A post that's full of bull

I've mentioned here and there during my ramblings that I enjoy nicknames.  I could probably even start writing posts just about the great nicknames that have been given to players over the years.  (Chicken man is one of my favorites...)

I'm sure that there are a lot of you that probably can think of other instances, but the only nickname that I can ever remember having been given to two different players is "Bull".

I may be reaching just a bit, since the current version of the nickname is owned by Pedro Alvarez, who is commonly referred to by the Spanish version of the name, El Toro.

Those of you out there who are my age (or near), may remember the other bull that tore the cover off of the ball back in the 70's and early 80's, Greg Luzinski.

I figured, what the hell, let's do a comparison between the bulls, and see how the modern version stacks up to the 70's version.

Alvarez has 4 full seasons in the bigs to date, so I'll use that for comparison purposes.  (NOTE:  I did not use the '70 & '71 seasons for Luzinski, as he was only on the Phillies for limited periods of time.)

                             Alvarez               Luzinski
Games                    470                     557
Average                .235                    .286
Doubles                   77                      108
Triples                       5                       13
HR                           86                       88
RBI                         268                     333
Strikeouts             565                     476
Walks                     166                     211
Slugging Pct.      .443                  .479

Alvarez's 2011 season was dampened by injuries, but the numbers are noticeably in favor of Luzinski, both in batting average (50 point difference), and strikeouts (Alvarez with 80 more in 400 fewer ABs)

Alvarez does have 2 consecutive 30+ HR seasons to his credit, while Luzinski has a season of 34 and one of 29.

Luzinski's 4th season garnered him enough votes to finish 2nd in the MVP race (behind Joe Morgan).  Both Luzinski and Alvarez had all star game appearances in their 4th season.

Alvarez appeared in the post season first (4th season), while Luzinski's Phillies appeared in the NLCS in his 5th season.

In another 4 years, it will be interesting to revisit this comparison, as Luzinski had a couple of great power seasons in his 6th and 7th years.  The way Alvarez's numbers have progressed the past two years, we just may see a 40+ HR season.  Pedro's batting average needs to increase and the strikeouts to decrease in order for the gap between these two bulls to decrease.

In my opinion, the 70's "Bull" is ahead so far.  It should be fun to watch El Toro over the next few years and I think over time the comparison between these two should even out some more.

Thanks for reading, Robert