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...seeing as how they had similar career arcs through their age 29 seasons.  Ibanez through age 29, was a part time player that had never shown enough to get a full time job, having a career OPS of .678 with good, but not great, power when he joined a lousy Royals team in 2001.  What changed for Ibanez that season?  Was it his "career" BABiP of .266, was it some adjustment Raul made, or was it simply that half way through June, he started to get consistent major league playing time?  I'm not a Royals scholar, and wasn't inlined to particularly research Ibanez 2001 season any more than to look at the stats, I just thought it was funny, and would be funnier still if Ryan Langerhans followed a similar late bloomer career path.
 
I also thought it might be interesting to relate that, in fast ball counts (2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1 to my understanding) Ryan is batting .361/.622/.514.  I know the reaction to that should be the same as me saying it rains in Seattle (He hits in hitter's counts, surprising!).  The interesting thing is that he only has 3 home runs in 105 at bats, that makes a ratio of 1 homer for every 35 balls put in play, in comparison to the rest of his at bats, where he hits it out 1 out of a little more than every 27 balls in play.  By comparison, Jose Lopez, who we've already established doesn't hit fastballs very well, hits a home run 1 out of 19.5 balls in play in those counts, compared to 1 for every 42 balls in play otherwise.
 
So this means, when Jose Lopez knows he's getting a fastball, even though he usually doesn't fare that well against them, he can still smash it.  Ryan Langerhans on the other hand, can't crank one as well as he would if he thought he might see a curveball.  One would think that, since Jose will go after anything close, he would be the one more likely to hit fewer homeruns in fastball counts, making weaker contact on fastballs outside the strike zone compared to Langerhans, with his more patient approach, only swinging at the riper fastballs, but this isn't what happens.  Of course, small sample size caveats apply, if Langerhans see a fastball count tonight and gets a home run, then his "fastball count" homer ratio comes even with his "all other counts" ratio.  Still, I think it's an interesting statistic that helps prove he has to cheat on fastballs, so maybe he doesn't go on to have Ibanez career arc after all.
 
PS  Just in case anyone was wondering, Langerhans and Lopez both their same patterns with extrabase hits in general.

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