Lookout Landing

I've mentioned this sort of thing before in other places, but now the timing feels right for a front page post. Last night, Jose Lopez had to come out of the game with a dislocated middle finger, putting the rest of his 2010 season in jeopardy. Lopez's year - and, indeed, his career with Seattle - may have come to a rather abrupt conclusion.

The good part is that we might not have to watch Lopez anymore, and that this opens up a spot for some young players to get a few at bats. The bad part is that it seemed like Lopez was kind of heating up, with three homers that one day a week ago and seven hits in his last five games. It's too bad for Lopez that he doesn't get the opportunity to pick his numbers up a little while he's swinging a good bat.

So let's do it for him. Jose Lopez, right now, owns a .240/.271/.340 batting line on the year. But he was doing pretty well before he got hurt. What's the best he could've done, had that groundball not taken a funny bounce up and knocked out his finger?

The Mariners have five games left in their season. Over those five games, we could've expected Lopez to come up another 21 times. Let's give him 21 home runs over those 21 hypothetical plate appearances. What happens to his batting line?

It gets lifted up to .266/.295/.465. That's a .760 OPS, which right now would tie him for 96th among 203 players with at least 400 trips to the plate.

If, instead of getting hurt, Jose Lopez stayed in and closed the year with 21 consecutive home runs, he would still finish with a lower OPS than that currently owned by Mike Aviles.

It's almost less embarrassing this way.