Wednesday 14 August 2013

Does Language Make Closers Overrated?


 It’s a general assumption, especially among sabermetric types, that closers are overrated. Most closers are just good relievers who weren’t good enough to start. Mariano Rivera excluded of course since he is super awesome.
 What does a closer actually do? Does he close games? He does but that’s not what we say. We say he ‘saves’ games – he gets the ‘save’. Saving a game implies that the game was in danger of being lost, but that’s not really the case with most saves. Very rarely does the closer come on with the go-ahead run on base or at the plate (unless he comes on during an inning as opposed to starting it. Even if we take saving meaning a lead is in danger of being lost that really should apply to the tying run being on base or at the plate, which doesn’t happen when a closer starts an inning with a 2 or 3-run lead.

 If we take save at this more literal meaning then other relievers should get saves, maybe instead of holds. Really a closer doesn’t ‘save’ a game, but rather he ‘finishes’ or ‘closes’. But these words aren’t as loaded as the word save. Even a failed save is loaded language – we call it a ‘blown save’? That sounds severe. What if we called an ‘incomplete’? That wouldn’t sound like such a big deal.
 Does this use of the word ‘save’ make closers more overrated? Possibly to some degree but I suspect the effect would be small. I think that even if we called them ‘closes’ or ‘finishes’ then baseball fans and players would start to attach a great severity of meaning to those words. But it is an interesting though exercise in how our use of words to describe things might affect our perception of these things.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

I Don't Want Him To Beat Me


  What a crazy between Tampa Bay and Boston! First there was that blown call by the home plate umpire that denied the tying Red Sox run. Jose Molina is regarded as great at framing pitches – he seemingly can also frame tags.
 Then in the bottom of the ninth, after Dustin Pedroia (aka ‘Mini Jason Statham’) had grounded the Sox we’re 2 out with the tying run on second and first base empty. Joe Maddon decides to intentionally walk David Ortiz and pitch to Mike Napoli. This put the winning run on first – and a quick runner to boot (Ortiz having been pinch run for).

 Ortiz against a righty (Fernando Rodney) stood a much better chance of plating the tying run than Napoli (a righty) so it did increase the chances of Rodney closing out that inning. But walking Ortiz put the winning run on, meaning a double would have a high chance of getting that winning run home (a fast runner in Iglesias and with 2 outs he would be going on contact). Ortiz to walk-off would’ve needed a homer – against righties this year he’s hit 15 HR in 243 plate appearances. ‘Na-po-li’ in 284 PA has only 11 homers, but also 2 triples and 19 doubles as well. I can’t see how this move increased Tampa’s chance of winning, although I’ll leave the exact calculation to Fangraphs and the like.
 Maddon has a history of this – a few years back (2008) when playing against the Rangers he intentionally walked in a run by walking Josh Hamilton (who was awesome back then) with the bases loaded to make it 7-4 and bring the winning to the plate in Marlon Byrd. Byrd was no Hamilton but was having a good year and had hit a walk-off grand slam a week before AFAIK. And to tie the game he only needed a double (which would likely do it), while Hamilton needed a home run. Byrd hit 42 extra-base hits (doubles, triples, homers) compared to Hamilton hitting 32 homers (in 50% more AB’s).

 One of the things the Sox commentators said was that he done it because ‘he didn’t want Ortiz to beat him’. Which is a silly thing in my mind – how crazy is that? If you think about I’d much rather get beaten by the better player – I mean, given the choice I’d much rather get beaten by Miguel Cabrera than by Yuniesky Betnacourt. Although admittedly Maddon

Friday 19 July 2013

Michael Morse: Not an Outfielder But Still Useful


 Michael Morse is an interesting player. He’s a player with some real obvious flaws but a guy who has potential to be very good, or at least useful. He also might be a guy who you could get very cheaply. But to get value out of him you must understand his limitations.
 Morse is a player with big power. He’s got a weird swing but I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone with more opposite field power. Morse has three glaring weaknesses though. Firstly he’s injury prone. He’s got a big fragile body – he spent a lot of time injured last year and has had some problems this year too. Secondly he doesn’t walk much, or at least as much as he should considering his power threat. Using PTW (explained here) he ranks similarly to a 2012 Alfonso Soriano or Josh Hamilton with a career PTW(HR) of 0.692 homers per walk and PTW(ISO) of 3.23 bases per walk. This means to get any decent OBP he needs to hit .300 or near it. He’s also slow, clogging the basepaths and making a liability when put in any fielding position where you need to run.

