You are preaching to the choir. The Hardball Times is one of my favorite sites. It's a stat geek site!Originally Posted by FredLynn
You are preaching to the choir. The Hardball Times is one of my favorite sites. It's a stat geek site!
Hasn't it been that the last two seasons, the 2nd half was where the Sox offense really picked it up and rose to #1? It's beena bit of a slow start for some like Hanley and Betts (health issues), but there are some encouraging signs that losing Ortiz may not have that much of an negative effect, what with Moreland's performance thus far and Beni being not much of a question mark either. I mean, I didn't think Beni would be much of a question mark personally, but for some him simply being a rookie was a valid point.
Top 5 doesn't have to be that big of a drop, it depends on how close all top 5 teams are to each other. If there are huge disparities between #1 and #5, sure. Then again, having the #1 offense didn't translate to the Post Season last year anyhow. So I question the overall importance of being #1 in any said category. I'm looking for balance.
Beni is a key to the whole thing. Thus far he looks equal to the task.
Question about hitting into double plays.....any stats out there that penalizes batter for hitting into double play? You not only cost yourself an out but you negated On Base Percentage of another player (in theory).
You could tell Betts wasn't 100% even when he came back those first couple games as well.
He's like Betts in that way for me. He's doing better than I thought he'd do and I had high hopes to begin with.
I'm very pleasantly surprised by what Beni has done. I thought he'd be ok, hitting maybe .250 from the #8 spot until the pitchers found the holes in his swing and Beni adjusted, and then he'd work his way up in the lineup. Instead Beni hit the ground running and looks like he belongs there. He's a legitimate threat from any spot in the top 1/3 of the order. IIRC even Pedey didn't do this!
It's a mere moment in a man's life between the All-Star game and the Old Timer's game.
-Vin Scully
Agree Beni is pretty key, but I also think we need a deep lineup.
People slammed me for questioning how much more of a ceiling Beni had....my point was he is a true professional when it comes to hitting even at a young age. When a kid is already good, how much can he get better? Will he hit .400? Unlikely. But I can see him hitting .340. And he's not that far away.
Sure he'll have his struggles and period of adjustments. But he is ALREADY good at hitting. Pedroia won rookie of the year and MVP early in his career.
I see the same thing from Beni as we saw from Dustin. He will have success at early age.
I'm no stat guy, but there is a stat WGDP which really compares the runs above or below the average that a player has accumulated by his ability to avoid hitting into double plays when he has the opportunity to do so. Have a speedy player who doesn't hit a lot of ground balls when in a double play situation would get a better number. It can be used as a minor adjustment to WAR.
Our killer Bs now hold 4 of the top 5 slots in OPS (29+ PAS):
.938 Moreland
.859 Beni
.858 Betts
.825 Bradley
.729 Bogey
.646 Pablo
.639 Marco
.627 Young
.603 Pedey
.575 HRam
.540 Leon
Team OPS by position:
.938 1B
.870 CF
.806 RF
.791 C (6th in MLB catcher OPS)
.733 SS
.649 LF
.616 3B
.604 2B
.576 DH
Last edited by moonslav59; 04-25-2017 at 11:05 AM.
Gotta like those killer Bs. But that's just 4. We need 8 pretty good guys in that lineup to make up for Ortiz. Moreland's fine, Sandoval is definitely not fine. Pedroia should be fine. Catcher should be fine. Ramirez should be too, but isn't.
Isn't that the same refrain from 2 years ago, right after we acquired Pablo and Hanley? This year they need to come thru.
Last edited by Maxbialystock; 04-25-2017 at 01:15 PM.
What's wrong with Bam Bam at DH? Bustin Pedroia at 2B, Bitch Moreland at 1B and Bazquez behind the plate?
I am kind of surprised at the LF OPS being so low.
Is that because both Benni and Young stroke singles?
"Hating the Yankees like it's a religion since 94'" RIP Mike.
"It's also a simple and indisputable fact that WAR isn't the be-all end-all in valuations, especially in real life. Wanna know why? Because an ace in run-prevention for 120 innings means more often than not, a sub-standard pitcher covering for the rest of the IP that pitcher fails to provide. You can't see value in a vacuum when a player does not provide full-time production."
Benintendi play CF while JBJ was on the DL. Young didn't do squat the entire time.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote