Alex Birge is another example of Cal Baseball's ability to develop future pros. He didn't do much offensively during his time at Wichita State, but found the power at Cal to be the team's top homerun hitter last season.
This Birge news got me to look up what happened to Kade Kretzschmar, who was a graduate student at Cal after a solid career at Dartmouth. Kretzschmar also signed with the Cardinals organization as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and played that year and 2024 before being out of organized baseball after reaching the High-A.
Birge had a good on-base percentage for the Bears to go with his HR numbers. A good combination. Though batted ball % (vs. K’s) is important, I’ve come to value OBP as much as BA. Mark Canha’s long MLB career is testament to the value of high OBP.
That's true too, but I prefer WOBA as a more comprehensive metric to measure overall offensive value. I wonder too if biomechanics was another reason the cardinals signed him. Alas, we will never really know
Alex Birge is another example of Cal Baseball's ability to develop future pros. He didn't do much offensively during his time at Wichita State, but found the power at Cal to be the team's top homerun hitter last season.
This Birge news got me to look up what happened to Kade Kretzschmar, who was a graduate student at Cal after a solid career at Dartmouth. Kretzschmar also signed with the Cardinals organization as an undrafted free agent in 2023 and played that year and 2024 before being out of organized baseball after reaching the High-A.
Very interesting comparison! I wondered what happened to him
Birge had a good on-base percentage for the Bears to go with his HR numbers. A good combination. Though batted ball % (vs. K’s) is important, I’ve come to value OBP as much as BA. Mark Canha’s long MLB career is testament to the value of high OBP.
That's true too, but I prefer WOBA as a more comprehensive metric to measure overall offensive value. I wonder too if biomechanics was another reason the cardinals signed him. Alas, we will never really know
Very thoughtful post David. I’ve never seen one like it. I’m sure Birge appreciates
Thank You :)