Slow Games Equal Big Offense
September 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm | Posted in Joe Posnanski, Juan Pierre sucks, Manny Ramirez | 8 CommentsJoe Posnanski checks in with this amazing (or depressing, depending on which team you root for) fact:
David DeJesus leads the Kansas City Royals with 46 walks. That is one behind Los Angeles’ Matt Kemp, who has 47 walks. OK … so what’s the big deal?
Here’s the big deal: Matt Kemp is EIGHTH on the Dodgers in walks. Eighth.
Which means that EVERY SINGLE PLAYER in the Dodgers starting lineup (with the exception of the pitcher, of course) has more walks than ANY player on the Kansas City Royals.
Surprise, surprise: 5 of the top 6 ranked teams in OBP would make the playoffs today, and the 6th is Tampa Bay, doomed by being a division rival of New York and Boston. Say what you will about Don Mattingly and his inability to turn around Rafael Furcal or Russell Martin, but the patience this team has shown from top to bottom in wearing out pitchers and getting men on base is hard to ignore.
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Hey, doom-and-gloom crew: I accept that things looked better in April, but the Dodgers have won 3 of 4, 5 of 8, and 9 of 14. This is hardly another 8-game losing streak, okay?
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Finally, this, from Buster Olney’s column today:
A rival talent evaluator on Manny Ramirez: “He still is a good technical hitter, and he’s still a dangerous hitter. But he’s not driving the ball anywhere close to what he was doing in the second half of last year. I know the Dodgers would never bench him, but right now, I think they’re a better team with Juan Pierre in the lineup than him, because Pierre at least energizes the team. Manny is a bad outfielder, and if he’s not hitting, you notice that a lot more.”
Sigh. Manny’s still got 200 points of OPS over Pierre this year, and if you want to make the case that much of that is Manny’s pre-suspension hot hitting, well, you’d still be wrong.
Last 28 days
Manny: .830 OPS
Pierre: .716 OPS
So even in the last month, in which Manny’s been admittedly sub-Manny, he’s still got more than 100 points of OPS on Pierre. But wait! Their paths are diverging:
Last 14 days
Manny: .983 OPS
Pierre: .659 OPS
Manny gets hotter, Pierre gets colder. How about the last week?
Last 7 days
Manny: 1.137 OPS
Pierre: .527 OPS
The point isn’t to bash Pierre, because it’s hard to compare anyone favorably to one of the ten best hitters ever. The point is that some people still can’t see the obvious difference in who’s the better performer.
So… we’re going to help them. Let’s put those three groups of numbers on a grid, shall we?
Hey, I know which guy I want playing! It’s… the one that keeps going down, right? I bet he’s ”gritty”. Or at least “a gamer”.
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They just won’t give up. I’ve pretty much stopped battering Herbert, but I’d sure be grateful if someone would take him off the Dodgers hands so we wouldn’t have to put up with this gritty drivel anymore.
Comment by Mike— September 9, 2009 #
They just won’t give up. I’ve pretty much stopped battering Herbert, but I’d sure be grateful if someone would take him off the Dodgers hands so we wouldn’t have to put up with this gritty drivel anymore.
Comment by Mike— September 9, 2009 #
I like Pierre alot, he’s a class act, hard working, great guy, but come on! Why is it when everything seems to go bad, it’s Manny’s fault?
We have 2 guys named Kemp and Ethier in our lineup that would displace 9 out of 10 team’s 2 outfielders! Even they can’t keep this team scoring consistantly.
The whole team has to man up and win with or without Manny hitting. It’s not like he’s Andruw Jones batting 4th.
Comment by LAFord— September 10, 2009 #
Yeah but the Dodgers still SUCK right now.
Comment by shmolnick— September 10, 2009 #
ESPN has the corner on stupid sports comentators, that’s for sure. But the first part of blog “right on”. Graph just to darn funny.
Comment by bluetrain— September 10, 2009 #
MSTI, you are so inaccurate. Juan Pierre is a professional hitter with an excellent haircut. You can bet that his hair never gets in his eyes when he goes into his home run swing. Remember that whenever Juan Pierre hits a home run, it has a chilling effect on the rest of the league. It shows that the Dodgers MEAN BUSINESS and it LIGHTS A FIRE UNDER THE TEAM. He always runs hard on every ground ball to second base. He even runs hard on his popups. That is LEADERSHIP.
We also need Juan Pierre in left field because he always prevents runners on first base from scoring on a single. He consistently holds that runner to TWO BASES with his accurate arm. Also remember that his speed WINS BALL GAMES. Even though he gets caught stealing 30-35% of the time, his hustle SETS AN EXAMPLE for the rest of our young players. I will take a Juan Pierre caught stealing ANY DAY over a Manny Ramirez three-run homer. SHAME ON YOU MSTI.
Comment by The Dude Abides— September 10, 2009 #
I can’t say that I disagree with you, but are you really comparing the batting stats of an everyday player and a spot-starter / pinch-hitter? Come on. Get real.
Comment by Jumbo— September 10, 2009 #
What … There’s being a Brett Tomko sighting? :)
Comment by BLUEFAN— September 11, 2009 #