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November 03, 2005
Reviewing the Ranger Lineup: #1 Hitters
I’ll review the Ranger hitters in terms of position and spot in the lineup during the next few weeks. Today, the #1 hitters.
Before I delve into the Rangers, please allow a quick explanation of a few derived statistics. You probably already know OPS and OPS+. If not, OPS is the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and slugging percentage, while OPS+ converts that number to an index based on the league average and player’s home park. 100 is always average, higher is better. OPS can mislead since it considers players with a .300 OBP and .500 SLG and those with a .400 OBP and .400 SLG to be equals. Therefore, I also like to display OBP+ and SLG+, the same type of indices as OPS+ but measuring separately a player’s effectiveness in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
The operative comparison for batting position is not to the league as a whole but rather the league’s other #1 hitters, who reach base more often but hit with less power than the rest of the league. An average #1 hitter for Texas must have an OBP of .349, fifteen points higher than the team as a whole.
| Category | On-Base % | Slugging % | OPS |
| American League | .330 | .424 | .754 |
| Park Factor - The Ballpark | 1.011 | 1.042 | --- |
| Adjusted for The Ballpark | .334 | .442 | .776 |
| Category | On-Base % | Slugging % | OPS |
| AL #1 Hitters | .345 | .417 | .762 |
| Park Factor - The Ballpark | 1.011 | 1.042 | --- |
| Adjusted for The Ballpark | .349 | .434 | .783 |
I use the term “L-OBP+,” L-SLG+” and “L-OPS+” to describe a player’s performance in terms of his spot in the batting order instead of the entire league (L = lineup). If a Ranger #1 hitter has an OBP of .349, he’d have a plain vanilla OBP+ of 104 but an L-OBP+ of just 100.
Texas Rangers #1 Hitters: The Team
| Category | Texas | AL Rank |
| OPS and L-OPS+ | .785 / 99 | 8 |
| On-Base % and L-OBP+ | .321 / 92 | 14 |
| Slugging % and L-SLG+ | .464 / 107 | 4 |
| Runs | 122 | 3 |
| Homers | 37 | 1 |
| RBI | 82 | 2 |
| Walks | 76 | 1 |
| Strikeouts | 171 | 14 |
| Steals | 11 | 9 |
| Steal % | 71% | 3 |
| (R-HR) % | 41% | 4 |
Overall, their results are satisfactory if the end justifies the means, as they were third in runs scored, only eight behind league-leading Boston. No other team approached Texas’s 37 homers. Cleveland was second with 20, and the average team hit 14. Texas #1 hitters didn’t run very often but also didn’t run into many outs.
On the downside, they had the worst L-OBP+ in the league. In terms of raw OBP, only Minnesota was worse at .318. Weirdly, Texas’s #1 hitters drew the most walks in the AL with 76. Texas #1 hitters had plenty of patience. What they lacked was batting average; their .243 figure was 25 points below any other team. They also lapped the field with 171 strikeouts, 49 more than runner-up New York. If you’re the kind fan who prefers a traditional top-of-the-order hitter, the Rangers most definitely were not for you.
The last statistic, (R-HR)%, measures how often the player scored when reaching base safely by means other than a home run. It measures the team more than the player, and Texas performed pretty well in this regard.
Texas Rangers #1 Hitters: The Individuals
| NAME | % of Team PA | OPS | L-OPS+ | BA | OBP | L-OBP+ | SLG | L-SLG+ | R | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS |
| D. Dellucci | 56% | .833 | 111 | .245 | .346 | 99 | .487 | 112 | 76 | 23 | 51 | 54 | 105 | 3 | 3 |
| G. Matthews | 23% | .759 | 92 | .242 | .306 | 88 | .452 | 104 | 24 | 8 | 18 | 15 | 33 | 3 | 0 |
| A. Soriano | 13% | .781 | 97 | .276 | .301 | 86 | .480 | 111 | 16 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 20 | 4 | 0 |
| K. Mench | 3% | .269 | -28 | .095 | .174 | 50 | .095 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 5% | .709 | 208 | .78 | .252 | 72 | .457 | 105 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
David Dellucci hit far better than anyone but him and his mother could have expected, and for a while he walked at a near-Bondsian rate (about once per five plate appearances during the season’s first two months). Nevertheless, his unexceptional batting average of .245 resulted in an only ordinary OBP. None of his teammates offered much support. Gary Matthews, Alfonso Soriano and friends hit for power but combined for a ghastly .293 on-base percentage.
American League #1 Hitters
| TEAM | G | OPS | L-OPS+ | rank | OBP | L-OBP+ | rank | SLG | L-SLG+ | rank |
| Baltimore | 162 | .844 | 123 | 1 | .371 | 108 | 2 | .473 | 116 | 1 |
| NY Yankees | 162 | .817 | 113 | 2 | .379 | 109 | 1 | .438 | 104 | 8 |
| Seattle | 162 | .785 | 110 | 3 | .349 | 102 | 5 | .436 | 108 | 3 |
| Boston | 162 | .804 | 110 | 4 | .363 | 105 | 3 | .441 | 105 | 6 |
| Tampa Bay | 162 | .773 | 105 | 5 | .337 | 99 | 8 | .435 | 107 | 5 |
| Cleveland | 162 | .770 | 105 | 6 | .331 | 97 | 12 | .439 | 108 | 2 |
| Kansas City | 162 | .760 | 102 | 7 | .336 | 98 | 10 | .423 | 104 | 7 |
| Texas | 162 | .785 | 99 | 8 | .321 | 92 | 14 | .464 | 107 | 4 |
| Oakland | 162 | .746 | 97 | 9 | .357 | 103 | 4 | .390 | 94 | 11 |
| Detroit | 162 | .742 | 95 | 10 | .349 | 101 | 6 | .392 | 95 | 9 |
| LA Angels | 162 | .728 | 94 | 11 | .341 | 100 | 7 | .387 | 94 | 10 |
| Toronto | 162 | .736 | 90 | 12 | .340 | 98 | 9 | .396 | 92 | 13 |
| Minnesota | 162 | .702 | 86 | 13 | .318 | 93 | 13 | .384 | 93 | 12 |
| Chicago Sox | 162 | .674 | 74 | 14 | .338 | 97 | 11 | .336 | 77 | 14 |
As for the rest of the league, Baltimore (consisting mostly of Brian Roberts) had the best group of #1 hitters in the AL, and Minnesota (Shannon Stewart and pals) and the World Champion Chicago White Sox (mainly Scott Podsednik) shared the worst.
Posted by Lucas at November 3, 2005 11:58 PM