Late Innings

We all know how well the mainstream media covered the 2008 General Election, and unfortunately their coverage of baseball isn’t getting any better. The Orioles signed Ty Wiggington this morning to a two year contract, and this one quote in the CP piece got to me:

His best season was in 2006, when he batted .275 with 24 homers and 79 RBIs for Tampa Bay.

Granted I thought his 2008 season was good (if it wasn’t Houston would have tendered him a contract.) He hit one less homer, but had a better average. However he didn’t drive in as many runs… looking at the spits:

Ok as you all can see, Wiggington did drive in more runs in 2006, but does that necessarily mean that it was his best career season? Let’s expand these stats as follows:

In either case, Wiggington had all-around better stats in 2008. It’s the same argument that was applied with the Nick Markakis extension and ESPN’s reporting of it (Rich Lederer made the same argument about how the MSM banks behind RBI.)

In either case, I’m glad that the Orioles signed Wiggington. I would have liked Dunn, but he apparently has offers and won’t be a bargain. Now if the Orioles would just sign Ben Sheets and Braden Looper, we’d be in “sleeper” business. Still, we should all be thankful that Andy MacPhail’s wife got her husband a subscription to Baseball Prospectus for Christmas. It’ll pay off for the team in the long run.