Cross-posted at my weblog.  I took a look at Albert's amazing numbers through the lens of the new fangraphs website.

Fangraphs is a cool new website that provides daily-updated graphs of major league player performance going back to 2002. The graphs remind me a bit of those stock indexes one would find in the business section of the newspaper. Check out the graphs for Tampa Bay Devil Ray Aubrey Huff. Looking at how his on-base and slugging performance climbs high in the second half of each season, Huff's reputation as a "second-half player" appears well-earned.


From a fan's perspective, I love these graphs, simply because I can look up favorite players and see how they've performed over the years.  From a fantasy baseball manager's perspective, these graphs could prove very useful, much in the way stock indexes can give a Wall Street speculator valuable information on stock performance. If, for example, you know a player like Aubrey Huff consistently starts the season sluggishly only to hit the heck out of the ball after the All-Star break, you can buy him low mid-season and expect a high return for the second half.  Likewise, if you have a player who the graphs show consistently to start strong in the first half but diminish in the second half, you can trade that player for, say, an Aubrey Huff.


Another cool thing about this site is viewing the graphs by season for a player like St. Louis Cardinal Albert Pujols. As the OBP, SLG and AVG points show, Pujols has produced at a remarkably high and remarkably consistent rate. What's further impressive is the yearly decline in strikeout percentage and the yearly increase in walk (BB) percentage, suggesting that his pitch recognition has only improved over time. An already high "upside" is only getting higher for "El Hombre."