posted June 28, 2005 at 15:53 EST in MLB Articles

Sammy who?

The numbers speak for themselves: .390 batting average, 22 home runs, 63 RBI, 59 runs scored, 10 stolen bases, 25 doubles. The scary part is that if he follows his career patterns this guy is only going to improve.

Historically, Lee has started the season cold according to his career numbers, peaking in June and July while he tends to level off in August and September. Lee hit .419 this April and .313 in May, well above his career marks of .232 and .230 respectively for those months.

If these trends continue, Lee could be putting up some obscene numbers by the end of the summer. But how does he compare historically to other players who have gotten of to scorching starts?

Lee is one of only four players since 1968, the year Carl Yastrzemski became the last major leaguer to win a triple crown, to finish May leading his league in batting average, home runs, and RBI. The others were Frank Howard, Bobby Bonilla and Matt Williams.

All of those players ended up sliding back toward their career norms by seasons’ end but as we have stated with Lee if he does that his numbers will actually improve. The sky is the limit for this gold-glove first baseman who already has Cubs’ fans asking ‘Sammy who?’