I was looking at Baseball Reference's page for the 2014 Padres for something completely unrelated when I noticed that Alexi Amarista and Will Venable have nearly identical offensive statistics this season. This says more about Venable than it does Amarista, because Alexi's year is what we expected from him, more or less. Venable, the 2013 team MVP, made the comparison possible with his dramatic drop-off.
| G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB | GIDP | |
| Amarista | 137 | 423 | 384 | 36 | 93 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 33 | .242 | .292 | .313 | .604 | 77 | 120 | 6 |
| Venable | 135 | 411 | 370 | 39 | 82 | 13 | 2 | 6 | 28 | .222 | .289 | .316 | .605 | 77 | 117 | 5 |
| Difference | 2 | 12 | 14 | -3 | 9 | -2 | 0 | -2 | 5 | .020 | .003 | -.003 | -.001 | 0 | 3 | -1 |
Those lines are nearly indistinguishable. On top of that, Amarista has the edge in 9 of the 17 categories, with toss-ups in two of them. Who saw that coming in March?
Since I mentioned Amarista's last two seasons being similar and Venable's last two seasons being dramatically dissimilar, here are the numbers to bear it out:
| Amarista | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB | GIDP |
| 2013 | 146 | 396 | 368 | 35 | 87 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 32 | .236 | .282 | .337 | .619 | 79 | 124 | 7 |
| 2014 | 137 | 423 | 384 | 36 | 93 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 33 | .242 | .292 | .313 | .604 | 77 | 120 | 6 |
| Difference | -9 | 27 | 16 | 1 | 6 | -3 | -2 | -1 | 1 | .006 | .010 | -.024 | -.015 | -2 | -4 | 1 |
Of course, there are still 11 games left in the season, so some of those negatives will become positives or at least washes. Venable, on the other hand...
| Venable | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB | GIDP |
| 2013 | 151 | 515 | 481 | 64 | 129 | 22 | 8 | 22 | 53 | .268 | .312 | .484 | .796 | 126 | 233 | 6 |
| 2014 | 135 | 411 | 370 | 39 | 82 | 13 | 2 | 6 | 28 | .222 | .289 | .316 | .605 | 77 | 117 | 5 |
| Difference | -16 | -104 | -111 | -25 | -47 | -9 | -6 | -16 | -25 | -.046 | -.023 | -.168 | -.191 | -49 | -116 | 1 |
Ouch. As you can see, he had astronomical drops across the board. The lone positive is that Venable has grounded into one less double play this year- and when you take into account that he had less chances to do so, and still might in the next 11 games, even that is soured.
I didn't expect Will Venable to replicate his 2013 numbers this year, but I definitely wasn't anticipating Tall Amarista. Shows what I know.