With all of the people overly excited with the prospect of Adam Laroche being traded I thought I'd do a little fanpost on Adam since I'm sure there won't be any shrines set up by fans commemorating his time spent with the Bucs.  Adam may be one of the most hated players in Pirates history and for reasons that continue to escape me.  I've read numerous blogs where posters consantly suggest we should "dump" Laroche for a bag of balls or flat out release him because any replacement would surely perform better.  Well, everyone calling for the end of the Adam Laroche tenure in Pittsburgh may soon get their wish, but I caution you all to be aware of the fact that this team will not improve simply by subtracting Adam from the lineup and replacing him with someone on our roster.  Plain and simple we will be a weaker team offensively and defensively.  So before he is gone I would like to conduct a little history lesson because I believe that Adam is the best Pirate's first baseman since Willie Stargell ended his career there.  Hope you all enjoy the post and I'm interested to hear everyone's comments.

                                         AB     R    H      2B  3B  HR   RBI   BB    SO    AVG   OBP   SLG       OPS
1982 - J. Thompson:  550   87  156    32   0    31    101  101   107   .284   .391   .511       .902
1983 - J. Thompson:  517   70  134    20   1    18     76     99   128    .259   .376   .406       .782
1984 - J. Thompson:  543   61  138    22   0    17     74     87     73     .254   .357   .389       .746
1985 - J. Thompson:  402   42    97    17   1    12     61     84     58     .241   .369   .378       .747
1986 - S. Bream:         522   73  140    37   5    16     77     60     73     .268   .341   .450       .791
1987 - S. Bream:         516   64  142    25   3    13     65     49     69     .275   .336   .411       .747
1988 - S. Bream:         462   50  122    37   0    10     65     47     64     .264   .328   .409       .737
*1989 - S. Bream:         36       3      8     3    0      0       4     12     10      .222   .417   .306       .723
1990 - S. Bream:         389   39   105   23   2     15    67     48     65     .270   .349   .455       .804
1991 - O. Merced:        411   83   113  17    2     10    50     64     81     .275   .373   .399       .772
1992 - O. Merced:        405   50   100   28   5      6     60     52     63     .247   .332   .385        .717
1993 - K. Young:          449   38   106   24   3      6     47    36      82     .236   .300   .343        .643
*1994 - B. Hunter:       233    28     53   15   1     11    47    15      55     .227   .270   .442        .712
*1995 - M. Johnson:   221    32     46     6   1     13    28     37     66     .208   .326    .421       .747
*1996 - J. King:           453    69      30   24   1     17    80     51     74     .287   .357   .457        .814
1997 -  K. Young:        333    59    100  18   3     18    74     16     89     .300   .332   .535        .867
1998 - K. Young          592    88    160  40   2     27   108    44   127     .270   .328   .481       .809
1999 - K. Young:         584  103    174  41   6     26   106    75   124     .298   .387   .522       .909
2000 - K. Young:         496    77    128  27   0     20     88    32     96      .258   .311   .433       .744
2001c - K. Young:       449    53    104  33   0     14     65    42   119      .232   .310   .399       .709
2002 - K. Young:         468    60    115  26   1     16    51     50   101      .246   .322   .408       .730
2003 - R. Simon:        307    34      84  14    0     10    51     12     30      .274   .305   .417       .722
*2004 - D. Ward:         293    39      73  17    2     15    57     22     45      .249   .305   .474       .779
2005 -  D. Ward:         407     46   106   21   1     12    63     37     60      .260   .318   .405       .723
*2006 - S. Casey:       213     30     63  15    0       3    29     23     22      .296  . 377    .408       .785  
2007 - A. Laroche:      563    71    153  42   0     21    88     62    131     .272   .345    .458       .803
2008 - A. Laroche:      492    66    133  32   3     25    85     54    122     .270   .341    .500       .841                            
2009 - A. Laroche:      230    37      60  21   1        9    32     36     55      .261    .357   .478       .835

*Years in which 1B AB’s were split over two or more players due to platoons, injuries or trades.  In each case I chose the player with the most G’s played at 1B with the exception of 1989 when numerous players were rotated in and out of the position over the year so there is no significant split.  Bream was the hands down starter so I just left his stats in there.

Below are Adam's numbers in Atlanta.

Atlanta:
2005 - A. Laroche:   451  53   117 28    0      20   78      39     87  .259     .320   .455      .775
2006 - A. Laroche:   492  89   140 38    1      32   90      55   128  .285     .354   .561      .915

Next is a look at the career numbers of the three best offensive 1B over the last 25 years:  Kevin Young, Jason  Thompson and Adam Laroche.

                                        AB      R      H       2B  3B   HR  RBI     BB    SO      AVG     OBP    SLG    OPS
Career - Young:         3,897  536 1,007 235  17  144  606    336   882    .258     .324    .438     .762
Career - Thompson:4,802  640 1,253 204  12  208  782    816   862    .261     .366    .438     .804                                  
Career - Laroche:      2,552  361    693 188    6  120  418    273   601    .272     .341    .491     .832

Now let's take a look at how the each performed during their Pirates career.  I didn't have access to all the information to accurately state this next section (I got sick of researching stats) so I excluded statistical outliers for Thompson and Young.  I eliminated season stats in which the players had less than 250 AB's.  In Adam's case I left in 2009 even though he was below 250 AB's because the other players have accumulated a lot more AB's over their careers than Adam has to date.  I then took an overall average of each player's OPS during their stay in the Burg.  This is not exact for the reasons mentioned but my exclusions/inclusions hurt my argument more than help it.  In Thompson's case it did hurt him slightly.  In 1981 he had an OPS of .898 in 223 AB's.  Had I left 81' in it would have raised his Pitt. career OPS to .815.  In Young's case the season's I excluded he had less than 200 AB's in each season and the stats would have pulled down his OPS. 

Pirates Career:
                                 OPS 
Young:                    .773     slightly overstated from outlier exclusion 
Thompson:            .794     slightly understated from outlier exclusion
Laroche:                 .826     slightly understated from outlier inclusion

As you can see Laroche has a better OPS than both Thompson and Young.  The best offensive season for the three players is listed next:

Career Years:
                               OPS 
Young:                  .909 
Thompson:          .902
Laroche:               .915

Unfortunately Adam's best season came while he was in Atlanta.  His best for the Pirates was last year when he had an OPS of  .841.  However, I have a suspicion that 2009 will be his best year given his nice start in April and his numbers in June to date.  Adam has a 1.034 OPS in June and he is just getting going.

So, decide for yourself who is the best Pirates 1B since Willie but given the revolving door at the position over the last 25 years it is amazing how under appreciated Adam Laroche is.  It's baffling.  The numbers above are simply offensive stats; I didn't even mention defense.  Without spending more hrs looking up defensive metrics I'll just say that from my memory alone I don't believe that Thompson or Young were known for their defense at first.  I could be wrong.  Either way, we will miss Adam when he is gone...believe in that!