 As a Washington Nationals fan, I have some great memories of Morse at his best – that 2011 season was awesome. He started the year slow but when Adam LaRoche went down Morse went to first base and exploded, ending up hitting over .300 with 31 homers. But the next year the injury bug hit and LaRoche’s resurgence forced him back into the outfield. The Nats traded him to Seattle and they used him in the outfield. Morse is painful to watch in the outfield – he is slow and it hurts any potential gains from his bat, and after his hot start his bat has cooled down.
 Morse could still be a good target for trade or to get as a cheap free agent next year. But understand that he sucks in the outfield. He should only be played at first base or DH. I think he’s got some potential at first base. His career UZR/150 is -1.5, slightly below average. But given more practice he could even end up above average. Watching him regularly play at first in 2011 he certainly passed the eye test. I think there’s some potential there and he might be got on the cheap – just don’t put him in the outfield. He's not a slam dunk but well worth the risk at the price.

Friday 12 July 2013

Deciding World Series Home Field Advantage

Deciding World Series Home Field Advantage

 The All Star Game is coming up soon and even though it’s just a fun exhibition game it does count for something – the winning team gets World Series home field advantage for their league. Bud Selig introduced this to try to add some more buzz to the ASG. It’s been like this over 10 years and I don’t think it’s really added any interest or intensity to the ASG. The game is still played like it’s an exhibition game.

 I think we should abandon using the ASG to decide World Series home advantage. I don’t think it’s really fair to disadvantage a team just because the league it’s in lost an exhibition game in July. Previous to using the ASG to decide World Series HFA they used to alternate HFA between the leagues. That’s even but not really fair – under the old rules SF would have been disadvantaged in 2010 and 2012 (although neither series went the distance anyway).
 Admittedly HFA in the World Series doesn’t make a huge difference – since they used the ASG to decide HFA, only one series (2011) has gone to a game 7 anyway. But it still matters, even if it usually doesn’t.

 You could use the teams overall record – the team that has the better season record gets the advantage. It’s not perfect since teams don’t play the same schedule – one team might have played in a weak division in the weaker league – but it would still be a fine method to use.
 But I propose we use something else to decide World Series HFA. There are 300 interleague games scheduled this year (each team plays 20 games). The league that has the better record gets the HFA in the World Series. This is fairer since the league that does better in interleague is arguably the better league so the team that makes the World Series had a harder road and thus deserves HFA.

 One of the problems with interleague play is that, outside of playing your rivals (e.g. Dodgers-Angels, White Sox and Cubs, Yankees-Mets) these matchups mean very little since you aren’t competing against these teams for finals spots. If you play teams within your own league they are your own competitors, even more so with teams in your own division.
 With this system it adds a little more importance to interleague games – they do mean a little bit more. Also it adds a little to the contest in that you are representing your league against the other league and fighting for a real prize. MLB could keep a counter on their homepage and it would be meaningful and maybe add some interest to interleague. You might have people keeping an eye on the boxscores of interleague games their teams aren’t even involved in, especially if their team is likely going to the playoffs. It could get very interesting if records are close going into the last few days or weeks.

 If at the end of the season the record is tied at 150-150, the result of the ALG game could be used as the tiebreaker. A tie wouldn’t happen often – in 16 years of interleague play there’s never been a tie. Admittedly this wouldn’t add any interest to the ASG since it’s played midway through the year. If we had done this in previous years the AL would’ve had HFA in the last 9 World Series.

Monday 8 July 2013

The Has-Been All Stars

The Has-Been All-Stars

  The All Stars Games rosters have been announced. We are celebrating the best in baseball. Should Puig make the team? Eh. Who cares about the stars? What about the has-beens? Those who used to be good but now suck and can barely even hold onto a major league roster spot anymore, let alone make an All-Star team. Of course let’s not be mean – even these rubbish players are still great ballplayers, but not what they used to be.

 Let’s limit the Has-Been All Stars to guys who are still in the Majors – the guys who are in AAA can play in the Triple-A Has-Been All-Star Game, and guys who are in Japan like Andruw Jones aren’t eligible. Also I’ll only pick a starting nine plus a couple of extra pitchers – unlike the 80-man rosters of the real ASG. Let’s ignore players who’ve fallen off the age cliff – Paul Konerko is a has-been but in his defence he is 37 years old. Also I’ll look for a more defined trend and try to avoid guys who’ve just had one bad year.
 Some positions have more depth than other – first base is loaded while catcher is weak (which means strong I suppose).

AL Has-Beens:

C: Geovany Soto (Tex): Soto burst onto the scene in 2008 with a 3.6 WAR season (Fangraphs) and had some more good Cub seasons and while he’s only 30 those days are behind him as the bat is gone.

1B: Albert Pujols (LAA): As a big fan of Pujols it pains me to see him like this, although it probably pains Angels fans more considering the 33-year-old has 8 years left on his mega contract. There were warning signs his last year in St. Louis and it’s gotten worse this year as he’s hobbled, slow and struggling to be above replacement level. The power’s down, the K’s are up and the walks are down. If you miss the old Pujols go watch Miguel Cabrera – he is basically the new Pujols.
2B: Dustin Ackley (Sea): I’m struggling to find someone here so I’ll take Ackley. He burst onto the scene with a great debut second half in 2011 but took a step back in 2012 but at least managed 1.1 WAR. This year he was below replacement and got himself dropped.

