The MLB is already past one quarter of the season and players that were great are turning into a bust and players that were off to a rough MLB start are becoming booms. So the main question was if these players, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Josh Hader, Marcus Stroman, and Jorge Soler and Mitch Garver are booms or busts.
These hitters’ stats have changed throughout this year’s season starting with Soto, who had a 275 Average, an ops of 929, 109 RBI and 35 home runs. This year he is maintaining an average of .318, an ops of 1.027, 53 RBI and 17 home runs. Last year Ohtani faced an injury of Tommy John towards the end of the season. So this year he couldn’t pitch and his hitting stats were an average of .304, an ops of 1.066, 95 RBI and 44 home runs. This year he is maintaining the stats of a .318 average, an .973 ops, 40 rbi’s and 15 home runs.
Garver had a great year last year helping his team win a world series with stats of a .270 average. An ops of .500, 50 RBI and 19 home runs. This year he has a .175 average, an ops .612, 19 RBI and 6 home runs. Now, Soler hasn’t been playing to the best of his standards, while last year he had a .250 average, an ops of .853, 75 RBI and 36 home runs, this year he has a 215 average, an ops of .664, 18 RBI and 7 home runs.
Now onto our 2 pitchers. Marcus Stroman a starting pitcher that played with the Chicago Cubs last year having a pretty good year maintaining a 3.95 ERA with 10 wins and 9 losses. He ended the season with 119 strikeouts out of 136.2 innings pitched. Over this past year he got traded to the New York Yankees where he’s been having a decent start. At this point of time he has a 3.04 ERA with 5 wins and 2 losses. He has pitched 74 innings with 57 strikeouts. Now onto Josh Hader who is a reliever and played with the San Diego Padres during the 2023 season. He had an ERA of 1.28 with 2 wins and 3 losses. He had 33 saves and 85 strikeouts out of 56.1 innings pitched. He got traded to the Houston Astros this past off season. Now he has an ERA of 4.08 with 3 wins and 4 losses. Healso has 9 saves and 46 strikeouts with 28.2 innings pitched.
Mr Maneri, a WMS coding and math teacher said, “Juan Soto is a major boom”. He was asked if he will stay a boom. Maneri responded with, “Everyone goes through a slump at one point. I don’t think he’ll be in an extended slump. What we are seeing is what we are getting.” Maneri said, “Ohtani is a bust” He explained, “He’s been injured so many times already. He’s a generational talent, but so was Mike Trout. I don’t see longevity out of him.” His opinion on Hader was, “He’s good, I know he had a little bit of a rocky start. It could be the beginning of the contract jitters. Lastly, he was asked about Stroman, “I know he kind of did iffy with the Mets, but as a Blue Jay he was lights out. When he pitched for team USA he was lights out. He wanted to be a Yankee for his entire life, this guy wants to be a Yankee.Part of that is fueling him to go back to what he was as a Blue Jay. He pitched 7 innings and they blew the save and he was like it is what it is. All around dude.”
Ethan Brucato, an 8th grade student at WMS was asked the same questions. Brucato said, “Juan Soto is a boom. Hader is a bust, he had a pretty good year last year. I don’t think he can top that. He was asked about Ohtani. Ethan answered with, “Boom, he’s hitting like .350 right now. He was asked about Stroman. Brucato responded with, “Boom, I think he’s having a pretty good year. Now moving onto Jorge Soler. Ethan said, “He’s not having the best year right now, he could be better. Lastly Mitch Garver was the last to be asked. Ethan said, “Bust, he had a pretty good year last year. That’s one of the only good years he had in his career.
Mr Thompson, a gym teacher at WMS said, “Soto is a boom, Ohtani is a boom, Hader is a boom, Stroman is a bust, Soler is a bust, Garver is a boom.”
Overall from the interviews, our opinions, and stats we can conclude that Juan Sotos is a boom. Ohtani is a mixture of both boom and bust. Hader is a bust. Stroman is a boom. Soler is a bust and lastly Garver is also a bust.
