Episode #006 - Guest Adam stops by to discuss the rash of injuries to Gordon, Bianchi and Duffy, Ray Liotta calls it quits, Brian Anderson wanting to pitch and more. Nick also finishes the AL Central preview with the Cleveland Indians. Follow along with twitter @brokenbatsingle or email at brokenbatsingle [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
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Friday, March 12, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
BBS Royals Podcast Ep. #005
Episode #005 - Royals play their first Cactus League game. CNNSI says Dayton Moore is the worst GM in baseball. What to do with Davies. Preview of the 2010 Detroit Tigers. Follow along with twitter @brokenbatsingle or email at brokenbatsingle [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
A Couple of Changes
I just wanted to announce that I have graciously accepted the offer to be a regular weekly contributor to The Royals Authority. You might have noticed a slightly lower output of articles on my blog and this change is the primary reason. I will continue to do the BBS Podcast and it will still be available here on this site and at iTunes and Zune. However, my writing will likely be significantly less here as I will focus my efforts in that vein with The Royals Authority.
This blog and site will not go dormant if for no other reason than as a place to find the podcast. So continue checking in and subscribing via your RSS reader of choice.
My first article has been posted at The Royals Authority and is available here.
This blog and site will not go dormant if for no other reason than as a place to find the podcast. So continue checking in and subscribing via your RSS reader of choice.
My first article has been posted at The Royals Authority and is available here.
Friday, February 26, 2010
BBS Royals Podcast Ep. #004
Episode #004 - Spring training is officially under way. On this episode Nick discusses the hot dog incident, Strouds at the K, Dayton and Trey's obsession with 1,000 innings, news and notes from spring training and a preview of the 2010 Chicago White Sox. Follow along with twittter @brokenbatsingle or email at brokenbatsingle@gmail.com.
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Friday, February 19, 2010
BBS Royals Podcast Episode #003
Episode : 003 - Royals pithers and catchers report. Nick also discusses why and how Juan Cruz has an ambulance, Farnsworth to the rotation, Davies 08 vs Tejada 09, Hillman's lineup and a preview of the 2010 Minnesota Twins. Be sure to follow on twitter @brokenbatsingle or email at brokenbatsingle@gmail.com.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
BBS Royals Podcast Episode #002
Royals news and notes during the not so exciting winter. Time to turn down the pessimism dial.
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2009 Offensive Positions
I did a quick and dirty rundown of each Royals position from 2009 in terms of offensive production. The point was to see what positions kept the Royals down and which propped them up. It was an exercise to see where the Royals should spend the off season focusing (SS, CF, RF, DH) and where they could stand relatively pat (1B, 2B, C, 3B). I know we are quickly getting closer to 2010 so reviews of the 2009 season are getting to be old hat, but I wanted to finalize this with an overview. Plus, I made some really nerdy graphs that I needed to share.
In the previous posts I have mostly compared the Royals to the rest of the AL, but now I want to focus a little bit more on the AL Central. The stats will be how they rank and compare to the rest of the AL, but I will mostly be focusing on where the AL Central teams rank within the AL. Confused yet?
Quickly, here is a quick chart showing the OPS+ of the Royals at each position. Each position is compared only to the other AL teams at that position. Catchers compared to catchers...etc.
At quick glance it isn't THAT bad, right? It kind of follows the bell curve, a couple of good positions a few bad ones and a cluster in the middle. However, the lower end of the bell curve is VERY low. An OPS+ in the 50s or 60s is really bad and one in the 70s is not great, a 100 is theoretically average, so with that in mind the Royals had 5-7 below average and 2-4 above average. So how did they compare to their own division?
The following list is every position in the AL central and what their OPS+ was in comparison to the same position. So the 2B are compared only to the 2B in the AL, etc.
