Melky And A-Rod Own Papelbon (?!)

After I did the analysis of Mariano Rivera against the Red Sox, one of my readers said "now show how dominant Jonathan Papelbon has been against the Yankees". So I pulled up all the players with at least 8 career plate appearances and I was surprised by what I found (below). Melky Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez have pretty much owned Papelbon. 17 plate appearances between the two, 13 hits, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, 3 BBs and only 5 Ks (4 of them coming from A-Rod). So Melky Cabrera has basically owned Papelbon. If only Papelbon was a starter (j/k)!

Alas, the reader was not totally incorrect, Johnny Damon ranks dead last: in 12 plate appearances, he's never gotten a hit. But my calls for Frank Catalanotto for the bench should be stronger with this stat: in 10 PAs against Papelbon, he has 5 hits.

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+
Melky Cabrera       8   5   2  1  0  1   2   2   1  .400  .571 1.200   1.771     1   0   0   0   0              
 Alex Rodriguez      9   8   3  0  0  1   3   1   4  .375  .444  .750   1.194     0   0   0   0   0              
 Russ Adams          9   9   3  1  0  1   5   0   2  .333  .333  .778   1.111     0   0   0   0   0              
 Frank Catalanotto  10  10   5  1  0  0   0   0   1  .500  .500  .600   1.100     0   0   0   0   0              
 Dioner Navarro      8   8   2  1  0  1   2   0   2  .250  .250  .750   1.000     0   0   0   0   0              
 Orlando Cabrera     8   8   3  1  0  0   0   0   1  .375  .375  .500    .875     0   0   0   0   0              
 Alexis Rios         8   8   3  1  0  0   0   0   1  .375  .375  .500    .875     0   0   0   0   0              
 Bobby Abreu        10   6   1  1  0  0   2   4   2  .167  .500  .333    .833     0   0   1   0   0              
 Brian Roberts      10   7   2  0  0  0   1   3   2  .286  .500  .286    .786     0   0   0   0   0              
 Jason Giambi        9   7   2  1  0  0   2   1   4  .286  .333  .429    .762     0   1   0   0   0              
 Robinson Cano      10   9   3  0  0  0   1   1   1  .333  .400  .333    .733     0   0   0   0   0              
 Derek Jeter        14  12   3  1  0  0   3   2   4  .250  .357  .333    .690     0   0   0   0   0              
 Carl Crawford      10   9   2  1  0  0   0   1   4  .222  .300  .333    .633     0   0   1   0   0              
 Gregg Zaun         14  11   2  1  0  0   0   3   2  .182  .357  .273    .630     0   0   0   0   0              
 Mark Ellis          8   8   2  1  0  0   0   0   2  .250  .250  .375    .625     0   0   0   0   0              
 Ivan Rodriguez      8   7   2  0  0  0   1   0   2  .286  .286  .286    .572     1   0   0   0   0              
 Lyle Overbay       10  10   2  0  0  0   0   0   4  .200  .200  .200    .400     0   0   0   0   0              
 Vernon Wells       13  13   2  1  0  0   0   0   1  .154  .154  .231    .385     0   0   0   0   0              
 Vladimir Guerrero  11  10   1  0  0  0   0   1   3  .100  .182  .100    .282     0   0   1   0   1              
 Aaron Hill          8   8   1  0  0  0   0   0   2  .125  .125  .125    .250     0   0   0   0   0 
Johnny Damon       12  10   0  0  0  0   0   2   2  .000  .167  .000    .167     0   0   0   0   0