04/19/24
April 11, 2017
What if Barry Bonds had played without a bat?:
A fantastic video narrated by Jon Bois (creator of "Chart Party", "Pretty Good", and "Breaking Madden") about what would happen if Barry Bonds went to the plate every time in 2004 and never had a bat (or, realistically, never swung it).
+1
posted by bender at 09:33 PM on April 11, 2017
There are very few writers on the internet that I'd pay money to read, but if Jon Bois said "I'm going solo and producing a new article/video every week." I'd pony up the money pretty quickly.
The closest I've come to passing out from laughter was reading a bunch of his "Breaking Madden" (and other video game articles) in a row.
posted by grum@work at 10:29 PM on April 11, 2017
Saw this on Reddit yesterday; 2001-2004 Barry Bonds freaky stats are among the most fun stats in all of baseball history. There was a follow-up tweet that suggests some of his math was a little off in estimating balls and strikes, and that his batless OBP would more likely be around .590... so still the #1 highest single-season OBP.
That chart of all players/seasons by OPS was pretty awesome as well, and really drives home how- regardless of PED allegations- the three ultragreats of hitting are pretty much Ruth-Williams-Bonds. Everyone else is just not quite the same. There were two little stat trivia things in that reddit thread that really jumped out at me:
- From 2001 until his "retirement" (thanks again, you colluding GM assholes!), Barry Bonds had 1011 walks... and 684 swings-and-misses
- If you played 162 games and went 2-for-5 with a HR and a single every game, you would bat .400, break the single season record for both hits and home runs... and still have a lower OPS than Barry Bonds did in 2004
The Breaking Madden series was worth it if even just for the legend that was BEEFTANK.
posted by hincandenza at 01:36 AM on April 13, 2017
Jon Bois is a national treasure. I raise a glass of milks to him.