Any Chance Chooch is Juicing?

[RickyPrior]

First time, ever, away from the Sixers Forum. And so forgive me if this has been discussed.

Now I LOVE Chooch, etc etc

But his numbers, compared to previous years, are just out of sight. As you all know.

Any chance? Is anyone else the least bit curious?

[The A Team]

Is there a chance? Of course.

But I'd say it's unlikely. Catchers have a habit of having career years late in their career. Then they quickly break down.

[Jbendz]

Go back to the Sixers forum.

[RickyPrior]

Go back to the Sixers forum.

I suppose the use of the smiley face was supposed to minimize the rudeness?

The guy's batting average is up SEVENTY points in one year. A HUNDRED points since '09. Heck, he batted .219 in '08!

He's DOUBLED his HR output - in one half of a year - compared to last year's entire season. And in fact in his first 80 games he's knocked out the same number as he had in the two previous seasons COMBINED.

SNIFF SNIFF

Something's fishy.

[Fred]

Ricky, not in here. Chooch is loved by all...besides, how do you say juicing in Spanish?

[PhillyBronco08]

as long as he didnt hang out with galvis he is good.. j/k ........... this day in baseball it wouldnt shock me if anyone did PED's but chooch is clean IMO he just worked hard in the offseason got ready and this is the result


PS NBA SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSs

[RickyPrior]

Ricky, not in here. Chooch is loved by all...besides, how do you say juicing in Spanish?

I love him too. But, c'mon....it has to be discussed. In this day and age, it's a shame, yeah...but SEVENTY points?

(And I assume he worked "hard" in all the other off-seasons.)


New nickname: el jugo

[The A Team]

I don't suppose you know much about baseball analytics?

If you do, you'll be familiar with BABIP (batting average on balls in play) which is considered a crude measure of "luck."

As you can imagine, anytime a ball is put in play, there is a chance it's fielded for an out of falls for a hit. There are times when a guy stings the ball and the shortstop makes a leaping catch. Anywhere else on the diamond and that ball is a hit.

Over the course of a season, a player can be lucky, unlucky, or neutral. A lucky hitter might get a number of seeing eye singles that should have been outs and/or some hits that happened to land right in front of an Adam Dunn quality defensive atrocity. An unlucky hitter is the opposite, perhaps they hit too many balls near Michael Bourn.

Lesson in luck aside, Chooch as a very high BABIP - .362. His BABIP should be around .315. Let's call that a 50 point difference which is the same as saying that 5% of his hits on balls in play should have been outs. That's roughly 5 hits to date which reduces his batting average down to .331.

There's more to it then that, but it's possible to deconstruct most of Chooch's season as a sabermetric anomaly. He's certainly been very good even when adjusted back to luck neutral, but it's not such a stark change.

[RickyPrior]

You're over-thinking it. How about we compare his stats to guys who were proven to have juiced? And let's track how THEIR stats peaked from one season to the next.

Or.

We could just ask him to make a muscle.

[Phillyball2012]

If they dont discuss jose bautista, they're not gonna discuss ruiz. going into 2010 bautista had 52 career hr's and he comes out of no where and hits 54. joeybats is on juice chooch isn't.

[More-Than-Most]

If he is he should share it with the rest of the roster... Kendrick Juicing...He would never give up a run.

I am a firm believer that its only cheating if you get caught lol

[sexicano31]

If they dont discuss jose bautista, they're not gonna discuss ruiz. going into 2010 bautista had 52 career hr's and he comes out of no where and hits 54. joeybats is on juice chooch isn't.

So you think that in 3 years Bautista has been able to cheat steroid tests? yeah, no.

OP, go back to the sixers forum

[Jbendz]

I suppose the use of the smiley face was supposed to minimize the rudeness?

The guy's batting average is up SEVENTY points in one year. A HUNDRED points since '09. Heck, he batted .219 in '08!

He's DOUBLED his HR output - in one half of a year - compared to last year's entire season. And in fact in his first 80 games he's knocked out the same number as he had in the two previous seasons COMBINED.

SNIFF SNIFF

Something's fishy.

Yeah. Fixed that for ya.

[bringbackfredex]

If they dont discuss jose bautista, they're not gonna discuss ruiz. going into 2010 bautista had 52 career hr's and he comes out of no where and hits 54. joeybats is on juice chooch isn't.

Well considering Bautista has been tested multiple times over the last 3 years, he must be on magic undetectable steroids.

[fanofclendennon]

I'm impressed at the OP's condor. As a Met fan, I've been thinking the same thing about Scott Hairston.

I think it's always a fair question to ask.