I just find Sano to be a very difficult to predict hitter. He has 80 power, he has great pitch recognition and plate discipline. Those things are great. He also really struggles to make contact. His K% was sky high last year and so was his BABIP. The thing is, he hits the ball as hard as anyone not named Stanton, he uses all fields pretty well and he has a good line drive rate. The BABIP will inevitably come down but I think he'll keep it pretty high. 

 

 

You mean lifetime .982 ops Mark McGwire who averaged 50 HR per 162 games?

I will take that.

 

Yeah, what I mostly was referring to was the medium average, high home run totals type player.  McGwire also had a lifetime BA of .263 and he never won the MVP award because of this, although he came close multiple times.  Killebrew is another hard hitter that is like this and he did manage to win the MVP award despite his .276 BA, but it's rare these days for someone to win with an under .300 BA.

 

I have no doubt Sano should end up in similar company as long as his health holds up.