Fun with Similarities

The 2005 stats are up at baseball-reference.com. One of the cool parts of the player pages are the similarities. For instance, here's the 10 most similar batters to Grady Sizemore through age 22 (Grady's 2005 "baseball" age):

1. Duke Snider
   
2. Carlos Beltran
   
3. Ellis Valentine
   
4. Hank Blalock
   
5. Bruce Campbell
   
6. Ben Grieve
   
7. Tommy Davis
   
8. Scott Rolen
   
9. Gus Bell
   
10. Willie Davis

There's some pretty good players on this list, starting with Hall of Famer Snider. Beltran, Blalock, and Rolen are all current stars, and Ben Grieve is by far the worst on this list.

Here's what shows up for Jhonny Peralta:

1. Ernie Banks
   
2. Shawon Dunston
   
3. Eddie Miller
   
4. Leo Cardenas
   
5. Juan Samuel
   
6. Yogi Berra
   
7. Earl Williams
   
8. Glenn Wright
   
9. Gabby Hartnett
   
10. Dale Sveum

Again, the number one comp is a Hall of Famer. After that, the comps are all over the map, from a slugging second baseman (Samuel) to a Hall of Fame catcher (Berra) to a career utilityman (Sveum).

I doubt any current player under the age of 30 can match Albert Pujols' list:

1. Joe DiMaggio
   
2. Frank Robinson
   
3. Jimmie Foxx
   
4. Hank Aaron
   
5. Hal Trosky
   
6. Vladamir Guerrero
   
7. Orlando Cepeda
   
8. Ken Griffey, Jr.
   
9. Mickey Mantle
   
10. Joe Medwick

Wow.