Comments on: Organizational Rankings: #10

By: Ando

Ando — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:46:58 +0000

You’re right, five playoff appearences, four division titles, and a WS win all in the past 7 years isn’t at all impressive. If only they’d taken a few more walks.

By: TheTruthAboutWally

TheTruthAboutWally — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:00:30 +0000

Hey Wally….ya know who pays attention to penis length? Guys with small ones….

By: Omar

Omar — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:12:58 +0000

Yeah, because those NY teams in no where near as good of a spot to be a consistent contender as the Rays and Indians. C’mon, I love the way the Rays and Indians are ran…but the NY teams are fairly well ran (especially the Yankees, IMO) and they have an enormous payroll to overcome bad contracts. Imagine if the Indians were saddled with a mistake like Pavano that looked good at the time, but ended up turning out poorly. Some people have a taste for cleverly ran teams as opposed to good ones.

By: Omar

Omar — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:08:05 +0000

Excuse me if I remain skeptical. They’re Dustyesque towards the hitting approach. If they do, fine, good for them bad for the AL. They were 18th in OBP last season (below average despite a monster streak from Teixeira), I might be wrong…but given the line up:

Chone Figgins (career .356, which is good)
Howie Kendrick (.333)
Bobby Abreu (.400, though a reluctant signing)
Vladimir Guererro (.389, .356 last season) sick move by Arte
Torii Hunter (.326)
Mike Napoli (monster, but he doesn’t seem to be te type of player that they’d love to get playing time)
Gary Matthews Jr. (.333 I’m giving them credit for DHing Abreu or Vlad)
Kendry Morales (approx a .40 IsoD in the minors, gross)
Erik Aybar (.298, ouch)

So I see some improvement, but they weren’t all over guys like Burrell, Dunn, or Abreu (OR MANNY!!!11!1!!!11!one!!1!) from the start…which is what I’d see a team that craves OBP.

And I don’t consider a .350 OBP a good option for a table setter. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong.

By: Joe R

Joe R — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:13:40 +0000

But imo, top 3 should definitely be the Red Sox, Rays, and Indians. If only the Indians ever made a play on a real big name FA instead of always building stars from the system, they could be #1.

By: Joe R

Joe R — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:11:41 +0000

Chiz, if you tried some research, you’d see that he’s averaged ~3.56 wins / year above replacement since 2002.

If you like baseballprospectus’ #’s better, he has a career 376 BRAR, 25 FRAA, and a 41.2 WARP1 in 4781 PA, or 5.17 WARP1 per 600 PA’s. If we call 600 PA’s a season of baseball, that pretty much puts his career in line with, then that’s basically in line with Miguel Cabrera’s 2008 (684 PA, 5.3 WARP1).

And he’s the biggest earner on the Red Sox.

If JD Drew is the official anchor of the Red Sox payroll, I think Epstein’s doing a good job.

By: Brock

Brock — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:35:27 +0000

Teixeira really had an influence on this team last year, his OBP will be missed more than his power. The whole team was talking about how Teixeira’s approach changed their out look last year.

By: Teej

Teej — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:11:56 +0000

Wow. A negative rating for voluntarily fixing a typo so that my message was clearer. What the hell happened to this place?

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:51:59 +0000

Apparently an old dog can learn new tricks. Mike Scioscia has recognized the alarming lack of plate discipline and is starting to drill the message into the organization. This article provides some depth as to the changes that are happening within the Angels system.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/angels-scioscia-philosophy-2325695-guys-going

With regards to understanding OBP, Scioscia addressed that matter directly a few days ago as it pertained to Howie Kendrick:

“Howie might not be the guy with a .400 on-base percentage, but if he hits .320, he’s going to have a .350 on-base percentage, which is enough to hit in front of the middle of our lineup,” Scioscia said. “The way he runs, the amount of doubles he’s going to hit, he’s going to be very productive ahead of that grouping.”

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-angels-fyi22-2009mar22,0,6636326.story

Early in spring training this year Scioscia addressed the potential of Erick Aybar to hit first or second in the lineup:

““If you’re going to set the table, you’re going to need to be in that (.350 OBP) range. I mean, league average is somewhere around .330, give or take a couple. … Erick has the ability to get in scoring position an awful lot so maybe his on-base percentage doesn’t have to be off the charts. But it has to be better than .320 or .330 if he’s going to hit in front of your big boys.”

http://headlines.ocregister.com/sports/aybar_15693___article.html/angels_winter.html

By: Omar

Omar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:31:21 +0000

B- I’m sorry but the Angels lack of understanding of OBP and SLG make it impossible for me to like their front office. They signed Abreu in spite of Abreu’s skill set, he was just too good of a bargain to pass up; I’m not very impressed with the Angels franchise.