Just a few interesting numbers: (more…)
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: Al Kaline, Bert Campaneris, Carl Yastrzemski, Dan Meyer, Don Kessinger, Ed Whitson, Felix Millan, George Brett, George Stone, Graig Nettles, Joe Torre, Leroy Stanton, Paul Konerko, Randy Johnson, Roger Metzger, Ron Hunt, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Starlin Castro, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver | 1 Comment »
As Major League Baseball heads into the second half of its season chatter increases about the frontrunners for various end-of-year awards. Although these awards recognize some of the greatest players in the game, there are others who toil in relative obscurity despite their own excellent production. They are not overlooked because of unfairness, but rather because of playing in smaller markets, manning a position with many high profile players, or because their intangibles just don’t leap off the page like some sexier stats do. My All-Underrated Team includes the following: (more…)
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: A.J. Pierzynski, Aaron Hill, Alcides Escobar, Chase Headley, Jason Kubel, Johnny Cueto, Josh Willingham, Michael Bourn, Paul Konerko, Vinnie Pestano | 4 Comments »
The other day I revealed my starting position players for the National League and today I give you my American League starters. The All-Star game is just days away but here are the guys who I think should be starting for the American League.
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Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: All-Star Game, Asdrubal Cabrera, David Ortiz, Joe Mauer, Jose Bautista, Josh Hamilton, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Piazza, Paul Konerko, Robinson Cano | Leave a Comment »
I have always been a fan of players who possess both the skill of speed and power. As a kid I was a big Jose Canseco fan who was the first player member of the 40/40 club. I was also a big fan of Eric Davis and Ron Gant, both members of the 30/30 club with Davis narrowly missing out on being the sole member of the 40/50 club in 1987.
As a fantasy league fanatic my love for players with the ability to hit for power and steal bases has never faded, it has only increased. One of my all-time favorite players happens to be a player who possess the rare combination of power and speed that is about to land him in a club that only seven other players have ever entered: The 300/300 Club. (more…)
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: 30/30 Club, 300/300 Club, 40/40 Club, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Barry Bonds, Baseball Cards, Ben Davis, Ben Grieve, Bobby Abreu, Bobby Bonds, Carlos Beltran, Craig Biggio, Eric Davis, Hall of Fame, Hideo Nomo, Mike Cameron, Nomar Garciaparra, Paul Konerko, Reggie Sanders, Rickey Henderson, Ron Gant, Ryne Sandberg, Steve Finley, Todd Helton, Willie Mays | Leave a Comment »
Scoring and hitting have declined the last three seasons. Despite that fact, Paul Konerko keeps hitting and putting up terrific numbers at the plate. And yet, he is not a statistical darling because he is not considered a great fielding first baseman and has lead in his pants on the bases. But gosh, the guy can hit. Since 2009, Konerko has a higher wOBA than Matt Holliday, Joe Mauer, Lance Berkman, David Ortiz, Robinson Cano and Justin Upton. And he is just behind Adrian Gonzalez (.390 to .392). And yet, outside of Chicago, there is little love for Paul Konerko. (more…)
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: Chicago White Sox, Paul Konerko | 1 Comment »
There are a surprising number of experiments going on in Major League Baseball for this coming season. Players are trying out new positions, relief pitchers are trying to be starting pitchers. Heck, even the Yankees are trying to be cost conscious. Strange things are happening in a training camp near you. With all that is happening, you will need a scorecard to track all the goings on. We at MLB Dirt are happy to help. What follows are the experiments happening all over baseball plus this writer’s take on whether the lab results will be positive or negative. Here we go. Got your pencil handy?
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: A.J. Ellis, Adam Dunn, Alejandro De Aza, Alex Presley, Angel Pagan, Anthony Rizzo, Bobby Abreu, Bryan LaHair, C.J. Wilson, Carl Crawford, Chone Figgins, Daniel Bard, Daniel Murphy, Derek Lowe, Hanley Ramirez, J.P. Arencibia, Jack Wilson, Jamey Carroll, Jeff Mathis, Kevin Slowey, Kyle Farnsworth, Luke Scott, Manny Ramirez, Mark Trumbo, Mat Gamel, Matt Capps, Matt Treanor, Melky Cabrera, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Aviles, Neftali Feliz, Nick Punto, Paul Konerko, Peter Bourjos, Ryan Raburn, Torii Hunter, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Tyler Pastornicky, Yu Darvish, Zack Cozart | Leave a Comment »
This is all Jonathan Mitchell’s fault. His fabulous post on the nastiest pitches in baseball has now spawned not just one post from the Fan, but now two. The exercise in question is looking at Fangraphs‘ data for pitch value as a perimeter for judging the best pitchers overall for 2011 and for the past three years. Today, we’re going to look at the same pitch values, but this time from a batting perspective. The idea is this: If you add up the pitch value scores for each batter with a minimum number of plate appearances and then sort the total, it should give you a list of the best pure hitters in baseball. It’s a different approach than WAR or wOBA or even OPS+ and it may not mean anything. But it’s fun, so anything fun is worth doing, right?
