Bad Wax

Over the last few days, I have mentioned twice in the last week guys have hit three homers in a night.  Well last night was the Coup de Grace.  A four homer night.  Im my lifetime, I can only remember this happening four times that got any kind of reporting.  Mark Whitten, Carlos DelGado, Shawn Green and Mike Cameron did it, upon further research Bob Horner also did it in my lifetime.

Last night it happened, four jacks in one game, it was Micah Hoffpauir of the Iowa Cubs in the Pacific Coast League (AAA).  This year it’s the first time for a 4 home runs in one game, but three homers in a game have been done 27 times.  Including twice by Dallas McPherson.  Like I have been noting in my posts, the pitching in the minor leagues have not been spectacular of late and it is definitely a major reason for this spike in home runs. But another way to look at this is that the hitting coaching has gotten better.  Many more former major leaguers are becoming hitting instructors and the results have been fascinating to watch.

As far as Micah’s career goes, this year he is doing outstanding, the entire season spent in Iowa he has gone 0.374/19/78 as a first baseman.  He was drafted in the 13th round in 2002 out of Lamar University.  This year he was called up for a brief stint while Derrick Lee was on the DL.  He did very well hitting 0.378/0/1 in just 37 at bats.  At 28 he is getting long in the tooth for a prospect, but then again we thought the same thing for Josh Hamilton.  Micah isn’t your typical first baseman, he doesn’t have major league power that has been associated with the position.

I think though anyone who can hit four home runs in a game, is worth a prospecting look.  Micah has some cards, but only from Tristar and Just Minors. He has a few autographs and you can get them for around a dollar a pop on eBay.  Let’s wish Micah good luck, even if he is going to need a new team to make it to the pros.