Korey is Dead, Long Live Corey

It’s been said I rode Corey Patterson like a $2 whore. That was true. I’ve been off his case in disbelief for about two weeks now. Most people think the transition of this young man from Korey (the K for the strikeouts) to Corey happened with the move to leadoff.

Not so.

The transition happened on the 16th anniversary of the first night game in Wrigley. On August 8th, Corey was coming of a huge skid. He’s hit a dinger in Colorado on the 5th and then tail spun. He went 0 for 9 with 6 punchouts. Then he launched a ball into McCovey Cove.

Perhaps Dusty Baker got through to him that the home run swing doesn’t work for you. Perhaps he figured it out himself. Perhaps he got sick of flailing around like a US Mens Olympic Basketballer outside the three point line. I dunno. I do know this. All of a sudden, he figured it out.

Starting August 8th through Sunday, here’s Corey’s numbers:

AB   H   HR   RBI   BB   SO   SB   CS   OBP   SLG   OPS  

53  22    4    10    4    8    8    3   .456  .736  1.192

That’s just sick. But here’s one stat you won’t see. Before August 8th, Korey was on pace to strike out 142 times in a 600 at bat season. Since then? An 84 strikeout pace.

That’s tremendous.

Wanna know Lou Brock’s career strikeout rate per 600 at bats?

100.4.

Now, this is only a 13 game stretch and it screams small sample size. But any real Cubs fan can only hope that this is a portent and not just another tease like May 2003 was.