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Brian Giles Announces Retirement, Was Awesome

Brian Giles retired today, and I have a feeling that he probably won't get the recognition he deserves for being a truly remarkable hitter for a long time. Frankly, I'm not sure he ever got it, though the Padres did once trade Jason Bay and Oliver Perez for him so it seems like someone in San Diego thought very highly of him.

I'm not saying that people didn't realize he was a good player, just that they probably don't realize how good he was for a little while there.

wOBA1 wOBA2 wOBA3 wOBA4
Brian Giles .434 .433 .413 .445
Alex Rodriguez .433 .428 .424 .420
Albert Pujols .462 .439 .436 .448

The table above represents the best consecutive four-season stretches for Giles (1999-2002), Alex Rodriguez (2000-2003), and Albert Pujols (2003-2006). They don't necessarily represent these players' four best seasons, but perhaps the peaks of their careers (though Pujols might actually be in the midst of his peak right now). While Giles has still been a decent player for the last few years (notwithstanding 2009), he doesn't have nearly the dominant longevity of the other two. Nevertheless, his offensive peak was at least as good as Rodriguez's and not too far off from Pujols's, which puts Giles in pretty good company with arguably the two best non-Bondsian players of the past decade.

Giles's traditional offensive slash lines for those seasons are just awesome.

AVG OBP SLG OPS
1999 .315 .418 .614 1.032
2000 .315 .432 .594 1.026
2001 .309 .404 .590 .994
2002 .298 .450 .622 1.072

The highest Giles ever finished in the MVP voting was 13th in 2002, and he was only an All-Star in two of his four peak seasons. Leg injuries—his knees and ankles in particular—destroyed his power following 2002, as it dipped from .622 to .514. The massive alleys at Petro Park surely did him no favors either, though Giles was able to stick around for a number of years on the strength of his superb eye at the plate. He'll retire with considerably more walks than strikeouts: 1183 to 835. He doesn't have 300 homeruns or even 2,000 hits, and he doesn't really have a chance to make the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in five years, but at his best he was surpassed by very few of his contemporaries.

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In 2002

Giles walked a whopping 135 times, second to Barry Bonds’ ridiculous 198 walks. It seems like these guys who walk a ton are lesser. The amount of players with over 100 walks in 2002 (12) compared with 2009 (4). Maybe it’s coincidental, or maybe pitchers aren’t as willing to pitch around batters anymore with the lower, less steroid-induced power numbers.

Trying to believe is my full-time occupation.

by Preach19 on Mar 11, 2010 11:12 PM EST reply actions  

Probably the latter.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 12, 2010 12:13 AM EST up reply actions  

PETCO killed his career.

"I only wanted a few things out of life -- a wife, children, to play baseball and to hunt deer." - Turk Wendell

by Rey-O on Mar 11, 2010 11:59 PM EST reply actions  

wow i never realized how good he was. guess i was a little too young and a little to naive.

by packimop on Mar 12, 2010 1:05 AM EST reply actions  

I think it's the steep aging curve, and the injuries, that killed his reputation

Why didn’t Giles ever get the respect he deserved? Because after the epic ‘02 and decent ’03 seasons his career just basically fell off a cliff, and the sort of late-career recognition that sometimes builds slowly for small-market stars never had a chance to pile up. (I think of the contrasting case as somebody like Larry Walker, whose reputation always seemed to lag behind his performance by five years or so, but eventually caught up late in the day.) The endless comparisons with his brother probably didn’t help, either — every discussion about Brian’s performance sagging seemed to inevitably segue into talking about Marcus rather than looking back over Brian’s career.

Great post, anyhow, and I’m glad to see the generosity of the non-Met love here.

by anonymous on Mar 12, 2010 1:18 AM EST reply actions  

Brian had excellent MLB showdown cards

so he will always have a fond place in my heart.

Travis Hafner is made of gold

by Super Mario on Mar 12, 2010 1:52 AM EST reply actions  

Great player

Major league dirtbag. At least from what I have read.

by wobatus on Mar 12, 2010 9:51 AM EST reply actions  

Lol yeah that was my first thought

it’s hard for me to drum up any sympathy for him being underrated.

"We have a plan, and our plan, I like our plan'

it's Omar's world, we're just livin in it.

by Gina on Mar 12, 2010 9:56 AM EST up reply actions  

nobody said he was underrated as a human being.

In fact, I think almost everybody thinks he’s a scumbag, whatever their opinion of him as a ballplayer.

by anonymous on Mar 12, 2010 2:34 PM EST up reply actions  

Damn

On wikipedia it says he’s being sued by his ex for beating her while she was pregnant with his kid and caused her to miscarry. Dirtbag seems like too nice of a word.

by Evan_S on Mar 12, 2010 12:40 PM EST up reply actions  

Yeah, that's piece of shit territory right there.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 12, 2010 1:36 PM EST up reply actions  

Great hitter but

I always assumed him and his brother were big time juicers. The size of both their heads/jaws were ridiculous. His power dropped off a cliff and that led to some more speculation. It was somewhat due to Petco, but he didn’t hit much on the road either.

by Mackey Sasser on Mar 12, 2010 11:21 AM EST reply actions  

Hard to believe that he played over 100 games more in San Diego than in Pittsburgh

doesn’t seem like that long ago that he was traded

2009 Did Not Happen

by cjmulrain on Mar 12, 2010 2:23 PM EST reply actions  

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