber.

Now, onto Gonzalez. We all know of his early season escapades, launching five home runs in the Dodgers’ first three games. Let’s have a little fun with his numbers.

• On pace for 270 home runs (based on 162 games played)
• wRC+ is 814 — 714 percent better than league-average
• Already owns a 1.1 fWAR (was a 3.5-win player last year)
• Has a HR/FB percentage of 83.3
• His OPS is 2.846
• Already 7.4 runs above league-average on fastballs

I could go on, but I just wanted to pick a few of the ones that stood out to me most.

The most ridiculous stat, to me, is his weight runs created-plus. To be 714 percent better than the average at anything is unbelievable, but especially when it comes to baseball. It’s just a sentence that isn’t uttered/written too often. Also, he has hit six balls in the air this season … five of them have gone over the fence.

He isn’t going to sustain this type of productivity (#analysis). Hell, I don’t think the best video game player could do this well in a game. It’s just an amazingly hot start for the Dodgers’ best hitter. He’s probably in the best shape of his life (#BSOHL), which bodes well for success this season. He’ll age rather gracefully as a hitter, but if he can sustain above-average power for a couple more years, that would be great.