Going Deep with Chris Davis

I will be honest, PEDs took the joy of the home run away from me. I simply can't enjoy them the way I used to and I certainly have trouble writing anything historically about baseball homers.

Nevertheless, I have enjoyed watching the power of guys like Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Miguel Cabrera, Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, and I wake up each day hoping they haven't sold me out.

Add Chris Davis to the list.

2013 Baseball's Leading HR Hitters

	HR	G	AB	HR%	HR/FB	K	K%
Chris Davis (BAL)	51	149	542	9.4%	30.7%	184	29.4%
Miguel Cabrera (DET)	44	139	520	8.5%	27.3%	89	14.5%
Edwin Encarnacion (TOR)	36	142	530	6.8%	17.5%	62	10.0%
Mark Trumbo (LAA)	34	149	585	5.8%	23.8%	167	26.2%
Pedro Alvarez (PIT)	33	141	518	6.4%	27.3%	177	31.1%
Paul Goldschmidt (ARI)	33	148	554	6.0%	22.6%	134	20.4%
Alfonso Soriano (NYY)	32	141	551	5.8%	17.9%	143	24.4%
Adam Dunn (CWS)	32	142	504	6.3%	23.2%	180	30.9%
Adam Jones (BAL)	31	150	611	5.1%	19.3%	121	18.8%
Jay Bruce (CIN)	30	150	587	5.1%	17.8%	175	26.8%

Created by BaseballAnalytics.org on 9/18/2013

I like watching Davis with his Dave Kingman swing power the ball high and deep into the stands. As I wrote about on Billy-Ball.com, last night, Davis broke the Orioles franchise record by hitting his 51st homer of the season, breaking the record of 50 held by Brady Anderson set in 1996.

Here's where Davis' 51 homers have landed

Going Deep on Davis

• The 27-year old, left-hand hitting Davis has hit 13 homers against lefties, 38 against righties.
• 27 homers have been hit at Camden Yards (tying Frank Robinson's 1966 home club record but the most at Camden Yards), 24 on the road
• He hit 37 before the break and 14 since the All-Star Game.
• He opened the season homering in the first four games, a feat only done by Willie Mays (1971), Mark McGwire (1998) and Nelson Cruz (2011).
• Davis has hit 38 homers from the #5 slot in the batting order, the most in baseball; Jay Bruce is next with 25.
• He's hit 34 in Orioles wins and 17 in O's losses.
• He's had 48 homers while playing first; three as a DH.
• 17 homers have been hit leading off an inning.
• 13 homers have been hit on the first pitch of an at bat. He's hit two on 0-2 counts, eight on full-counts and one on a 3-0 count.
• 22 homers have been hit with no out, 17 with one out, and 12 with two outs.
• He's had 22 homers with men on base, and 29 solo shots.
• He hit 12 homers in June, 10 in May, nine each in April and August, seven in July, and so far, four in September.
• 18 have been hit against fastballs, 10 against sliders, nine against change-ups, five each against curves and sinkers, two against cutters, and one each off splitters and knuckleballs.
• 23 of Davis’s homers have either tied the game or given the Orioles the lead.
• He's had three games with two homers.
• He's hit 20 homers in the first three innings, 17 in innings 4-6, and 14 in innings 7-9. He has none in extra innings.

I just hope...

I just hope that Chris Davis is clean, and stays clean.