SS: Alexei Ramirez (CWS): The thin-looking Ramirez put up some good power numbers in 2010 and 2011 but that power is gone and his walk rate has dropped accordingly. But his good fielding at a premium position still makes him a good player.
3B: Kevin Youkilis (NYY): While A-Rod is on the downslide at least he is old (almost 38), but Youk is younger (34) and he is no longer the force he was on those Red Sox squads of the late noughties. His brittle body hasn’t held up well and everything and every facet of his game has suffered.

LF: Vernon Wells (NYY): Great player and signed to a big contract, Wells deteriorated big time. But somehow the Blue Jays managed to get out of that contract and the Angels learned Wells had to learn he was not good the hard way. He had a great start for the Yankees this year but that was a dead cat bounce. At best he is a bench player.
CF: Josh Hamilton (LAA): This time last year Hamilton was a superstar – it’s incredible how far he’s dropped in such a short amount of time. The end of last year his swinging at everything got him booed by Ranger’s fans. He signed the big contract with the Angels but has managed to be barely above replacement level this year.

RF: Jeff Francouer (KC): The Natural burst onto the scene with hype and backed it up to a certain degree but was hardly a superstar. But he was young. Then he regressed into rubbish – his fielding was bad and he struggled to post an OBP over .300. A rebound year in Kansas got him a new contract but he returned to being even suckier than before – he is ‘Mr Negative WAR’.
P: Ubaldo Jimenez (Cle): Jimenez was very good in the Rockies’ rotation from 2008-2010 – in 2010 he had 2.88 ERA while pitching half his games at Coors Field. But his velocity declined and so did his overall performance.

P: Scott Kazmir (Cle): Another Indian Kazmir was a great young fireballer for the Devil Rays but fell so far he spent 2012 in an independent league. His fastball velocity has bounced back and he’s back in the majors but still a shadow of what he was.
P: John Lackey (Bos): Lackey signed a big contract but 2 years in when he had Tommy john surgery Red Sox were probably glad to get rid of him for the year although he’s bounced back so far this season.

NL Has-Beens:

C: Kurt Suzuki (Was): Suzuki had some decent years in Oakland but the bat has weakened losing average and power. He’s still a decent backup but his days as a first-string guy are already over at the age of 29.

1B: Ryan Howard (Phi): A selection to have sabermetrics types feel vindicated, Howard was a valuable, if overrated, major leaguer for a while, winning an MVP in 2006 with a .313/.425/.659. But that year was an outlier as his average dipped to a .250-.270 range and the power went down from that super high level and nowadays he walks half as often. His OPS has declined below .800 which is bad for a slow, bad fielding 1B. The torn Achilles didn’t help but he was on the decline anyway and is signed for another 3 years at 25mil/yr. Ouch!
2B: Rickie Weeks (Mil): Weeks is on the wrong side of 30 and already on the downslide – a low average is bringing his bat down from good to average and the fielding is declining.

SS: Hanley Ramirez (LAD): While Starlin Castro is having a season that’s putting some scares into Cubs fans, Hanley Ramirez gets the pick to give us two has-been Ramirez shortstops. Hanley was a superstar for the Marlins for a while, putting up seasons of 4.3, 5.3, 7.2, 7.1, 4.2 WAR. He wasn’t a great fielder, but provided everything with the bat and stole bases to boot. Injuries, concerns about attitude and a massive drop in production saw his stock fall but since being traded to the Dodgers he’s shown some signs of coming back.
3B: Ryan Zimmerman (Was): As a Nats fan it pains me to have him here but he’s no longer an elite guy. Earlier in his career he was as good as Evan Longoria but he’s no longer at that level, though he’s still a great player. He hasn’t missed a lot of games but he’s had a bunch of niggling injuries even though he’s still under 30. Tinkering with his throwing mechanics led to the throwing yips, reducing his great defense but he has been throwing better lately.

LF: Alfonso Soriano (CHC): Another case of a bad monster contract, Soriano actually was great in his first season for the Cubbies. Then he declined and by 2009 he was below replacement level. Since then he’s recovered a bit and actually had some decent season, although held back by a low OBP. If he wasn’t on such a big contract he probably wouldn’t seem so bad.
CF: Carl Crawford (LAD): He’s not really a CF, but I’ll play him a bit out of position. The long-time Ray signed a juicy contract with the Sawx … and then tanked big time. This looked like a bad contract a month into the first season. He had Tommy John surgery last year and got traded to the Dodgers where, like Hanley Ramirez, has shown some sides of rebounding.