The 2B and C positions did very well compared to their peers in 2009, but the CF, RF, DH and SS positions were bad, really bad. The Royals had 4 of the worst 7 positions in the division. That is exactly how you have a terrible offensive team. This was pretty obvious if you had watched the team or read my previous posts. However, I think this chart really illustrates how many holes this team had. The Twins showed that you can have a hole offensively and be a pretty darn good offensive ballclub.
Let's look at this more visually. The following is a radar or polar graph of the above chart. Around the circle are positions and the lines represent each AL Central team. The edge of the circle represents the top ranked position in the AL, while the center is the worst.
Ok, I know. That graph is kind of out of control, but give it a minute. I am sure there is a better way to present the data, but once you let your mind absorb the information it is a decent way to show the information at a glance.
The first thing I see is that AL Central teams have lots of the worst ranked positions in the league (Tigers C, Twins 2B, Royals SS, White Sox CF, Royals RF, Royals DH). So in six of the nine positions the worst overall comes from the division. That is a lot of bad hitting.
It also becomes clear that the top two teams (Twins and Tigers) both had one position that led the entire AL (Twins C and Tigers CF). Having a dominant player at a single position can be an enormous difference maker on a team, moreso I think than people realize (see Cardinals, St. Louis).
So enough loooking back at 2009 and the decade of the 2000s. It was bad, we lived through it and onto the next season and the next decade. It can't get worse, right?
-------------------------------------------
Email: brokenbatsingle (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/brokenbatsingle
Itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=354172732
In the previous posts I have mostly compared the Royals to the rest of the AL, but now I want to focus a little bit more on the AL Central. The stats will be how they rank and compare to the rest of the AL, but I will mostly be focusing on where the AL Central teams rank within the AL. Confused yet?
Quickly, here is a quick chart showing the OPS+ of the Royals at each position. Each position is compared only to the other AL teams at that position. Catchers compared to catchers...etc.
| Team | Split | sOPS+ |
| Royals | as C | 124 |
| Royals | as 2B | 112 |
| Royals | as 1B | 97 |
| Royals | as LF | 95 |
| Royals | as 3B | 94 |
| Royals | as CF | 78 |
| Royals | as RF | 74 |
| Royals | as DH | 67 |
| Royals | as SS | 58 |
At quick glance it isn't THAT bad, right? It kind of follows the bell curve, a couple of good positions a few bad ones and a cluster in the middle. However, the lower end of the bell curve is VERY low. An OPS+ in the 50s or 60s is really bad and one in the 70s is not great, a 100 is theoretically average, so with that in mind the Royals had 5-7 below average and 2-4 above average. So how did they compare to their own division?
The following list is every position in the AL central and what their OPS+ was in comparison to the same position. So the 2B are compared only to the 2B in the AL, etc.
| Team | Split | sOPS+ |
| Twins | as C | 160 |
| Royals | as C | 124 |
| Tigers | as 1B | 121 |
| Indians | as RF | 117 |
| Twins | as DH | 112 |
| Royals | as 2B | 112 |
| Tigers | as CF | 112 |
| Twins | as 1B | 111 |
| Indians | as SS | 110 |
| Twins | as RF | 109 |
| Indians | as CF | 108 |
| White Sox | as DH | 107 |
| White Sox | as C | 106 |
| White Sox | as RF | 104 |
| White Sox | as SS | 104 |
| Twins | as LF | 102 |
| Royals | as 1B | 97 |
| Tigers | as LF | 97 |
| Indians | as DH | 97 |
| White Sox | as 1B | 96 |
| White Sox | as LF | 96 |
| Indians | as 1B | 95 |
| Royals | as LF | 95 |
| Tigers | as 2B | 95 |
| Indians | as C | 95 |
| Tigers | as RF | 94 |
| Royals | as 3B | 94 |
| White Sox | as 3B | 94 |
| Tigers | as 3B | 92 |
| Indians | as 3B | 90 |
| Twins | as CF | 90 |
| Twins | as SS | 89 |
| Indians | as 2B | 88 |
| Indians | as LF | 87 |
| Twins | as 3B | 85 |
| White Sox | as 2B | 83 |
| Tigers | as DH | 82 |
| Tigers | as SS | 79 |
| Royals | as CF | 78 |
| Royals | as RF | 74 |
| Tigers | as C | 74 |
| Royals | as DH | 67 |
| White Sox | as CF | 63 |
| Royals | as SS | 58 |
| Twins | as 2B | 54 |
The 2B and C positions did very well compared to their peers in 2009, but the CF, RF, DH and SS positions were bad, really bad. The Royals had 4 of the worst 7 positions in the division. That is exactly how you have a terrible offensive team. This was pretty obvious if you had watched the team or read my previous posts. However, I think this chart really illustrates how many holes this team had. The Twins showed that you can have a hole offensively and be a pretty darn good offensive ballclub.
