So Pepper is one up on Chipper Jones.

Don Pepper and Cisco Carlos. Got to love those names.

Well, if you look at his stat line it's pretty clear that the reason he didn't excel in the bigs is that he wasn't that good. He hit 19 homers in AA at the age of 24, and that was pretty much the extent of his accomplishments to that point.

Bench must be a jink--the guy on the right didn't make it either

don is the father of dottie pepper, the lpga star.
agreed that pepper's minor league #s are not impressive.
here's an si article on he and carlos.

Well, if you look at his stat line it's pretty clear that the reason he didn't excel in the bigs is that he wasn't that good. He hit 19 homers in AA at the age of 24, and that was pretty much the extent of his accomplishments to that point.

He hit 19 homers in AA at the age of 22.

Would he have gotten his break with the Expos? I don't know the order of acquisition but the 69 Expos got very good production out of their corners:

1B Bailey 111 OPS+
LF Mack Jones 142
RF Staub 166
1B/OF Fairly 142

Even Coco Laboy had a decent year at 3B. The Expos stunk everywhere else and fell to an 87 team OPS+.

In '68, Pepper hit .248/.298/.396 with Toledo as a 24 year old. The year before, also in Toledo, he hit .277/.312/.411.
I don't know how Pepper was regarded, but he looks a little like a slightly lesser Lars Anderson.

In '68, Pepper hit .248/.298/.396 with Toledo as a 24 year old. The year before, also in Toledo, he hit .277/.312/.411.
I don't know how Pepper was regarded, but he looks a little like a slightly lesser Lars Anderson.

But remember the time period. I have no idea what minors run-scoring was like but the 1967 NL line was 249/310/363 and 1968 line was 243/300/341. I don't imagine his lines translated very well even in those circumstances but a 140ish ISO wasn't too bad and those numbers almost have to be better in context than Anderson.

For example (2nd guy I looked at, not cherry-picked):

Pepper
22 at AA: 302/358/469
23 at AAA: 277/312/411

Bob Watson
21 at AA: 279/355/467
21 at AAA: 264/310/419

Obviously the age difference is quite important but you can see the general context. By the way, Watson at age 22 at AAA: 349/418/737 in 86 PA but he did struggle and was back in the minors at 23 (maybe injury recovery as he spent some time in rookie ball).

Another potentially reasonable comp is Lou Piniella:

21 at AA: 249/281/400
22 at AAA: 289/321/396
23 at AAA: 308/340/424
25 in MLB: 1969 AL RoY (with just a 107 OPS+)

On the contrary, they were pretty much identical performers relative to league. We're missing park factors, ignoring defense and differences in league quality that may have arisen over the last 45 years, and skipping their work before age 21 due to a lack of walk data for Pepper (Lars was a lot better prior to then, but is probably of little import anyway):
[Note: gpa = Gleeman's quick and dirty uber stat: (1.8oba+slg)/4 ]

Here's Lars:

Here's Don:


Lars' age 22 year was 87% AAA:


Furthermore, I like that Lars' power is concentrated in doubles - Don didn't hit too many relative to homers, which isn't a great sign.

OK, I had no idea that minors SLGs were 400 or lower these days.

I think it's likely that Pepper would have made the Expos' roster at some point if he had continued to play baseball. But he made a noble decision to continue his father's farm after his dad passed away.

Heck, the NL only slugged .400 last year (AL .411). The three leagues above .400: PCL .430, California .427, Pioneer .418.
That said, no full season league was as low as we saw in Japan where they slugged .343!

***

Sure, Bruce. But put me in the camp that thinks stardom or even a sustained regular role was unlikely.

Sure, Bruce. But put me in the camp that thinks stardom or even a sustained regular role was unlikely.

Especially since Fairly, Jones and Staub were all LHB and those last two guys were followed by Jorgenson and Singleton. Pepper had to go somewhere else if he was gonna play.

Interestingly, the Padres were also well set at the corners with Colbert, Brown and Ferrara (who I'd never heard of). The 69 Pilots were pretty solid but the 70 Brewers could have used some help. He was probably best suited for the Royals and maybe he could have had Mike Fiore's 1969.