Stuff

[DOUGHBOYS]

I haven't done some 'Stuff' in a long time. Let's do a little here...

For some reason, Elvis Andrus avoids the 'judy' tag. He shouldn't.
Either Billy Hamilton or Andrus is the first judy taken in most drafts.
Andrus had 698 plate appearances last season. He had 25 extra base hits. Andrus lack of power is made up by batting high in a good lineup. His 67 rbi are deemed very acceptable for a shortstop.
Those 67 rbi were as many as Brandon Belt and four more than power hitting middle infielder, Jedd Gyorko.
So how bad is 25 extra base hits in 698 plate appearances? With 42 stolen bases, not bad for Andrus owners.
But by comparison, no other player even had 600 plate appearances with less extra base hits.
And the only two players even with 500 plate appearances and only 25 extra base hits were Adeiny Hechavaria and Ichiro Suzuki.
Not good company.

Stolen bases are important. More important than some want to admit.
For proof, look where Billy Hamilton is being drafted. Hamilton hit .256 at AAA last year.
He may be the only player in fantasy history to hit that low in the Minors, the year before being taken so high in NFBC drafts.
His drafters are looking for a full category filler. It's impossible to find that in any one player for the other categories.
Of course, if Hamilton cannot hit Major League pitching, those same owners will most likely be at a huge speed DISadvantage if Hamilton is sent back down to AAA to better his hitting. Such is life for the fantasy drafter.

Jacoby Ellsbury routinely goes in the first round of drafts. Shin-soo Choo in the third or fourth. Stolen bases separate them.
Ellsbury's line from last year....298/92/9/53/52 (note that Andrus had 14 more rbi)
Choo's line from last year.......285/107/21/54/20 (note that Andrus had 13 more rbi)
Both of these players are headed to new teams. Most likely, even better offensive teams than they were on last season.
Even though Choo has consistent power over Ellsbury (at least 14 homers in five of his last six years), Ellsbury's stolen base skill overrides Choo's power consistency and places him in the first round.

Will Venable has been platooned most of his career. Last year he hit for a higher average vs. lefties than righties (.276...266)
Maybe Venable becomes an everyday player this year, I don't know.
But even more telling is that Venable connected for six homers vs. lefties. In just 105 at bats. That tells me that Venable is standing his ground vs. lefties, much like the change in Curtis Granderson a few years ago.
Don't celebrate yet Venable owners. There is another problem.
Venable only stole two bases off southpaws last season.

Addison Reed is leaving the White Sox to come to Arizona.
A little scary.
Away from home last year, Reed had a 5.29 ERA. At home in Chicago, 2.54.
Will he make Arizona his new 'home' base? I don't know.
On the White Sox rubber at home, Reed walked a hitter once every six innings.
On the road, one batter was walked every two innings.

Todd Frasier hit .236 vs lefties last year....yes, vs. lefties....

In his last 11 innings pitched in 2013, Aroldis Chapman struck out 25 batters...not a typo...

Mat Latos struck out 17 batters in 35 innings pitched in September... also, not a typo...

Billy Butler had more homers vs. the A.L. East (7) than he did the A.L. Central (5)
The real problem being, of course, all the other teams (3).........

Miguel Montero had three extra base hits vs. lefties last year. Only one was a homer. That was 105 at bats...
In 2012, Montero had an extra base hit every 10 at bats vs. lefties.....

Best away starting pitcher last year?
It's hard to argue if choosing Clay Buchholz.
Buchholz made seven starts. He finished 6-0 in those starts. He threw 45 innings and gave up seven earned runs.
Or on average, one earned run per start.

A lot of folks consider Daniel Nava's year 'lucky'.
Was it?
Nava never had a month hitting less than .270
What was incredible about Nava were his rbi to hits ratio over the last three months. Over those last three months, Nava had 64 hits, yet, only 17 rbi. A tough thing to 'accomplish' in that lineup......

I have stated that too many hitters get too much credit for walking. Joey Votto stands out among these hitters. To me, it is a case of a batter who is willing to do anything to walk vs. a pitcher who is more than happy to oblige him.
Votto's polar opposite may be Torii Hunter. Hitting in front of Miguel Cabrera, Hunter gets to take whacks at a lot of strikes.
Hunter only walked 26 times last year. To put that in perspective, Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch 26 times last year.

Starlin Castro ended up with 666 at bats last year. Ironic, in that Castro had a devil of a year. Only Michael Young in 2003 has ended up with the same amount of at bats since 2000 and Young's was a very good year.
Even with this bad year, Castro is taken before the 10th round in most drafts. Not puzzling since most say he still has the skills to be a great player.
What is puzzling is that another player did not have a great year last year and has skills, but has been banished to the lower part of drafts.
A lot of it is positionality. Castro plays shortstop, Nick Markakis plays outfield.
Here are their slants from last year...
Castro... .245/59/10/44/9
Markakis .271/89/10/59/1

Kris Medlen had 15 Wins last year. They all came in night games.
In day games, Madlen was 0-4 with a 5.52 E.R.A.

[Bronx Yankees]

I haven't done some 'Stuff' in a long time. Let's do a little here...

For some reason, Elvis Andrus avoids the 'judy' tag. He shouldn't.
Either Billy Hamilton or Andrus is the first judy taken in most drafts.
Andrus had 698 plate appearances last season. He had 25 extra base hits. Andrus lack of power is made up by batting high in a good lineup. His 67 rbi are deemed very acceptable for a shortstop.
Those 67 rbi were as many as Brandon Belt and four more than power hitting middle infielder, Jedd Gyorko.
So how bad is 25 extra base hits in 698 plate appearances? With 42 stolen bases, not bad for Andrus owners.
But by comparison, no other player even had 600 plate appearances with less extra base hits.
And the only two players even with 500 plate appearances and only 25 extra base hits were Adeiny Hechavaria and Ichiro Suzuki.
Not good company.

Good stuff as usual, Dan. One minor critique: you omitted a better comparison for Elvis "Judy" Andrus.

Last year, Andrus had 67 RBI in 698 plate appearances, mostly hitting second.

Also last year, Joey "Ball Four" Votto had 73 RBI in 726 plate appearances, mostly (exclusively?) hitting third.

Votto out-homered Andrus, 24 to 4. Thus, when you deduct the times they drove themselves in, Andrus plated teammates 63 times, while Votto only plated teammates 49 times (with one of MLB's best OBP players, Choo, hitting leadoff).

Ain't numbers great?

[DOUGHBOYS]

Good stuff, Mike.
I did think about that, but I have picked on Votto ad nauseum.
BUT, I am more than happy to see somebody else do it!

[NorCalAtlFan]

that is funny. votto's rbi production per PA was akin to jeter's last healthy year! uggh. but he's the captain, so...........