RF: Jayson Werth (Was): Completing our trifecta of bad OF contracts is Werth. Hitting .232 in the first year of his contract wasn’t a good start and recent years have seen some injuries and combined with a loss of speed in the outfield making me worried about the last 4 years of this contract.
P: Barry Zito (SF): Barry is my favourite player – but he sucks. Slowest fastball in the majors. Zito won the Cy Young in the Oakland Moneyball year of 2002 (although he was ignored in the movie – scandalous). He had declined a bit since then but he was under 30 and durable so the Giants gave him a huge contract (7-year, 126 million) and despite pitching in a pitcher’s park has never had an ERA under 4. At least his performance in last years’ postseason gave Giants fans some nice memories of him.

P: Tim Lincecum (SF): He won two Cy Youngs but now he’s lost speed, the walks are up and he doesn’t have the command anymore – he’s starting to get hit hard even though he’s still striking guys out. He’s 29 and off contract but I’m not sure he’s a starter anymore – he showed promise as a reliever last year and could be great as a 2-inning reliever.
P: Carlos Marmol (CHC): Marmol had some decent years as a closer walking heaps of guys but striking out heaps too. But walking that many people is not a good formula and the Cubs run out of patience with him and got rid of him.

Friday 5 July 2013

Power-to-Walk Ratio (PTW)


Power-to-Walk Ratio (PTW)


 Walks are generally thought of as a function of plate discipline – to get a walk you need to not swing at pitches out of the zone. If you are good at recognizing pitches and being disciplined to not swing at bad pitches you will get walks. Another factor is passivity – if you don’t much at all you’ll get more walks. This is the Adam Dunn approach. The problem with swinging is that you might make contact and put the ball in play – thus ruining your chance to walk.
 But there is another factor in walk rates – power. The threat of power can result in more walks.  If you get behind in the count against a guy 40-homer power you’re hardly going to groove a fastball over the plate. Yet if behind in the count against Ben Revere or Jamey Carroll I’m not going to nibble around the edges – I’m going to make them hit if they want to get on, since they can’t really hurt me with extra-base hits.

 To illustrate this idea let’s look at some examples from last year by playing around with Fangraphs leaderboards in 2012. According to Fangraphs 143 batters qualified for the batting title. Josh Hamilton, that man renowned for his swinging ways, walked in 9.4% of his plate appearances, enough to rank him 51/143. ‘The Greek God of Walks’, Kevin Youkilis, only ranked slightly ahead at 39th (10.0% walk rate). Hamilton was way ahead of Adrian Gonzalez at 111th (6.1%). Hamilton received walks because pitchers we’re being careful with him – if you put a fastball in his hitting zone it was likely going over the fence.

 Let’s have some fun with inventing a new metric to separate the power out of walk rate to see who has the real skill in drawing walks. Let’s use isolated slugging percentage – ISO – and compare it to BB%. ISO is (Extra Bases)/AB, BB% is walks/PA. Let’s call our little stat ‘Power-To-Walk Ratio’ (PTW). Let’s call it PTW(ISO) – which is ISO/BB%(being expressed as a decimal). But that’s including doubles and triples as well as homers. But maybe batters don’t fear doubles but do fear giving up the long ball – they fear the big monster more than guy with gap power. So let’s have another form of PTW – PTW(HR)  – which is HR%/BB%. With these numbers the lower the number the more the batter walks compared to their power – the less extra-bases or homers per walk.

 The average of all position players (non-pitchers) in MLB in 2012 for BB% is 8.1%, PTW(HR) is 0.338 and PTW(ISO) is 1.895. The full table for all 2012 batting title qualified players is at the bottom of this article.

 Now let us go back to 2012 and the 143 batting title qualifying batters.  Going back to Josh Hamilton (BB%: 9.4% (51st/143) – his PTW(ISO)= 0.292/0.094= 3.106 (meaning he gets 3.106 extra bases per walk). That ranks him 122nd/143 (pretty low). With PTW(HR) his value is 6.76/9.4=0.719 (he hits 0.719 homers per walk) – by this measurement he’s even closer to the bottom at 132nd/143. This gels with what we know – Josh Hamilton has some of the worst plate discipline of anyone in the Majors but he needs to pitched carefully since he can do a lot of damage. Also you can pitch him outside and might get him to swing at outside pitches.

 What about another whiffer, Adam Dunn. He strikes out a bunch like Hamilton but for different reasons – not swinging that much and having trouble hitting it when he does swing. He actually had the highest BB% at 16.2% but ranks middle of the table (76) with a PTW(HR) of 0.390. But he’s 36th in PTW(ISO) with 1.623 extra bases per walk. This is because he didn’t hit many doubles last year, and judging by his .204 batting average he didn’t hit many singles either.
 At the other end of the table the guy with the lowest walk rate, Alexei Ramirez, doesn’t fare much better in PTW, with ranks of 136th (PTW(ISO)) and 116th (PTW(HR)).