Let's look at this more visually. The following is a radar or polar graph of the above chart. Around the circle are positions and the lines represent each AL Central team. The edge of the circle represents the top ranked position in the AL, while the center is the worst.
Ok, I know. That graph is kind of out of control, but give it a minute. I am sure there is a better way to present the data, but once you let your mind absorb the information it is a decent way to show the information at a glance.
The first thing I see is that AL Central teams have lots of the worst ranked positions in the league (Tigers C, Twins 2B, Royals SS, White Sox CF, Royals RF, Royals DH). So in six of the nine positions the worst overall comes from the division. That is a lot of bad hitting.
It also becomes clear that the top two teams (Twins and Tigers) both had one position that led the entire AL (Twins C and Tigers CF). Having a dominant player at a single position can be an enormous difference maker on a team, moreso I think than people realize (see Cardinals, St. Louis).
So enough loooking back at 2009 and the decade of the 2000s. It was bad, we lived through it and onto the next season and the next decade. It can't get worse, right?
-------------------------------------------
Email: brokenbatsingle (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/brokenbatsingle
Itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=354172732
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
BBS Royals Podcast Episode 001
BBS Royals Podcast episode 001. I discuss the free agent signings, the Latin American development and Bedard.
Monday, February 1, 2010
2009 Designated Hitter Position Review
I've taken brief looks at all the other positions, so now its time to move on to the Designated Hitter. The following is a list of players who were DH's and how they hit.
In the offseason, Dayton Moore traded a solid young bullpen arm in Leo Nunez for Mike Jacobs in hopes he could break Balbonis homerun record. Instead, Jacobs was the DH for 105 games and had an OPS of .679.
That chart is correct. The Royals DH had a batting average of .209. Now I know that we should be looking at OBP because the batting average stat is a tad out of date. But just linger on that number for a moment, a .209 batting average. This .209 was hit by a position whose sole job is to hit the ball, the designated HITTER. Two oh nine.
The only other position in the AL to hit that bad is the also .209 hitting Twins second basemen. Lets look at it this way: Nick Punto would have been an upgrade as the Royals DH.
It is nearly unfathomable that a designated hitter could be so bad at the one skill they are designated to do. Not only was the position in the everyday lineup not performing, the Royals did not take advantage of it whatsoever. It was pretty clear early on that the Royals were not contending in 2009 and that Mike Jacobs was terrible. I would imagine that it should have been obvious to the organization that Jacobs would not be on the team in 2010. ABs at the Major League level are a limited resource and it is the only way to judge a player. Since the spot was not producing, why did the Royals not use that spot to get a look at a young bat?
The Royals only had 3 players who will be on the 2010 roster DH in 2009: Butler, Guillen and Pena. The only player that the Royals should be evaluating in that group is Pena. Would it have killed the organization to bring up Kila Ka'aihue, Chris Lubanski or any other AAA bat to evaluate them? I don't see why not? What did running Jacobs and Guillien out there do to help the team either currently or in the future?
