40+, 20+, 90+

I can sort of see why some people look at the 42 doubles, 20 home runs, and 97 rbi's and conclude that Jose Guillen had a good season in 2008. In fact only six players in the American League went 40+, 20+, 90+ in those three categories and the last Royal to do it was Carlos Beltran back in 2002. One thing I didn't realize was that George Brett only did it twice and that caused me to look at Guillen's season in a whole new light. Mike Sweeney also did it twice as did Hal McRae and Jermaine Dye - and in KC history that is it.

Forty years, six players, ten seasons.

Now I'm not suggesting that Guillen was as good as the others because he wasn't as he was the only one to do it and be below league average (96 OPS+). He also had the lowest AVG/OBP/SLG of the ten but still it is actually impressive that he accomplished something that had only been done nine times in franchise history.

Player	Year	2Bs	HRs	RBIs
McRae	1977	54	21	92
Brett	1979	42	23	107
McRae	1982	46	27	133
Brett	1988	42	24	103
Sweeney	1999	44	22	102
Dye	1999	44	27	119
Dye	2000	41	33	118
Sweeney	2001	46	29	99
Beltran	2002	44	29	105
Guillen	2008	42	20	97

Looking at the ten seasons stacked on top of each other (thanks to baseball-reference and its awesome play index) and it becomes easy to see why other people considered 2008 a bad year for Guillen. Here is where Guillen ranked in other stats in the ten seasons above:

• AVG - 10th
• OBP - 10th
• SLG - 10th
• BB's - 10th
• K's - 3rd
• Runs - 10th
• GiDP - 1st
• OPS+ - 10th
• OPS - 10th (by over 100 points!)
  

Of the 272 times its been done since 1901 only Guillen and Corey Hart (also done in 2008) have an OPS+ below 100 (96 for both, man look at Harts season; .268/.300/.459 45 2Bs, 20 HRs, 91 RBIs, 27/109 BB/K. He and Guillen were almost identical in '08). Only Khalil Greene in 2007 had a worse OBP (.291 in 2007) and nobody but Guillen had a SLG under .450, so yeah the criticism was justified in some instances.

But despite all that I believe Guillen will rebound next year, I know that .264/.300/.438 line screams mediocre but in his last four full seasons before 2008 he was quite good. He OBP'd .353, .338, .352, .359 in those years so I think it's more than possible (and actually very likely) that Guillen puts up something in the .285/.345/.450 neighborhood.

That's not worth 12 million dollars though so I'm sure the critics will still be out in full force in 2009.