yeah. remind me if I don’t

Kidding. Always liked the guy, despite his personal failings.

Seeing a LOT of Puckett from his earliest days (I’ll admit that I’ve not seen any of his minor league video, so I couldn’t expound on what Kirby was like in the minors!), he and Tabata are not alike in skills. You do realize that Kirby was quite svelt when he first came in the league, right? He gained size after his first few years, but he was fairly thin when he first entered the league.

I know we’ve done a few age things on the site, and I realize I’m one of few here with anything higher than a 2 at the front of my age, but Kirby and Tabata are not good physical comps. As far as progression, Kirby went from A ball at 23 in 1983 to AAA/majors at 24 in 1984. There is very little progression to compare to, though it is pretty obvious that Tabata has a lot more conservative approach than Puckett ever had. Puckett struck out more and walked much less until late in his career than Tabata does now. In other words, skills-wise, it’s a poor comp as well.

I have Tabata in a dynasty league, and I am very impressed by his change since the trade. My comment on Kirby’s desire as a player was nowhere near a knock on Tabata. Kirby really did everything wrong from a baseball perspective, yet he simply seemed to get better and better as he aged. He added weight, he rarely took pitches (though he seemed to be getting better at that later in his career), and he wasn’t much of a student of the game (not to Tony Gwynn standards, anyway). Yet he had one of his best seasons of his career his last year in the league. I used to love that on a grounder to 3b, he would leg it out like there was no tomorrow. Granted, he led the league in GIDP one season and was up there multiple seasons, but he hustled down the line. His little legs would be spinning like Fred Flinstone on every hit and every ball hit to him on defense.