 The Best and Worst of PTW

 So who is the best walker – who shall be Mr Walker*, the master of the plate? Well not Neil Walker – he ranks 51st in PTW(HR) and 40th in PTW(ISO). Our king of power-to-walk is Jamey Carroll – a man who walks way more than he should considering his power output. He ranks 1st out of all 143 qualified batters in PTW(ISO) with a score 0.505 extra bases per walk – he has almost twice as many walks as extra bases. He ranks 2nd in PTW(HR) with .019 homers per walk (he hit 1 homer in 537 plate appearances).
 The only reason he’s 2nd in PTW(HR) is because Ben Revere hit 0 homers and thus gets a PTW(HR) of zero. Jamey Carroll had an OBP bigger than his SLG (0.343 OBP, 0.317 SLG). Which is not what we are used to seeing. He’s the only guy who has this, although some of our other PTW leaders come close. Jamey Carroll, along with many of the PTW leaders, achieves such a good score due to a severe lack of power rather than insanely high walk rates. Carroll only ranks 48th in walk rate and Ben Revere was all the way down at 130th.

  Here we see a limitation (probably one of many) with this PTW stat. In seems to be biased to low power guys. These guys slap at the ball so have decent contact rates and even if they inspire little fear in pitchers they still get walks. Even major league pitchers have trouble throwing a ball at high speeds at a small target – they will miss sometimes. And it’s not like they can lob in a 60mph fastball down the middle – even the weakest MLB players can jack the ball in batting practice (i.e. Jamey Carroll has no power but could whip me in an arm-wrestling match no trouble).
 Looking at the best PTW guys there is one guy who also has a very high walk rate – Joe Mauer. 6th in PTW(HR), 3rd in PTW(ISO) and he’s 6th in BB% as well. This means he really does walk a lot and his high PTW is not due to a lack of power.
 In terms of worst PTW of 2012 we have a few candidates. Adrian Beltre  (5.5BB%, 120th) is last in PTW(HR) with 1.001 – he hit 36 HR and walked 36 times. He’s also 140th/143 in PTW(ISO) with 4.364. Alex Rios is last in PTW(ISO) – 5.171 extra bases per walk. He’s 141st in PTW(HR) with 0.953.
 Interestingly some of the other bad PTW guys are, like Rios, White Sox players – Pierzynski is 142nd/143 in PTW(HR) and 139th/143 in PTW(ISO) and Dayan Viciedo is 136th and 133rd. But at the other end the Twins have several good guys – along with Mauer, Carroll and Revere (who’s now in Philly) and Denard Span (now in Washington) all in the top 6 of PTW(HR).

 A few final points about Power-To-Walk ratio:

- What about intentional walks? Obviously no.8 NL hitters getting walked has little to do with fear of power but there is something to IBB and fear – as an extreme example looking at the Barry Bonds insane years those intentionally free passes were certainly due to fear of his power.

- Logically there might be some lag with PTW, especially in situations where guys have breakout power seasons. They might not get walked much in the year they flash power but then later on their reputation will catch up with them. It should also happen with older guys whose power disappears – if you’ve hit 400 homers in your career you’ll still be perceived as a power threat even if nowadays you struggle to get to 15 homers.
- Is there a linear relationship between walk rate and ISO or HR%? PTW does seem to be biased towards no-power guys – Ben Revere has an unbeatable score in PTW(HR) since he gets 0 HR. Could we maybe come up with an expected PTW – how much walks would we expect for a certain HR% or ISO?

- PTW, while a little bit interesting, is more useful as a tool to show us that walk rates are not a perfect indicator of plate patience or discipline. Statistics like swing rates at pitches outside the zone (O-Swing%) and total swing rates are probably a better way to determine if someone has good plate discipline and pitch identification tools.

  
  • MLB 2012 Batting Title Qualified Batters:

Ranks
Name PA HR OPS ISO HR% BB% PTW(HR) PTW(ISO)     BB% PTW(HR) PTW(ISO)
Ben Revere 553 0 0.675 0.049 0.00% 5.20% 0.000 0.942 130 1 4
Jamey Carroll 537 1 0.660 0.049 0.19% 9.70% 0.019 0.505 48 2 1
Jemile Weeks 511 2 0.609 0.083 0.39% 9.80% 0.040 0.847 45 3 2
Elvis Andrus 711 3 0.727 0.092 0.42% 8.00% 0.053 1.150 85 4 12
Denard Span 568 4 0.738 0.112 0.70% 8.30% 0.085 1.349 72 5 21
Joe Mauer 641 10 0.861 0.127 1.56% 14.00% 0.111 0.907 6 6 3
Michael Brantley 609 6 0.750 0.114 0.99% 8.70% 0.113 1.310 66 7 19
Rafael Furcal 531 5 0.671 0.082 0.94% 8.30% 0.113 0.988 71 8 5
Michael Bourn 703 9 0.739 0.117 1.28% 10.00% 0.128 1.170 43 9 14
Yonder Alonso 619 9 0.741 0.120 1.45% 10.00% 0.145 1.200 42 10 16
David DeJesus 582 9 0.753 0.140 1.55% 10.50% 0.147 1.333 27 11 20
Carlos Lee 615 9 0.697 0.102 1.46% 9.40% 0.156 1.085 55 12 8
Daniel Murphy 612 6 0.735 0.112 0.98% 5.90% 0.166 1.898 116 13 61
Angel Pagan 659 8 0.778 0.152 1.21% 7.30% 0.166 2.082 95 14 71
Martin Prado 690 10 0.796 0.136 1.45% 8.40% 0.173 1.619 70 15 36
Marco Scutaro 683 7 0.753 0.098 1.02% 5.90% 0.174 1.661 115 16 44
Jose Reyes 716 11 0.780 0.146 1.54% 8.80% 0.175 1.659 65 17 43
Jose Altuve 630 7 0.740 0.109 1.11% 6.30% 0.176 1.730 108 18 49
Alberto Callaspo 520 10 0.692 0.109 1.92% 10.80% 0.178 1.009 22 19 6
Cameron Maybin 561 8 0.656 0.107 1.43% 7.80% 0.183 1.372 89 20 24
Alcides Escobar 648 5 0.721 0.098 0.77% 4.20% 0.184 2.333 137 21 93
Dexter Fowler 530 13 0.863 0.174 2.45% 12.80% 0.192 1.359 10 22 23
Alex Gordon 721 14 0.822 0.160 1.94% 10.10% 0.192 1.584 37 23 33
Alejandro De Aza 585 9 0.760 0.130 1.54% 8.00% 0.192 1.625 84 24 38
Carlos Santana 609 18 0.785 0.168 2.96% 14.90% 0.198 1.128 3 25 11
A.J. Ellis 505 13 0.786 0.144 2.57% 12.90% 0.200 1.116 9 26 10
Dan Uggla 630 19 0.732 0.164 3.02% 14.90% 0.202 1.101 2 27 9
Dustin Ackley 668 12 0.622 0.102 1.80% 8.80% 0.204 1.159 64 28 13
Miguel Montero 573 15 0.829 0.152 2.62% 12.70% 0.206 1.197 11 29 15
Shane Victorino 666 11 0.704 0.128 1.65% 8.00% 0.206 1.600 83 30 35
Ben Zobrist 668 20 0.848 0.202 2.99% 14.50% 0.206 1.393 5 31 25
Jason Kipnis 672 14 0.714 0.122 2.08% 10.00% 0.208 1.220 41 32 17
Darwin Barney 588 7 0.653 0.100 1.19% 5.60% 0.213 1.786 119 33 54
Carlos Pena 600 19 0.684 0.157 3.17% 14.50% 0.218 1.083 4 34 7
Shin-Soo Choo 686 16 0.815 0.159 2.33% 10.60% 0.220 1.500 24 35 27
Jordan Pacheco 505 5 0.762 0.112 0.99% 4.40% 0.225 2.545 135 36 102
Norichika Aoki 588 10 0.787 0.144 1.70% 7.30% 0.233 1.973 94 37 63
Austin Jackson 617 16 0.856 0.179 2.59% 10.90% 0.238 1.642 21 38 41
Michael Young 651 8 0.682 0.093 1.23% 5.10% 0.241 1.824 131 39 56
Coco Crisp 508 11 0.742 0.158 2.17% 8.90% 0.243 1.775 62 40 53
Eric Hosmer 598 14 0.663 0.127 2.34% 9.40% 0.249 1.351 54 41 22
Yunel Escobar 608 9 0.644 0.091 1.48% 5.80% 0.255 1.569 117 42 32
Kelly Johnson 581 16 0.678 0.140 2.75% 10.70% 0.257 1.308 23 43 18
David Wright 670 21 0.883 0.186 3.13% 12.10% 0.259 1.537 16 44 29
Jhonny Peralta 585 13 0.689 0.145 2.22% 8.40% 0.265 1.726 69 45 48
Justin Upton 628 17 0.785 0.150 2.71% 10.00% 0.271 1.500 40 46 26
Howie Kendrick 594 8 0.725 0.113 1.35% 4.90% 0.275 2.306 133 47 91
David Murphy 521 15 0.859 0.175 2.88% 10.40% 0.277 1.683 31 48 45
Des Jennings 563 13 0.702 0.143 2.31% 8.20% 0.282 1.744 75 49 51
Rickie Weeks 677 21 0.728 0.170 3.10% 10.90% 0.285 1.560 20 50 31
Neil Walker 530 14 0.768 0.146 2.64% 8.90% 0.297 1.640 61 51 40
Asdrubal Cabrera 616 16 0.762 0.153 2.60% 8.40% 0.309 1.821 68 52 55
Dustin Pedroia 623 15 0.797 0.160 2.41% 7.70% 0.313 2.078 91 53 70
Nick Swisher 624 24 0.837 0.201 3.85% 12.30% 0.313 1.634 15 54 39
Mark Reynolds 538 23 0.763 0.208 4.28% 13.60% 0.314 1.529 7 55 28
Ian Kinsler 731 19 0.749 0.166 2.60% 8.20% 0.317 2.024 74 56 69
Brett Lawrie 536 11 0.729 0.132 2.05% 6.20% 0.331 2.129 109 57 74
Derek Jeter 740 15 0.791 0.113 2.03% 6.10% 0.332 1.852 112 58 58
Paul Goldschmidt 587 20 0.850 0.204 3.41% 10.20% 0.334 2.000 34 59 67
Drew Stubbs 544 14 0.610 0.120 2.57% 7.70% 0.334 1.558 90 60 30
Buster Posey 610 24 0.957 0.213 3.93% 11.30% 0.348 1.885 17 61 60
David Freese 567 20 0.839 0.174 3.53% 10.10% 0.349 1.723 36 62 46
Prince Fielder 690 30 0.940 0.215 4.35% 12.30% 0.353 1.748 14 63 52
Alex Rodriguez 529 18 0.783 0.158 3.40% 9.60% 0.354 1.646 49 64 42
Matt Holliday 688 27 0.877 0.202 3.92% 10.90% 0.360 1.853 19 65 59
Freddie Freeman 620 23 0.796 0.196 3.71% 10.30% 0.360 1.903 33 66 62
Chase Headley 699 31 0.875 0.212 4.43% 12.30% 0.361 1.724 13 67 47
Erick Aybar 554 8 0.740 0.126 1.44% 4.00% 0.361 3.150 139 68 124
Danny Espinosa 658 17 0.717 0.155 2.58% 7.00% 0.369 2.214 102 69 84
Jimmy Rollins 699 23 0.743 0.177 3.29% 8.90% 0.370 1.989 60 70 65
Kevin Youkilis 509 19 0.745 0.174 3.73% 10.00% 0.373 1.740 39 71 50
Matt Wieters 593 23 0.764 0.186 3.88% 10.10% 0.384 1.842 35 72 57
Justin Smoak 535 19 0.654 0.147 3.55% 9.20% 0.386 1.598 57 73 34
Justin Morneau 570 19 0.773 0.172 3.33% 8.60% 0.388 2.000 67 74 68
Starlin Castro 691 14 0.753 0.147 2.03% 5.20% 0.390 2.827 129 75 113
Adam Dunn 649 41 0.800 0.263 6.32% 16.20% 0.390 1.623 1 76 37
Carlos Gonzalez 579 22 0.881 0.207 3.80% 9.70% 0.392 2.134 47 77 76
Bryce Harper 597 22 0.817 0.206 3.69% 9.40% 0.392 2.191 53 78 82
Gordon Beckham 582 16 0.668 0.137 2.75% 6.90% 0.398 1.986 103 79 64
Andre Ethier 618 20 0.812 0.176 3.24% 8.10% 0.400 2.173 78 80 79
Ichiro Suzuki 663 9 0.696 0.107 1.36% 3.30% 0.411 3.242 142 81 125
Torii Hunter 584 16 0.817 0.139 2.74% 6.50% 0.421 2.138 105 82 77
Hunter Pence 688 24 0.743 0.172 3.49% 8.10% 0.431 2.123 77 83 72
Adrian Gonzalez 684 18 0.806 0.164 2.63% 6.10% 0.431 2.689 111 84 109
Kyle Seager 651 20 0.738 0.163 3.07% 7.10% 0.433 2.296 100 85 89
Ryan Zimmerman 641 25 0.824 0.196 3.90% 8.90% 0.438 2.202 59 86 83
Michael Saunders 553 19 0.738 0.185 3.44% 7.80% 0.440 2.372 88 87 97
A. McCutchen 673 31 0.953 0.226 4.61% 10.40% 0.443 2.173 30 88 80
Hanley Ramirez 667 24 0.759 0.180 3.60% 8.10% 0.444 2.222 76 89 85
Mark Teixeira 524 24 0.807 0.224 4.58% 10.30% 0.445 2.175 32 90 81
Mike Trout 639 30 0.963 0.238 4.69% 10.50% 0.447 2.267 26 91 87
Brennan Boesch 503 12 0.659 0.132 2.39% 5.20% 0.459 2.538 128 92 101
Josh Willingham 615 35 0.890 0.264 5.69% 12.40% 0.459 2.129 12 93 73
Paul Konerko 598 26 0.857 0.188 4.35% 9.40% 0.463 2.000 52 94 66
Jason Heyward 651 27 0.814 0.210 4.15% 8.90% 0.466 2.360 58 95 94
Jeff Francoeur 603 16 0.665 0.143 2.65% 5.60% 0.474 2.554 118 96 103