I think the Royals wasted a golden opportunity to develop and evaluate talent. I think that there is always an opportunity to improve your organization or to learn something new and even in a dismal last place season. It gives you an opportunity that first place or contending teams don't get, but the Royals again squandered the opportunity.
------------------------------------------
Email: brokenbatsingle (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: brokenbatsingle
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| Name | G | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | H | R | HR | RBI | BB | SO |
| Mike Jacobs | 105 | .224 | .294 | .385 | .679 | 85 | 41 | 15 | 52 | 37 | 114 |
| Brayan Pena | 20 | .155 | .231 | .241 | .472 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| Billy Butler | 11 | .250 | .348 | .500 | .848 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| Jose Guillen | 11 | .162 | .225 | .270 | .495 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 11 |
| John Buck | 11 | .063 | .143 | .094 | .237 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 14 |
| Miguel Olivo | 10 | .303 | .351 | .758 | 1.109 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 5 |
| Willie Bloomquist | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In the offseason, Dayton Moore traded a solid young bullpen arm in Leo Nunez for Mike Jacobs in hopes he could break Balbonis homerun record. Instead, Jacobs was the DH for 105 games and had an OPS of .679.
| Column1 | Split | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | sOPS+ |
| Yankees | as DH | .271 | .363 | .495 | .858 | 119 |
| Blue Jays | as DH | .275 | .343 | .506 | .849 | 115 |
| Twins | as DH | .292 | .367 | .461 | .829 | 112 |
| Angels | as DH | .296 | .348 | .469 | .817 | 109 |
| White Sox | as DH | .250 | .355 | .454 | .809 | 107 |
| Rangers | as DH | .242 | .312 | .491 | .802 | 103 |
| Orioles | as DH | .260 | .334 | .443 | .777 | 99 |
| Athletics | as DH | .251 | .351 | .419 | .770 | 98 |
| Red Sox | as DH | .236 | .333 | .444 | .777 | 98 |
| Indians | as DH | .254 | .336 | .435 | .772 | 97 |
| Mariners | as DH | .242 | .328 | .419 | .747 | 91 |
| Rays | as DH | .244 | .337 | .404 | .741 | 91 |
| Tigers | as DH | .245 | .325 | .379 | .704 | 82 |
| Royals | as DH | .209 | .281 | .374 | .655 | 67 |
That chart is correct. The Royals DH had a batting average of .209. Now I know that we should be looking at OBP because the batting average stat is a tad out of date. But just linger on that number for a moment, a .209 batting average. This .209 was hit by a position whose sole job is to hit the ball, the designated HITTER. Two oh nine.
The only other position in the AL to hit that bad is the also .209 hitting Twins second basemen. Lets look at it this way: Nick Punto would have been an upgrade as the Royals DH.
It is nearly unfathomable that a designated hitter could be so bad at the one skill they are designated to do. Not only was the position in the everyday lineup not performing, the Royals did not take advantage of it whatsoever. It was pretty clear early on that the Royals were not contending in 2009 and that Mike Jacobs was terrible. I would imagine that it should have been obvious to the organization that Jacobs would not be on the team in 2010. ABs at the Major League level are a limited resource and it is the only way to judge a player. Since the spot was not producing, why did the Royals not use that spot to get a look at a young bat?
The Royals only had 3 players who will be on the 2010 roster DH in 2009: Butler, Guillen and Pena. The only player that the Royals should be evaluating in that group is Pena. Would it have killed the organization to bring up Kila Ka'aihue, Chris Lubanski or any other AAA bat to evaluate them? I don't see why not? What did running Jacobs and Guillien out there do to help the team either currently or in the future?
I think the Royals wasted a golden opportunity to develop and evaluate talent. I think that there is always an opportunity to improve your organization or to learn something new and even in a dismal last place season. It gives you an opportunity that first place or contending teams don't get, but the Royals again squandered the opportunity.
------------------------------------------
Email: brokenbatsingle (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: brokenbatsingle
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BrokenBatSingle
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