Separated at Birth: Kotchman and Ishikawa
Written by Bill   
Friday, 12 March 2010 09:00
What follows is a guest post by the estimable Zach Sanders. Enjoy!

Nowadays, there aren't many first baseman with a "defense first" mindset. Sure, there are some fantastic fielders, but most of them are also great hitters. After all, first base is a key offensive position. However, since "a run is a run, is a run, is a run," whether it's on defense or offense, there is more than one way to get the job done. Two players who get it done on the defensive end, but are lacking on offense, are Travis Ishikawa and Casey Kotchman.

Both Kotchman and Ishikawa were born in 1983. Both are 6'3", and weigh about 220 pounds. Both hit, and throw, left-handed. Those similarities are mere coincidence, to be sure, but help play into the point I'm trying to make. What's not a coincidence is that both players walk rates are in the low 8% range. However, Ishikawa strikes out more than twice as much as Kotchman does.

Looking at both players' careers, we see some distinct similarities at the dish. First, here is a graph of their ISO, by age.

ISO:
ISO graph

The dashed line is there due to Ishikawa's time in the minors. To be fair to both players, here are some things to note: First, Ishikawa's age 22 season was all of 25 PA, and Kotchman's age 23 season was only 88 plate appearances. Even with all of that taken into account, it's scary how close these players come to each other. Ishikawa's career ISO is .137, with Kotchman coming in at a .137 mark as well. Creepy, right? Next, let's take a look at their wOBA graph, once again by age.

wOBA:

wOBA graph

This isn't quite as identical as their ISO's, but Ishiwaka's career wOBA is .320, with Kotchman checking in at .324. If you want to take an even simpler approach, Kotchman's career slash line is .269/.337/.406. Ishikawa's? .265/.330/.406. 

It is always interesting to compare players, in general. But, it is always a little more interesting to compare players who already have one aspect of their game in common. Ishikawa and Kotchman are very similar players on both sides of the ball, and one is going to be a MLB starter while the other is stuck behind Aubrey Huff.

Zach writes for FanGraphs and Baseball Daily Digest. You can follow him on twitter and contact him This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy55034 = 'zach.sanders' + '@'; addy55034 = addy55034 + 'comcast' + '.' + 'net'; var addy_text55034 = 'via email'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text55034 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .


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