Here’s how these numbers were accumulated: This author went to Fangraphs and then to their Leaders link. Once at the leaders page, the Pitch Value tab was clicked. On that page, using the wonderful tools available to us, two criteria were plugged in. In the first one, we stayed with 2011 and made 400 the minimum plate appearances. Then Fangraphs’ generous Export Data link was clicked which provided a spreadsheet for our use here. A new set of criteria was then added for the past three years (2009 – 2011) with a minimum of 1000 plate appearances. And that data was exported as well.
Once the spreadsheets were on this author’s laptop, in a new column a sum function was used to get a total of all the pitch types to give us a total value above average. What these numbers mean is a calculation by Fangraphs of how many runs above average each hitter was against different pitch types. There are some weird numbers in there. For example, Maicir Izturis was the second best in baseball in 2011 against the slider but couldn’t hit just about anything else. Alfonso Soriano was among the top in hitting a fastball but gave up all those runs against the slider. Our top hitters in general hit everything well or hit at least a few pitches well enough to compile big numbers.
Without further ado, here are the top ten pure hitters in baseball for 2011 for combined runs above average:
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: Adrian Gonzalez, Albert Pujols, Jacoby Ellsbury, Joey Votto, Jose Bautista, Kevin Youkilis, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday, Matt Kemp, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Napoli, Paul Konerko, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun | 4 Comments »
First off, I love the idea of the new homerun derby format. For those of you that don’t know, a captain was selected from both the NL and AL and they will each chose three other players from their own league. Representing the NL is Prince Fielder, the 2009 derby champ, and representing the ALis David Ortiz, the reining homerun derby champ. Another great part of the new format is that the contestants do not need to be on the All-Star team. The derby will be taking place on July 11th at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. So just who would I pick if I was each player?
AL:
Jose Bautista: Bautista is leading all of baseball in homeruns with 26. He is smashing the ball lately and the very short porch in left field at Chase Field will help Bautista a lot. Bautista’s average true distance on his homeruns this year is 398.4 which is 4 feet further than the MLB average. As I mentioned above, Bautista will really benefit from the left field dimensions. Chase Field is 328 down the line in left, and if you take a look at Bautista’s homerun spray chart, 21 of his homeruns have been hit to left. Not only do I think Bautista needs to be in the derby, but I think he has a very good chance at winning it.
Nelson Cruz: Cruz might be one of the best power hitters in the league. He ranks 8th in the bigs in homerun with 19 and he has done so in about 75 plate appearances less compared to a lot of the batters ahead of him. His average true homerun distance is a ridiculous 415.3 ft which is amongst the best in the league. He also has experience in the contest as he finished second to Prince Fielder in the 2009 derby.
Mark Teixeira: I had a hard time on this one picking between Teixeira and Paul Konerko. Teixeira is second in the majors in homeruns with 25, just one short of Bautista, and he has a very impressive ISO of .294 which is .44 points better than that of Konerko. Teixeira has the option to hit either left handed or right handed and both fences are very short. Taking a look at his spray chart, all of his homeruns are down the line; not a single homerun has gone to center field. His ability to pull the ball well will really help him.
NL
Matt Kemp: Kemp is currently the NL leader in homeruns with 22. He is really hitting the ball well and he has an average homerun distance of 411.4. I also think that Kemp is in great shape for the competition. I think he will be able to stay consistent and not burn out too soon. Kemp also has a very good ISO of .290.
Ryan Howard: Howard might be one of the most experienced in the game in this competition which is why I think he is a great pick. He knows how to pace himself while putting on a great show. He has 17 homeruns with an average true homerun distance of 403.1. While Howard’s power numbers are not up to par with some of the top sluggers this year, Howard is still hitting well and his experience is what really makes him a good pick for the derby
Mike Stanton: This might be my favorite pick of the whole derby. I thinkStanton is one of the best power hitters in the game and he is only 21. He has 16 homeruns this year and one of the best average true homerun distances in the league with 414.2. He is a beast and has big time power. Players talk about him smashing balls in batting practice to the upper decks over and over again and I think he will really put on a show at the derby. If he is on the team, he is my sleeper pick.
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: All-Star Game, David Ortiz, Home Run Derby, Homerun Derby, Jose Bautista, Mark Teixeira, Matt Kemp, Mike Stanton, Nelson Cruz, Paul Konerko, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard | 2 Comments »
Our ballots are coming together nicely and I am continuing now with my first basemen.
National League
Joey Votto (CIN) – Last year’s NL MVP is having another great season hitting .319/.441/.503 with a wOBA of .411 and wRC+ of 160. His AVG and OBP both lead all NL first basemen and his wOBA and WRC+ rank 2nd. He also ranks 2nd with +3.6 fWAR, a mere 0.1 behind my starting first baseman Prince Fielder. He walks 17% of the time and fields his position very well with a +3.5 UZR. He also leads first basemen in stolen bases with 6.
