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November 27, 2005
Reviewing the Ranger Lineup: #9 Hitters
Explanation of stats here.
American League #9 Hitters and Ballpark Adjustment
| Category | On-Base % |
Slugging % |
OPS |
| American League #9 Hitters | .309 | .381 | .690 |
| Park Factor - The Ballpark | 1.011 | 1.042 | --- |
| Adjusted for The Ballpark | .312 | .397 | .709 |
Do managers see the last spot in the order as an opportunity to use their "second" leadoff hitters, light-slugging players with respectable on-base skills? The evidence suggests not; plenty of defense-oriented catchers and attenuated middle infielders call the #9 spot home. The AL's #9 batters produced almost identical numbers to previous two spots in the order. Only one team had an OPS+ of above 100 from the bottom of the order. That's to be expected, since good #9 hitters soon find themselves batting higher.
Texas Rangers #9 Hitters: The Team
| Category | Texas |
AL Rank |
| OPS and L-OPS+ | .728 / 104 |
8 |
| On-Base % and L-OBP+ | .307 / 98 |
10 |
| Slugging % and L-SLG+ | .421 / 106 |
6 |
| Runs | 78 | 3 |
| Homers | 23 | 2 |
| RBI | 79 | 2 |
| Walks | 38 | 9 |
| Strikeouts | 112 | 10 |
| Steals | 4 | 12 |
| Steal % | 100% | 1 |
| (R-HR) % | 33% | 4 |
Texas Rangers #9 Hitters: The Players
| NAME | % of Team PA |
OPS |
L-OPS+ |
BA |
OBP |
L-OBP+ |
SLG |
L-SLG+ |
R |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
| R. Barajas | 49% | .751 | 110 | .244 | .302 | 97 | .449 | 113 | 37 | 14 | 40 | 20 | 45 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Alomar | 15% | .519 | 48 | .236 | .261 | 83 | .258 | 65 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| M. DeRosa | 11% | .910 | 155 | .283 | .377 | 121 | .533 | 134 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| G. Matthews | 7% | .758 | 114 | .250 | .333 | 106 | .425 | 107 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| G. Laird | 7% | .627 | 76 | .231 | .268 | 86 | .359 | 90 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| L. Nix | 3% | .688 | 95 | .313 | .313 | 100 | .375 | 95 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Pitchers | 3% | .526 | 47 | .211 | .211 | 67 | .316 | 80 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 5% | .970 | 171 | .394 | .394 | 126 | .576 | 145 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 17 | 2 | 0 |
Catchers nabbed just over 71% of the plate appearances for Texas. Barajas resumed his low-average high-slugging gig, while Alomar and Laird didn't do much of anything, I'm afraid. Mark DeRosa enjoyed most of his inexplicable late-season heroics from the #9 spot. The pitchers acquitted themselves. Texas will be hard pressed to replace Chan Ho Park's outstanding work in the batter's box (.400/.400/.400). In keeping with the team philosophy, the pitchers combined for one triple (Kenny Rogers) but no walks. Homers by Richard Hidalgo and David Dellucci comprised much of the surprising success of "Other."
American League #9 Hitters
| TEAM | OPS |
L-OPS+ |
rank |
OBP |
L-OBP+ |
rank |
SLG |
L-SLG+ |
rank |
| Cleveland | .821 | 140 | 1 |
.338 | 110 | 1 |
.483 | 130 |
1 |
| Oakland | .754 | 118 | 2 |
.334 | 108 | 3 |
.420 | 110 |
2 |
| Toronto | .749 | 112 | 3 |
.330 | 106 | 4 |
.419 | 106 |
5 |
| Tampa Bay | .716 | 110 | 4 |
.314 | 102 | 5 |
.401 | 107 |
3 |
| Chicago Sox | .738 | 107 | 5 |
.312 | 100 | 8 |
.426 | 107 |
4 |
| LA Angels | .699 | 107 | 6 |
.333 | 109 | 2 |
.367 | 98 |
8 |
| Baltimore | .699 | 105 | 7 |
.314 | 101 | 7 |
.385 | 103 |
7 |
| Texas | .728 | 104 | 8 |
.307 | 98 | 10 |
.421 | 106 |
6 |
| Boston | .660 | 92 | 9 |
.318 | 102 | 6 |
.343 | 89 |
10 |
| Detroit | .657 | 90 | 10 |
.287 | 92 | 12 |
.370 | 98 |
9 |
| Minnesota | .627 | 85 | 11 |
.303 | 99 | 9 |
.324 | 86 |
13 |
| NY Yankees | .629 | 82 | 12 |
.292 | 94 | 11 |
.338 | 88 |
11 |
| Kansas City | .597 | 76 | 13 |
.277 | 90 | 13 |
.320 | 86 |
12 |
| Seattle | .585 | 74 | 14 |
.272 | 89 | 14 |
.314 | 85 |
14 |
Cleveland's Casey Blake (.264/.328/.511), Jhonny Peralta (.305/.348/.527), and Aaron Boone (.412/.434/.529) hit the cover off the ball batting ninth. Peralta hit everywhere, while Blake and especially Boone struggled in loftier lineup positions. Seattle employed half the planet's catchers and shortstops to grind the offense to a halt in front of Ichiro.
Sarcasm often falls flat on paper, so I'll point out that the sentence about Chan Ho Park was a joke.
Posted by Lucas at November 27, 2005 11:14 PM