Collin Cowgill, remember him?
Cowgill was the starting Met center fielder for a brief time last season– the opening day starter who hit a grand slam home run. I noticed a headline in the MLB Morning Line Up the other day, “Cowgill’s Walk-off in 14th Gives Halos Fifth Straight W” and wondered what was going on with the gritty Cowgill.
A check of Cowgill’s statistics proved amazing. So far in 2014 Collin Cowgill is putting together a career year. Who’da Thunk? In 162 plate appearances, Cowgill has a .289 batting average. Not bad. 16 base-on-balls have helped Cowgill amass a .369 on-base-percentage. Not too shabby. Tack on five home runs that help give Cowgill a .437 slugging percentage.
Put it all together and Cowgill’s .806 OPS bests every position player on the Met roster. Say what? That’s right, through one-third of the 2014 season former Met Colin Cowgill’s OPS bests that of any New York Met position player.
Ouch! I knew things were bad but this seems more than ridiculous.
Thoughts from Kirk C.
It’s great to see Cowgill playing well, as I’ve always liked him as a player. However, I don’t think a good 56-game stretch is enough to make me think he’s anything more than a part-time/platoon type player. I think as the season progresses you’ll see those numbers come down. His current BABIP of .388 would be more than 50 points higher than his career norm, and his 14.3% HR/FB is well above his career mark as well. So while it’s encouraging, and all together possible that the 28-year old is coming into his own, I would bet against it carrying forward. That said, it would be nice to have had the 1.7 WAR (which would be 2nd on the Mets) he’s contributed to the Angels thus far.
