by chess2899 » Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:37 pm
Along with the more successful Bobby Murcer, Roger Repoz labored under media predictions that he would be the next Mickey Mantle while in the New York Yankees' farm system. Although Repoz was an impressive-looking athlete with good speed and considerable power, he was never able to hit for much of an average. Repoz held the record for lowest batting average by a major league outfielder with 2,000+ AB until Rob Deer broke it. As of 1999, he had the 18th lowest batting average among infielders or outfielders with over 2,000 AB. His OPS+ in the majors was a respectable 105, though.
Repoz was nicknamed "The Destroyer" during his years with the Angels due to his tendency to destroy dugout water coolers after strikeouts.
At age 30, Roger hit .199/.333/.374 for the 1971 Angels but his combination of walks and power again kept his OPS+ over 100 (107) and he was the top offensive force in the California outfield.
Roger moved to Japan in 1973, signing with the Taiheiyo Club Lions and hitting .220/.312/.430. The next year, he joined the Yakult Swallows. He batted .232/.331/.486 for the 1974 club with 25 homers. In 1975, he made the Best Nine with a .292/.373/.527 season, smashing 27 home runs to go with his new-found contact hitting. He joined Hiroaki Inoue and Koji Yamamoto in being honored as the top three outfielders in the Central League. That year, he also hit the 15,000th homer in CL history, doing so on May 18.
At age 35 in Japan, the veteran produced at a .274/.374/.571 clip in 1976, crushing 36 home runs, driving in 81 and scoring 79. He fell to .263/.328/.490 in 1977 with 22 HR and it would be his final season. In either 1976 or 1977, Repoz, Clyde Wright and Charlie Manuel fought the East German hockey team in a Japanese club after the hockey players had been hassling a woman there. The Americans got the worse part of the brawl.
WHY CAN'T WE GET JAPANESE STATS IN THESE FANTASY LEAGUES???