Friday, June 15, 2007
under the radar AL all-star hitters
c: joe buck, royals
one of the few bright spots for KC this year, buck ranks 3rd in OPS (.906) for catchers behind perenial sluggers jorge posada and victor martinez. his 10 homers trail only martinez for the position. unfortunately for royals fans (and inexplicably), kansas city refuses to fully hand him the starting role.
stat to watch: buck has a .357 OBP and .271 AVG, but has drawn only 1 bb in june. he will need to re-gain the patience he exhibited in april and may to keep his great campaign going.
1b: casey kotchman, halos
after a few gross partial seasons, kotchman is quietly putting up a better season than the likes of reigning MVP justin morneau, paul konerko and even mark texeria. .333/.408/.555 is impressive for sure, but it's the fact that he has more extra base hits (26) and walks (23) than strikeouts (16) that caught my eye.
stat to watch: kotchman has fewer PA's than most regular first basemen, notably due to his poor line (.244/.333/.310) against southpaws. nothing against robb quinlan, but improving this platoon split would easily have him on the radar.
2b: aaron hill, bj's
rebounding from a tough 2006, hill has posted a .277 eqa in 2007 and BP has him at 4 fielding runs above average (FRAA). though helped by the fact that the AL is weak at the keystone, he leads the position in rbi's (39) and tied for second in bb's (26).
stat to watch: hr's by month - 5, 3, 0. not a good trend.
3b: casey blake, tribe
blake took over 3rd full time with andy marte's demotion, and continued swinging a hot bat. he's 3rd in OPS (.858) for the position behind a resurgent mike lowell and that a-rod guy, who is apparently pretty good. most impressive is his 4.36 pitches/PA, which leads all AL hitters. this has been key is his .373 OBP, and great for hitting in front of pronk and victor martinez.
stat to watch: from 2004-2006, his july OPS (.774) was sandwiched between .861 (june) and .929 (august). if blake avoids another down turn next month, 2007 could be the best year of his career.
ss: brendan harris
after starting the year in the utility role, harris took the regular job from ben zobrist and never looked back. seemingly hitting in a different spot in the order every night, harris has consistently reached base all year (by month, .358, .361, .382), and turned up the power in june, slugging .600 thus far. not that i see harris replacing miguel tejada in the SS tier or anything, but he's the type of grinder that i admire and deserves a tip of the cap for his efforts.
stat to watch: BP has him at -5 FRAA, so sadly he may not be a long term solution at SS. but hey, jeter never had a positive FRAA until a-rod came to town so you never know.
lf: matt stairs, bj's
with 9 hr's in somewhat limited (but increasing) playing time, the veteran stairs is homering once every 13.9 ab's. that rate is better than magglio ordonez (18.5) and vlad guerrero (19.2), and the hr total is higher than that of manny ramirez (8 jacks). his OPS is .889 despite an iso-OBP (.073) lower than his career average (.092).
stat to watch: 7 of his homers came in may, and he's put up a sub-.700 OPS in juen. he may be suffering from over exposure.
cf: reggie willits, halos
providing instant OBP to an offense that typically lacks, willits has reached base at a .419 clip. powered by 28 bb's in 167 AB's and 15 SB's in 17 tries, willits proved something some of us have been thinking for a few years: the best thing for LA was garrett anderson getting hurt.
stat to watch: PECOTA only projected a line of .250/.325/.339 in 70 PA's. methinks his projection will be slightly better next year.
rf: travis buck, a's
an iso-SLG of .243 despite homering once every 24.7 ab's is rather jaw dropping. that gap power (10 2b's, 4 3b's) and moneyball patience (.374) are paying dividends for the a's. injuries have certainly hurt oakland, but the one that allowed buck to get called up from AAA ain't looking so bad now.
stat to watch: buck has twice as many homers (4) against southpaws in roughly 1/4 of the AB's. he's only hitting .237 against rhp. this will have to improve to offset the eventual drop in numbers against lhp.
dh: jack cust, a's
did you ever think it possible for someone hitting .218 to out-OPS travis hafner? well it's happening - since being (wisely) acquired from san diego, who was letting him rot in AAA again, cust has posted an .883 OPS, with monstrous iso-numbers (.160 iso-OBP and .287 iso-SLG). like the injury that allowed buck to get in the lineup every day, the injury to mike piazza paved the way for this. so don't feel too bad for the a's, considering piazza had 1 homer in 103 ab's (cust's 8 are in 101).
stat to watch: in june cust is homerless, only has one extra base hit, 3 bb's, and isn't playing everyday. i hope otherwise, but he may be headed for sacramento.
c: joe buck, royals
one of the few bright spots for KC this year, buck ranks 3rd in OPS (.906) for catchers behind perenial sluggers jorge posada and victor martinez. his 10 homers trail only martinez for the position. unfortunately for royals fans (and inexplicably), kansas city refuses to fully hand him the starting role.
stat to watch: buck has a .357 OBP and .271 AVG, but has drawn only 1 bb in june. he will need to re-gain the patience he exhibited in april and may to keep his great campaign going.
