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November 22, 2005
Reviewing the Ranger Lineup: #8 Hitters
Explanation of stats here.
American League #8 Hitters and Ballpark Adjustment
| Category | On-Base % |
Slugging % |
OPS |
| American League #8 Hitters | .313 |
.394 |
.707 |
| Park Factor - The Ballpark | 1.011 |
1.042 |
--- |
| Adjusted for The Ballpark | .316 |
.411 |
.727 |
AL #8 hitters bested their #7 counterparts by .001 in slugging and on-base percentage. As for Texas, they received exemplary production from the #8 spot and poor production from the #7 spot despite considerable overlap in personnel. I don't see any explanation for it; some of the weaker Ranger hitters just happened to heat up while batting eighth. They trailed only Boston in lineup-adjusted OPS and led the league in runs, RBI and homers.
Texas Rangers #8 Hitters: The Team
| Category | Texas |
AL Rank |
OPS and L-OPS+ |
.801 / 119 |
2 |
On-Base % and L-OBP+ |
.328 / 104 |
5 |
Slugging % and L-SLG+ |
.474 / 115 |
1 |
| Runs | 88 | 1 |
| Homers | 27 | 1 |
| RBI | 89 | 1 |
| Walks | 50 | 6 |
| Strikeouts | 108 | 10 |
| Steals | 5 | 8 |
| Steal % | 55% | 9 |
| (R-HR) % | 33% | 3 |
Texas Rangers #8 Hitters: The Players
| NAME | % of Team PA |
OPS |
L-OPS+ |
BA |
OBP |
L-OBP+ |
SLG |
L-SLG+ |
R |
HR |
RBI |
BB |
SO |
SB |
CS |
| G. Matthews | 31% | .813 | 122 | .227 | .338 | 116 | .475 | 116 | 28 | 6 | 23 | 17 | 26 | 3 | 2 |
| R. Hidalgo | 19% | .879 | 138 | .287 | .328 | 134 | .551 | 134 | 19 | 9 | 19 | 12 | 21 | 1 | 2 |
| R. Barajas | 15% | .716 | 95 | .239 | .281 | 106 | .435 | 106 | 10 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| M. DeRosa | 11% | .621 | 71 | .247 | .278 | 84 | .343 | 84 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| L. Nix | 5% | .935 | 154 | .212 | .355 | 141 | .581 | 141 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Alomar | 5% | .789 | 119 | .343 | .375 | 101 | .414 | 101 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| K. Mench | 5% | 1.080 | 192 | .138 | .400 | 166 | .680 | 166 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| J. Botts | 3% | .620 | 77 | .231 | .353 | 65 | .267 | 65 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Dellucci | 3% | 1.104 | 201 | .242 | .438 | 162 | .667 | 162 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Other | 5% | .709 | 95 | .281 | .303 | 99 | .406 | 99 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
Hidalgo batted .287/.328/.551 in the eighth position, .204/.264/.343 everywhere else. What did I have to say about him back in March?
Plate Appearances: 600. Batting Average: .265. Runs: 85. Homers: 27. RBI: 85. Steals: 5. On-base Percentage: .340. Slugging Percentage: .500. Upside: Moderate. Hidalgo batted .310 with good patience just two years ago. Downside: High. He batted .239 with no patience just last year, and .235 three years ago. Injury history: Murky. Hidalgo hasn’t reached 600 plate appearances in five years because of a variety of minor injuries.
Meet the most difficult player to project in Major League Baseball. In addition to his seemingly randomly generated stats, he has surpassed 600 plate appearances only once in his career and averaged 568 over the last five years, so my prediction of 600 might be slightly generous. I think potential owners should pretend his unparalleled 200 season (.314-118-44-122-13) never happened, as he’s never come close to repeating it. Take out that season and what does he offer? An erratic batting average, 70-90 runs and RBI, never more than 28 homers, a small handful of steals. In a ten-team mixed league, he's a generic outfielder. Hidalgo has considerable upside moving to Arlington, but remember that he spent much of career in hitter-friendly Enron/Minute Maid Park.... An intrepid owner could pass on Hidalgo, draft Mench several rounds later, and get essentially the same production."
The Ranger Rundown: your source for wishy-washy, caveat-laden quasi-predictions.
American League #8 Hitters| TEAM | OPS |
L-OPS+ |
rank |
OBP |
L-OBP+ |
rank |
SLG |
L-SLG+ |
rank |
| Boston | .782 | 120 | 1 |
.359 | 114 | 1 |
.422 | 106 |
4 |
| Texas | .801 | 119 | 2 |
.328 | 104 | 5 |
.474 | 115 |
1 |
| NY Yankees | .776 | 117 | 3 |
.341 | 108 | 2 |
.435 | 109 |
2 |
| Minnesota | .730 | 109 | 4 |
.326 | 105 | 3 |
.404 | 104 |
6 |
| Oakland | .735 | 107 | 5 |
.312 | 99 | 9 |
.423 | 107 |
3 |
| LA Angels | .721 | 106 | 6 |
.314 | 101 | 7 |
.406 | 105 |
5 |
| Baltimore | .716 | 105 | 7 |
.327 | 104 | 4 |
.389 | 101 |
7 |
| Toronto | .725 | 101 | 8 |
.323 | 102 | 6 |
.402 | 99 |
9 |
| Tampa Bay | .677 | 95 | 9 |
.309 | 100 | 8 |
.369 | 96 |
11 |
| Chicago Sox | .711 | 95 | 10 |
.302 | 96 | 11 |
.409 | 100 |
8 |
| Cleveland | .673 | 94 | 11 |
.300 | 97 | 10 |
.373 | 97 |
10 |
| Detroit | .643 | 82 | 12 |
.290 | 92 | 12 |
.353 | 90 |
13 |
| Kansas City | .634 | 82 | 13 |
.280 | 90 | 13 |
.354 | 92 |
12 |
| Seattle | .578 | 68 | 14 |
.273 | 88 | 14 |
.305 | 80 |
14 |
Boston, mostly in the form of Bill Mueller, squeaked past Texas in L-OPS+ with a substantially higher OBP. Seattle's loathsome variety pack of Yuniesky Betancourt, Miguel Olivo, Mike Morse, Jose Lopez, Willie Bloomquist, and sixteen(!) others provided some of the worst hitting in baseball.
Posted by Lucas at November 22, 2005 09:01 AM