« Weekend Photo | Main | Reviewing the Ranger Lineup: #3 Hitters »
November 06, 2005
Reviewing the Ranger Lineup: #2 Hitters
Review of #1 hitters and explanation of stats here.
American League #2 Hitters and Ballpark Adjustment
| Category | On-Base % | Slugging % | OPS |
| American League #2 Hitters | .330 | .405 | .735 |
| Park Factor - The Ballpark | 1.011 | 1.042 | --- |
| Adjusted for The Ballpark | .334 | .422 | .756 |
A good #2 hitter is hard to find. The American League's #2 hitters reached based less often than #1 hitters (.330 to .345) and even slugged at a lower rate (.405 to .417). Were AL managers too insistent on placing a traditional, runner-advancing type in the #2 slot at the expense of on-base skills? I would have expected the talent-rich Yankees to have among the best #2 hitters in the AL, but in fact Joe Torre doled out most of the plate appearances to the green Robinson Cano and the execrable Tony Womack.
I'm not President of the Buck Showalter Fan Club (I'm not even a member), but I give him credit for solving a lineup problem that plagued many teams. About three weeks into the season, he stuck one of the team's two best hitters into the #2 slot and left him there.
Texas Rangers #2 Hitters: The Team
| Category | Texas | AL Rank |
| OPS and L-OPS+ | .906 / 139 | 1 |
| On-Base % and L-OBP+ | .385 / 115 | 1 |
| Slugging % and L-SLG+ | .520 / 123 | 1 |
| Runs | 118 | 2 |
| Homers | 27 | 1 |
| RBI | 88 | 2 |
| Walks | 65 | 2 |
| Strikeouts | 102 | 4 |
| Steals | 4 | 14 |
| Steal % | 67% | 11 |
| (R-HR) % | 35% | 8 |
Texas Rangers #2 Hitters: The Players
NAME | % of Team PA | OPS | L-OPS+ | BA | OBP | L-OBP+ | SLG | L-SLG+ | R | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS |
| Michael Young | 83% | .922 | 143 | .341 | .394 | 118 | .528 | 125 | 101 | 21 | 75 | 49 | 80 | 4 | 2 |
| Hank Blalock | 14% | .779 | 107 | .244 | .346 | 104 | .433 | 103 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 3% | 1.015 | 162 | .273 | .333 | 100 | .682 | 162 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
All hail Michael Young! Young slugged .528 and provided the badly needed on-base skills missing from the #1 slot (.321 OBP). Texas trailed the league in steals and was the only team in the league without a sacrifice bunt from the #2 slot. As I've discussed earlier, bunting is a situational strategy, not just something a team should do in imitation of a horrible yet playoff-bound NL offense. Perhaps Texas faced some situations this season in which bunting from the #2 slot was the optimal strategy, but I doubt the number exceeded five or so.
American League #2 Hitters
| TEAM | OPS | L-OPS+ | rank | OBP | L-OBP+ | rank | SLG | L-SLG+ | rank |
| Texas | 0.906 | 139 | 1 | 0.385 | 115 | 1 | 0.520 | 123 | 1 |
| Tampa Bay | 0.776 | 115 | 2 | 0.352 | 108 | 2 | 0.424 | 107 | 3 |
| Cleveland | 0.776 | 114 | 3 | 0.326 | 100 | 7 | 0.450 | 114 | 2 |
| Boston | 0.774 | 110 | 4 | 0.352 | 106 | 3 | 0.422 | 103 | 5 |
| Detroit | 0.742 | 101 | 5 | 0.317 | 96 | 12 | 0.425 | 106 | 4 |
| Chicago Sox | 0.757 | 101 | 6 | 0.335 | 101 | 5 | 0.422 | 100 | 6 |
| Oakland | 0.736 | 100 | 7 | 0.333 | 101 | 6 | 0.403 | 100 | 7 |
| LA Angels | 0.705 | 95 | 8 | 0.331 | 101 | 4 | 0.374 | 94 | 11 |
| NY Yankees | 0.716 | 93 | 9 | 0.317 | 96 | 11 | 0.399 | 97 | 9 |
| Baltimore | 0.699 | 92 | 10 | 0.306 | 93 | 14 | 0.393 | 99 | 8 |
| Seattle | 0.684 | 90 | 11 | 0.315 | 96 | 10 | 0.369 | 94 | 10 |
| Toronto | 0.712 | 90 | 12 | 0.325 | 98 | 8 | 0.387 | 92 | 12 |
| Kansas City | 0.664 | 84 | 13 | 0.317 | 96 | 9 | 0.347 | 88 | 13 |
| Minnesota | 0.635 | 76 | 14 | 0.307 | 94 | 13 | 0.328 | 82 | 14 |
Texas destroyed the competition among #2 hitters. Second-place Tampa Bay trailed Texas in OBP by .033, and no team came within 70 points of Texas's .520 slugging percentage. Minnesota makes another appearance with the worst #2 hitters. "Offensive force" Nick Punto, Luis Rodriguez, Jason Bartlett and Juan Castro were the main perpetrators.
Posted by Lucas at November 6, 2005 01:00 PM