All about the Canó

Here are two things I realize: Most people who actually read this thing do not care about baseball. Not one bit. The other realization is that those who are baseball fans, hate the Yankees.

With those two givens in mind, I'd like to point out a current oversight in this MLB season. The victim? One Robinson Canó.

Who is this Canó, you ask? He's the starting second baseman for the New York Yankees. He's only in his second year as a Major-Leaguer, yet he's hitting .341 (as of 9/24).

The baseball geeks among you will notice something. That number would put Canó in third place for the MLB batting title, 6 points behind Mauer and 1 point behind Freddy Sanchez. You might also think to yourself, "Hey, I remember all that hoopla about the batting title. I thought it was Jeter who was in third..."

And you'd be correct. Canó is not (yet) part of the title chase. Why? Minimum plate appearances, that's why. You see, the second basemen spent a while on the DL this year. As a result, he only has 480 plate appearances. In order to challenge for the title, he must have... well, I let the MLB official rules explain.

The individual batting champion... shall be the player with the highest batting average..., provided he is credited with as many or more total appearances at the plate in League Championship games as the number of games scheduled for each club in his league that season, multiplied by 3.1 in the case of a major league player.

According to the math laid out in rule 10.23(a), this would mean 502 plate appearances by the end of the 2006 season. Today, for a Yankees player, it would mean 480 appearances (techinically, it's 480.5, but the example in the rulebook implies that they round down). What does rule 10.23(a) define as a plate appearance?

Total appearances at the plate shall include official times at bat, plus bases on balls, times hit by pitcher, sacrifice hits, sacrifice flies and times awarded first base because of interference or obstruction.

Here's the line for Canó: 455 AB, 18 BB, 2 HBP, 4 SH, 1 SF. That adds up to 480 appearances. Which means, Canó should finally be qualified for the batting title. But is he up there? No. And he bloody well should be.

Again, most of you reading this probably could care less. After all, Canó's going to the playoffs with the freakin' Yankees. And, it's doubtful he'll catch up to Mauer (although, if Mauer goes 8/28, and Canó goes 10/28...). But damnitall, give the man his due, I say. When was the last time the Yankees had an offensive starter of this caliber that actually came up through their system? You'd have to look back to the time when Jeter/Posada/Williams broke out in the mid-'90s.

That's all I'm saying. Go Canó.

[This post brought to you by the insanity of the XBL. It can be blamed entirely on Chappy and Kramer.]