Who needs to be hitting for the Angels to win?
Seems like a lot of stories recently have been questioning who the Angels MVP is this year, and whether we have multiple candidates for league MVP. So, I thought I'd take a look at who it takes to be hot for the team to win. Using www.baseball-reference.com, I'm comparing all of our starter's stats during wins and losses. Here is what we see (sorted by OPS in wins):
In wins:
Player AVG OBP SLG OPS
Mike Napoli .320 .405 .598 1.003
Vlad Guerrero .376 .398 .602 1.000
Bobby Abreu .368 .454 .545 .999
Kendry Morales .320 .369 .613 .982
Torii Hunter .315 .361 .564 .925
Juan Rivera .335 .368 .553 .921
Maicer Izturis .348 .388 .512 .900
Chone Figgins .335 .414 .445 .858
Howie Kendrick .313 .341 .500 .841
Erick Aybar .335 .377 .463 .840
Jeff Mathis .247 .339 .423 .762
Gary Matthews .252 .333 .331 .664
In losses:
Player AVG OBP SLG OPS
Mike Napoli .245 .314 .425 .738
Vlad Guerrero .202 .250 .245 .495
Bobby Abreu .246 .357 .317 .674
Kendry Morales .252 .300 .497 .797
Torii Hunter .292 .403 .550 .953
Juan Rivera .280 .331 .477 .808
Maicer Izturis .221 .280 .284 .565
Chone Figgins .258 .366 .340 .705
Howie Kendrick .206 .287 .247 .534
Erick Aybar .276 .314 .386 .700
Jeff Mathis .136 .239 .153 .391
Gary Matthews .230 .269 .322 .591
A couple of clear callouts:
- Vlad has over a .500 OPS difference in wins versus losses. When he's mashing the ball we win, and when he's struggling, we don't. If he's going to be hitting in the cleanup spot the rest of the way, it's imperative that he's playing at a high level or we could be in trouble.
- Torii Hunter is remarkably consistent at a .925 OPS in wins and a .953 OPS in losses (also the only guy in the lineup with a better OPS during losses). This is probably "the gamer" in him. He'll put up good ABs for us whether we're in the game or not.
- Napoli, Abreu and Morales all have significant gaps in OPS during wins vs losses as well. This backs up the obvious "we're winning this year with our offense" talk.
- Has anyone ever seen a worse line than Mathis has when we lose? A .136 average and a .391 OPS? That might be historically bad...
Not sure this definitively means anything (could be the classic chicken and the egg argument: which hitters lead the team to wins when they're hitting well, and which simply hit well when those around them are hitting), but still found it interesting anyway.
Update: Thanks to CKOD for noticing that I somehow missed Howie. He's included now. I'm still going to exclude Willits and Quinlan due to A) Laziness and actually getting busy here at work, and B) They really have played very little this season, and project to play even less going forward, so their impact should be marginal.
This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.
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I know they'd only appear in the loss column
but no willits or quinlan?
by Quinlan's Goofy Swing on Aug 7, 2009 2:20 PM PDT reply actions
Wow, he's got an ugly W/L split, too
by Caseys Kiss of Death on Aug 7, 2009 3:27 PM PDT up reply actions
well it's not as bad as mathis'
but then again it’d be hard for that to be the case.
Napoli IS the power bat in 2009. Watch.
Vladmir
Definitely. When he is in the lineup, he sets the tone for offense.
And that's a little unnerving.
When he wasn’t in the lineup, and we didn’t depend on him, anybody could set the tone. When he’s in that 4 slot though, the stats above make it seem like everyone looks to him when he’s in the lineup. Scary.
This team is our extended family, That's why we love them no matter what the record, no matter what the score.
Someone different every day
Whether it’s been Mathis, Aybar, Morales, etc., someone different has been stepping up (almost) everyday to give us the big hit(s). Someone having a bad day or two has not hurt this team.
Angel Pitching, Angel Defense - get past that.
Now if we could get Santana and Saunders to do the same thing we would be fine.
Hey la, hey, Halo...
Poor Mathis...
They should just make him bunt all the time. Too bad the pitcher cant hit for him…
he never has, in 5 years in the majors
really only had a couple of good years in the minors, even. offensively, at least.
Napoli IS the power bat in 2009. Watch.
Not sure if this adds up all that well
For example, Figgins doesn’t shine in the wins column. However, he leads the AL in runs scored. Ie, Figgins is not going to drive himself in with a long ball very often. But, we very very much need Figgins hitting and getting on base for the big guys to drive him in.
My weak-ass shot at sabermetrics or whatever the fuck it’s called.
Don't call me Desmond
Yeah this is more of a pure hitting thing
Though it does show that Figgy’s OBP is 50 points higher in wins than losses. He also has 23 SB in wins vs only 10 in losses.
Definitely not the entire picture.
Napoli IS the power bat in 2009. Watch.
Which is why I contend that baseball needs to stop confusing itself with statistics ...
…. and concentrate on who are good players. My old school eye tells me Desmond DeChone Figgins is a damn good player. No number is ever gonna impress me.
Don't call me Desmond
He's getting on base 37% of the time in losses and 41% of the time in wins...
that’s pretty dang good. While not a sabre-disciple by any stretch of the imagination, I can see via these numbers that he is doing his job quite well.
I love this team.
by Downing Rules on Aug 7, 2009 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions
yep. and these aren't even sabre numbers.
i don’t understand all that VORP and WAR and FIP stuff. For me this is plenty ha
Napoli IS the power bat in 2009. Watch.
WAR is easy to understand
they just wanna know why you can’t be friends, and invite you to check out their low rider.
Tell your statistics to shut up
1866baseball version
My all friends and I love a lowrider!
Angels baseball. We do what we must, because we can -- HaloDutch
Vladimir Guerrero needs to be hitting for the angels to win
WE WILL WIN WITH WHAT WE GOT.
R.I.P. Nick Adenhart, Marquis Cooper, Steve McNair, and Frank Grimes, or Grimey, as he liked to be called
We dont need hitting. we need f*ng pitching…. .sorry im watching us get clobbered right now by the rangers in the 5th…. 3 hrs in a row….. good job spier : (
focus on the hitting
it’s much less distressing.
to be perfectly honest, i really hope Saunders IS hurt. Means he can rehab everything and come back and actually contribute. despite “sabremetric” numbers suggesting otherwise, Saunders has been so good for so long it’s hard to conceive that his recent performance is what we should expect in the future.
Napoli IS the power bat in 2009. Watch.
HEYN i just startd onn here how does everone feel bout Mickie Hatcher as batting coach I remember when he played on the 88 Dodgers,their DREAM SEASON with hoplat catcher Mike Scuiosa and now they coach the angels,HOW ARE THE DOING
kin spillcheque bee ussed hear?
howe?
but seriously, i need to know
Who goofed? I've got to know.
Vlad is the critical element alright...
He does his best work for the Angels when he is NOT in the lineup. Look at how we did while he was on the DL: 17-3!
Who needs to be hitting in order for us to win? Certainly NOT Vlad! If anything, we should put him on the DL again!
Missing Garret "Groundout" Anderson
He has hit home runs in two of our last three games.
Rally Killer!!!
Who goofed? I've got to know.
Not homeruns?!?!?!
We need basehits and situational hitting, not all or nothing hitters (sarcasm)
This team is our extended family, That's why we love them no matter what the record, no matter what the score.
yes, he did well? but the fact still remains that our offense took a massive hit coincidence or not the exact time vlad was put into the lineup.
However not entirely his fault, figgy and the cuban texiera were held out of the lineup yesterday! stupidly…. its like why couldnt sosch just wait one more day, its not like they were on the verge of collapse!
This year, more than any year since
this team feeds off each other. When it gets going good everybody is rocking and rolling. Maybe its because we tend to get deep into the pens and we feast off the dregs. When it goes bad (e.g., against Holland yesterday), it is putrid. Fortunately, that seems to be happening only about 40% of the time.
That may be the reason for the dramatic splits for everybody.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Who needs to be pitching for us to win?
Is a better question
NA, #34 SP, LAA
Light up the Halo for Nick!
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