Comments on: I’ll fix you allright

By: philosofool

philosofool — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:46:39 +0000

Anyone who thinks that this isn't an improvement doesn't understand the appropriate relative merits of OBP vs. SLG. I'm not saying Sexson is good, but a wOBA of .303 is bad while .336 is average. Sexson has gotten better.

By: edgar for mayor

edgar for mayor — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:52 +0000

KJR was on his case today. Twas sweet.

By: Steve T

Steve T — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:19:22 +0000

So you’re going to throw me under the bus, then try to get the driver to stop? Gee, thanks!

No, you’re right. I said he’s still not a good player. But that’s more than a hundred points of OBP, which means one more time out of ten without making an out. It’s those outs that are really killing us, not the extra bases.

I don’t think speed matters that much except for a handful of elite players. If your team doesn’t make outs, players are going to come around to score eventually even if they’re wearing deep-sea diver boots; whereas speed is meaningless if you can’t get on base and the guys behind you can’t get on either.

You can have an endless rally made up of all singles and walks (and they’re terrific fun to watch), but you can’t have a real rally made up of out-double-out-double-out.

By: Eleven11

Eleven11 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:19:11 +0000

I may have this messed up but Wille B has a .250 ave, OBP of .364, SLG of .250 in June (didn’t play end of May). Big Richie is becoming Little Willie fast (but more expensive). Add WB’s base running and dirty uniform, you’d be better off.

By: isaac

isaac — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:43:27 +0000

Having made an almost identical point to Steve T upthread (and this is a short thread), I’ll just emphasize that the difference between his post and mine is that he thinks OBP is “much more” important than SLG (and therefore that new Sexson is “much more” valuable than before) and I understand that it’s probably 1.5-2.1 times as important, maybe a little less than that (and therefore that Sexson is a little more valuable now). DePo famously said in Moneyball that OBP was three times as valuable as SLG, but there doesn’t seem to be research supporting that.

Having thrown Steve T under the bus, I’ll also defend him — I don’t think he’s saying that low power, low walk, minimal speed is optimal. We can probably all agree that massive avg/massive walk/massive power/massive speed is optimal. He was just saying that decent OBP, low power, minimal speed is better than low OBP, mediocre power, minimal speed.

An honest question, not a troll: are there any good studies on the effect of speed on the relative value of OBP vs. SLG? It seems intuitive (at least to me) that poor speed would devalue OBP relative to slugging, but what’s not intuitive is how much.

By: Breadbaker

Breadbaker — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:21:12 +0000

I’m not sure how anyone could think that a low power, low walk, minimal speed offense would be optimal in any circumstances. But this is a team that would have Vidro, battin third, bunt in a close game in the early innings.

By: Steve T

Steve T — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:57:27 +0000

To be fair to Sexson, the high OBP IS, in fact, a huge improvement. Getting on base is by far the most important thing a hitter can do, much more so than slugging. It means not making an out, and if you don’t make outs the runs will come.

Sexson is still not a valuable player, but he’s much more valuable now than he was when he was making an out almost three-fourths of the time.

By: Wallingfjord

Wallingfjord — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:49:28 +0000

Here's how we can forward this information to the M's FO in a way they can understand it. Notice how damnable is centered just so.

By: bongo

bongo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:45:43 +0000

Also, AAA kids sometimes surprise you. As an example, I’d be curious how Prentice Redman or Victor Diaz would do if he were promoted.

By: cdowley

cdowley — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:51:21 +0000

I’d much rather watch us lose with AAA kids than with these chumps…

At least then they’d have an excuse… besides “they suck” anyhow…