Zack Cozart 600 15 0.687 0.153 2.50% 5.20% 0.481 2.942 127 97 118
Chris Johnson 528 15 0.777 0.170 2.84% 5.90% 0.482 2.881 114 98 115
Yadier Molina 563 22 0.874 0.186 3.91% 8.00% 0.488 2.325 82 99 92
Adam LaRoche 647 33 0.853 0.238 5.10% 10.40% 0.490 2.288 29 100 88
Colby Rasmus 625 23 0.689 0.177 3.68% 7.50% 0.491 2.360 93 101 95
Carlos Beltran 619 32 0.842 0.227 5.17% 10.50% 0.492 2.162 25 102 78
Nelson Cruz 642 24 0.779 0.200 3.74% 7.50% 0.498 2.667 92 103 104
Aaron Hill 668 26 0.882 0.220 3.89% 7.80% 0.499 2.821 87 104 112
E. Encarnacion 644 42 0.941 0.277 6.52% 13.00% 0.502 2.131 8 105 75
Mike Moustakas 614 20 0.708 0.171 3.26% 6.40% 0.509 2.672 107 106 105
Cody Ross 528 22 0.807 0.214 4.17% 8.00% 0.521 2.675 81 107 107
Jesus Montero 553 15 0.685 0.126 2.71% 5.20% 0.522 2.423 126 108 98
Jason Kubel 571 30 0.833 0.253 5.25% 10.00% 0.525 2.530 38 109 100
Ike Davis 584 32 0.771 0.235 5.48% 10.40% 0.527 2.260 28 110 86
Pedro Alvarez 586 30 0.784 0.223 5.12% 9.70% 0.528 2.299 46 111 90
Yoenis Cespedes 540 23 0.861 0.214 4.26% 8.00% 0.532 2.675 80 112 106
Billy Butler 679 29 0.882 0.197 4.27% 8.00% 0.534 2.463 79 113 99
Robinson Cano 697 33 0.929 0.238 4.73% 8.80% 0.538 2.705 63 114 111
Jay Bruce 633 34 0.841 0.263 5.37% 9.80% 0.548 2.684 44 115 108
Alexei Ramirez 621 9 0.651 0.099 1.45% 2.60% 0.557 3.808 143 116 136
Mike Aviles 546 13 0.663 0.131 2.38% 4.20% 0.567 3.119 136 117 123
Omar Infante 588 12 0.719 0.144 2.04% 3.60% 0.567 4.000 140 118 138
Curtis Granderson 684 43 0.811 0.260 6.29% 11.00% 0.572 2.364 18 119 96
Albert Pujols 670 30 0.859 0.231 4.48% 7.80% 0.574 2.962 86 120 119
Josh Reddick 673 32 0.768 0.221 4.75% 8.20% 0.580 2.695 73 121 110
J.J. Hardy 713 22 0.671 0.151 3.09% 5.30% 0.582 2.849 124 122 114
Allen Craig 514 22 0.876 0.215 4.28% 7.20% 0.594 2.986 97 123 121
Aramis Ramirez 630 27 0.901 0.240 4.29% 7.00% 0.612 3.429 101 124 131
Ryan Doumit 528 18 0.781 0.186 3.41% 5.50% 0.620 3.382 122 125 130
B.J. Upton 633 28 0.752 0.208 4.42% 7.10% 0.623 2.930 99 126 117
Brandon Phillips 623 18 0.750 0.148 2.89% 4.50% 0.642 3.289 134 127 127
Ryan Braun 677 41 0.987 0.276 6.06% 9.30% 0.651 2.968 56 128 120
Miguel Cabrera 697 44 0.999 0.277 6.31% 9.50% 0.665 2.916 50 129 116
Corey Hart 622 30 0.841 0.237 4.82% 7.10% 0.679 3.338 98 130 129
Kendrys Morales 522 22 0.787 0.194 4.21% 5.90% 0.714 3.288 113 131 126
Josh Hamilton 636 43 0.930 0.292 6.76% 9.40% 0.719 3.106 51 132 122
Alfonso Soriano 615 32 0.821 0.237 5.20% 7.20% 0.723 3.292 96 133 128
Garrett Jones 515 27 0.832 0.242 5.24% 6.40% 0.819 3.781 106 134 135
Ian Desmond 547 25 0.845 0.218 4.57% 5.50% 0.831 3.964 121 135 137
Dayan Viciedo 543 25 0.744 0.188 4.60% 5.20% 0.885 3.615 125 136 133
Chris Davis 562 33 0.827 0.231 5.87% 6.60% 0.890 3.500 104 137 132
Mark Trumbo 586 32 0.808 0.222 5.46% 6.10% 0.895 3.639 110 138 134
Delmon Young 608 18 0.707 0.145 2.96% 3.30% 0.897 4.394 141 139 141
Adam Jones 697 32 0.839 0.218 4.59% 4.90% 0.937 4.449 132 140 142
Alex Rios 640 25 0.850 0.212 3.91% 4.10% 0.953 5.171 138 141 143
A.J. Pierzynski 520 27 0.827 0.223 5.19% 5.40% 0.962 4.130 123 142 139
Adrian Beltre 654 36 0.921 0.240 5.50% 5.50% 1.001 4.364 120 143 140

 
*For ‘The Ghost Who Walks’.