Gaby Sanchez (FLA) – He just seems to fly under the radar. He is hitting .294/.370/.480 with a wOBA of .370 and wRC+ of 133 to go with his 3rd place +2.6 fWAR among first basemen. He is a solid defender with a +3.0 UZR and the best base runner among first basemen this season with a +0.6 Bsr. This spot may belong to Albert Pujols if he were not injured but Gaby is a very deserving All-Star this season.
American League
Miguel Cabrera (DET) – This was an extremely easy pick and he might be the starting first baseman in almost any other year with his numbers. He has a Bautistian .332/.453/.586 stat line and leads all AL first basemen with a .438 wOBA and 181 wRC+. His +3.6 fWAR ranks 2nd in the AL and his 62 walks easily lead all first basemen.
Paul Konerko (CHW) – While his +2.4 fWAR is not MPV-esque his triple-slash line is: .321/.393/.577. He ranks 2nd among AL first basemen in homeruns with 21 and 3rd in wOBA with .412 and wRC+ with 160. Those two stats and his entire triple-slash line are better than Teixera’s but his base running has been atrocious at -6.7 Bsr.
Mark Teixeira (NYY) – The first base crop is so deep that I had to make an exception and add an extra player to the position even though it means subtracting one from another position. Tex is tied for the league lead in the AL in homeruns with 25 and carries a nice +2.3 UZR with him. He also ranks ahead of Konerko in fWAR with +2.7 and I simply had to make room for him on my roster.
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and you can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert and follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: Albert Pujols, All-Star Game, Gaby Sanchez, Joey Votto, Mark Teixeira, Miguel Cabrera, Paul Konerko, Prince Fielder | 2 Comments »
I was so excited to see that Fangraphs has added UBR (Ultimate Base Running) to the site and more importantly to fWAR. I have been longing for a value stat like WAR to add base running. It already has offense, defense, and positional adjustments; it was missing base running. fWAR is evolving into an even better stat and carrying more weight than almost any other metric out there.
The new addition will change most player’s seasonal fWAR totals and career totals but, as David Appleman mentions in the article, it won’t be more than 0.4 in any particular season and no more than 1.3 for a career. Oh, the stat is only from 2002 to current so it will not affect some of our all-time favorites. It is also listed as BSR in the player and leaderboard pages. Here are a few notes from some of the player pages:
**Since it’s inception in 2002 the worst base runners in the league are: Paul Konerko (-44.2), David Ortiz (-40.5), Jim Thome (-33.9), and Pat Burrell (-30.6).
**The best base runners have been: Juan Pierre (43.6), Chone Figgins (41.7), Jimmy Rollins (33.6), and Carlos Beltran (30.5).
**I am not sure how good of a base runner Babe Ruth was but I have to imagine Barry Bonds was a better one and that the fWAR totals could inch closer to each other. I would also like to see how much value it adds to greats like Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Joe Dimaggio, and Honus Wagner.
**Carlos Lee is an even worse player than we thought. He has a career -20.1 BSR and has not posted a positive BSR number since 2004.
**Carl Crawford‘s value rises even more with a career 20.3 BSR but surprisingly has a -0.7 BSR this season.
**What doesn’t Jose Bautista do well this year? He hits, fields, and apparently runs the bases well with a 1.9 BSR.
**The versatile Ben Zobrist proves to add more value with a 7.4 BSR since he became a starter in 2009.
**Nate McLouth and Alex Rios lead the league with a 2.8 BSR followed by Melky Cabrera who has a 2.7 BSR but had a -2.9 coming into the season.
**Albert Pujols is the 11th best base runner since the inception of UBR/BSR with a 20.7. The next closest first baseman is the retired Shea Hillenbrand at 6.2 then Aubrey Huff at 1.1 and Derrek Lee at 0.8. Every other current first baseman with at least 750 plate appearances is at zero or in the negative.
**Jhonny Peralta is the worst middle infielder since it’s inception with a -13.2. Jose Lopez is next with a -9.0 followed by Jeff Kent at -7.6 and Miguel Tejada at -2.5
**This will hurt players like Edgar Martinez who have a get-him-in-the-hall following. He was -17.0 in just three seasons of data and I cannot imagine him being anything better than a -30 for his career.
For more just head on over to Fangrpahs.com and go to Leaders and sort by BSR. Have fun!
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and you can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis | Tagged: Albert Pujols, Alex Rios, Aubrey Huff, Ben Zobrist, Carl Crawford, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Lee, Chone Figgins, David Ortiz, Derrek Lee, Edgar Martinez, Honus Wagner, Jeff Kent, Jhonny Peralta, Jim Thome, Jimmy Rollins, Joe Dimaggio, Jose Bautista, Jose Lopez, Juan Pierre, Melky Cabrera, Miguel Tejada, Nate McLouth, Pat Burrell, Paul Konerko, Sabermetrics, Shea Hillenbrand, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays | Leave a Comment »
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