1b: casey kotchman, halos
after a few gross partial seasons, kotchman is quietly putting up a better season than the likes of reigning MVP justin morneau, paul konerko and even mark texeria. .333/.408/.555 is impressive for sure, but it's the fact that he has more extra base hits (26) and walks (23) than strikeouts (16) that caught my eye.
stat to watch: kotchman has fewer PA's than most regular first basemen, notably due to his poor line (.244/.333/.310) against southpaws. nothing against robb quinlan, but improving this platoon split would easily have him on the radar.
2b: aaron hill, bj's
rebounding from a tough 2006, hill has posted a .277 eqa in 2007 and BP has him at 4 fielding runs above average (FRAA). though helped by the fact that the AL is weak at the keystone, he leads the position in rbi's (39) and tied for second in bb's (26).
stat to watch: hr's by month - 5, 3, 0. not a good trend.
3b: casey blake, tribe
blake took over 3rd full time with andy marte's demotion, and continued swinging a hot bat. he's 3rd in OPS (.858) for the position behind a resurgent mike lowell and that a-rod guy, who is apparently pretty good. most impressive is his 4.36 pitches/PA, which leads all AL hitters. this has been key is his .373 OBP, and great for hitting in front of pronk and victor martinez.
stat to watch: from 2004-2006, his july OPS (.774) was sandwiched between .861 (june) and .929 (august). if blake avoids another down turn next month, 2007 could be the best year of his career.
ss: brendan harris
after starting the year in the utility role, harris took the regular job from ben zobrist and never looked back. seemingly hitting in a different spot in the order every night, harris has consistently reached base all year (by month, .358, .361, .382), and turned up the power in june, slugging .600 thus far. not that i see harris replacing miguel tejada in the SS tier or anything, but he's the type of grinder that i admire and deserves a tip of the cap for his efforts.
stat to watch: BP has him at -5 FRAA, so sadly he may not be a long term solution at SS. but hey, jeter never had a positive FRAA until a-rod came to town so you never know.
lf: matt stairs, bj's
with 9 hr's in somewhat limited (but increasing) playing time, the veteran stairs is homering once every 13.9 ab's. that rate is better than magglio ordonez (18.5) and vlad guerrero (19.2), and the hr total is higher than that of manny ramirez (8 jacks). his OPS is .889 despite an iso-OBP (.073) lower than his career average (.092).
stat to watch: 7 of his homers came in may, and he's put up a sub-.700 OPS in juen. he may be suffering from over exposure.
cf: reggie willits, halos
providing instant OBP to an offense that typically lacks, willits has reached base at a .419 clip. powered by 28 bb's in 167 AB's and 15 SB's in 17 tries, willits proved something some of us have been thinking for a few years: the best thing for LA was garrett anderson getting hurt.
stat to watch: PECOTA only projected a line of .250/.325/.339 in 70 PA's. methinks his projection will be slightly better next year.
rf: travis buck, a's
an iso-SLG of .243 despite homering once every 24.7 ab's is rather jaw dropping. that gap power (10 2b's, 4 3b's) and moneyball patience (.374) are paying dividends for the a's. injuries have certainly hurt oakland, but the one that allowed buck to get called up from AAA ain't looking so bad now.
stat to watch: buck has twice as many homers (4) against southpaws in roughly 1/4 of the AB's. he's only hitting .237 against rhp. this will have to improve to offset the eventual drop in numbers against lhp.
dh: jack cust, a's
did you ever think it possible for someone hitting .218 to out-OPS travis hafner? well it's happening - since being (wisely) acquired from san diego, who was letting him rot in AAA again, cust has posted an .883 OPS, with monstrous iso-numbers (.160 iso-OBP and .287 iso-SLG). like the injury that allowed buck to get in the lineup every day, the injury to mike piazza paved the way for this. so don't feel too bad for the a's, considering piazza had 1 homer in 103 ab's (cust's 8 are in 101).
stat to watch: in june cust is homerless, only has one extra base hit, 3 bb's, and isn't playing everyday. i hope otherwise, but he may be headed for sacramento.
