The Consistently Good Billy Butler

Nothing gets the Royals section of twitter raging like a good old fashion Billy Butler debate. Due to his great second half the "he doesn't hit enough home runs so he should be traded" rallying cry was replaced with "hey, he's hitting home runs so let's trade him for a #1 starter". Whatever. Long time readers here - and followers on twitter - know how I feel about Butler and how I'd freak out if he actually was traded.

I've never been concerned about Butler's power simply because of the amount of doubles he hits (I think the McRae comp is still a good one). I'm also unswayed by the new reasons to purge the roster of his bat - that he's no longer cheap and a full time designated hitter limits roster flexibility. The 8 million he'll make each of the next three seasons is hardly a payroll back breaker and it shouldn't inhibit the team from making long term offers to Hosmer and company. The team option for 12.5 million in 2015 is a bit too pricey but I fully expect they'll buy that out. There is something to the roster flexibility argument, but honestly, I fail to see how inserting a weaker bat into the lineup for the sake of flexibility makes the team better.

However you feel about Butler, one indisputable fact remains, the man can hit a baseball. Still though, I'm not sure fans fully realize how good he's been since the start of the 2009 season. He is just one of seven major leaguers to crack 60+ extra base hits and post an on base percentage of .360 or higher in each of the last three years. I'm not suggesting he's as good as the rest of the players on this list, because he isn't. I'm just pointing out that Butler consistently excels in two areas critical to run production and he wouldn't be easy to replace.

Here is the complete list:

	Yrs	From	To	Age
Joey Votto	3	2009	2011	25-27
Troy Tulowitzki	3	2009	2011	24-26
Albert Pujols	3	2009	2011	29-31
Adrian Gonzalez	3	2009	2011	27-29
Miguel Cabrera	3	2009	2011	26-28
Billy Butler	3	2009	2011	23-25
Ryan Braun	3	2009	2011	25-27

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

If you're unimpressed consider that such a season has only been accomplished by twelve players in Royals history. If you add in a minimum 125 OPS+ to the qualifying stats the number of players is reduced to nine

	Yrs	From	To	Age
George Brett	8	1977	1990	24-37
Billy Butler	3	2009	2011	23-25
Danny Tartabull	3	1987	1991	24-28
Mike Sweeney	2	1999	2001	25-27
Johnny Damon	2	1999	2000	25-26
Hal McRae	2	1977	1982	31-36
Alex Gordon	1	2011	2011	27-27
Carlos Beltran	1	2001	2001	24-24
Jermaine Dye	1	2000	2000	26-26
Joe Randa	1	1999	1999	29-29
Al Cowens	1	1977	1977	25-25
John Mayberry	1	1975	1975	26-26

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

As good as the offense is projected to be there are still a lot of questions.

• Can Alex Gordon repeat his 2011 season?
• Will Jeff Francoeur regress to his 2008-2010 numbers?
• Will Mike Moustakas and Johnny Giavotella hit big league pitching?
• Can Lorenzo Cain hit enough to hold down centerfield?

Those answers will be provided during the season, but right now, here's what we do know - Butler will smack around 60 extra base hits and get on base 36% of the time. You know what folks, let's keep him around.

And be happy that he's here.