2009 Second Base Position Review

In this edition of the 2009 position by position review, I will dive into how the Royals second basemen fared. The following is all the players who played 2B for the Royals and how they fared when they played the position.

Name	G	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	H	R	RBI	BB	SO	HR
Alberto Callaspo	146	.304	.361	.461	.822	164	74	71	50	43	11
Mark Teahen	3	.250	.357	.333	.690	3	0	1	1	3	0
Luis Hernandez	8	.250	.283	.404	.687	3	0	0	1	2	0
Willie Bloomquist	14	.246	.308	.250	.558	14	11	4	3	6	2
Ryan Freel	1	.200	.200	.400	.600	1	1	1	0	1	0
Tug Hulett	5	.083	.154	.083	.237	1	1	0	1	5	0

It seems so long ago now, but remember the Teahen as 2B experiment? Well he started the first three games of the season at the position and never played there again. Yeah, Gordon going to the DL was a big deal, but was anyone convinced that would have worked anyway? So as Royals fans we were blessed with Alberto Callaspo's bat at second (his glove is another story). He got the vast majority of the plate appearances as the 2B and hit admirably. How admirably?

Well, since 2009 was the last season in a decade (albeit a terrible one for the Royals), I figured I would compare all the seasons in the 2000s for second basemen. Note: The following numbers refer ONLY to what the player did when they played 2B.

So I decided (rather arbitrarily) to use wRC via www.fangraphs.com to rank the top performances by the Royals second basemen and this is what I came up with. Note: wRC is basically a calculation to help determine a players offensive production to a team.

Year	Name	wRC
2009	Alberto Callaspo	84.7
2006	Mark Grudzielanek	67.3
2007	Mark Grudzielanek	62
2002	Carlos Febles	44.1
2008	Mark Grudzielanek	43.6
2000	Carlos Febles	41.2
2004	Tony Graffanino	32.4
2003	Desi Relaford	29.7
2007	Esteban German	29
2001	Carlos Febles	28.7
2005	Ruben Gotay	25.6
2008	Alberto Callaspo	24.9
2008	Mike Aviles	24.8
2001	Luis Alicea	19
2005	Tony Graffanino	17
2004	Ruben Gotay	16.4
2000	Jeff Reboulet	15.1
2003	Carlos Febles	15
2004	Desi Relaford	12.8
2006	Esteban German	11.3

So as a single contributor, Callaspo had the best hitting season for a 2B in the entire decade in terms of wRC. Now, I don't think I would go so far as to say he is the best over all 2B, because his defense was so terrible. That honor probably belongs to Grudzielanek, because of his combination of offense and defense. However, long story short....the Royals had some very good offensive production from 2B last season.

So, where did the Royals rank compared to the rest of the AL?

Team	Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	sOPS+
Yankees	as 2B	.317	.348	.512	.860	127
Blue Jays	as 2B	.289	.335	.504	.839	121
Red Sox	as 2B	.294	.370	.449	.819	118
Orioles	as 2B	.287	.364	.454	.817	118
Rangers	as 2B	.257	.329	.473	.802	112
Royals	as 2B	.293	.352	.445	.797	112
Angels	as 2B	.286	.335	.439	.774	105
Rays	as 2B	.260	.356	.396	.752	101
Mariners	as 2B	.266	.303	.450	.753	98
Athletics	as 2B	.275	.326	.417	.743	97
Tigers	as 2B	.283	.329	.403	.731	95
Indians	as 2B	.263	.330	.374	.704	88
White Sox	as 2B	.252	.322	.362	.684	83
Twins	as 2B	.209	.302	.267	.569	54

Well, as a unit the 2B were 4th in OBP and roughly 12% better than average. So as expected the offense at 2B was nothing to be ashamed of and was not a major issue of concern.

However, we all know that defense is pretty important and that Callaspo was not good at it. Defensive metrics are coming along, but are very difficult to use to guage effectiveness. How much did his defense detract from his offensive contributions? I am not sure I can say, so I've pretty much limited this discussion to offense for the moment. I think it is fair to say that Dayton Moore thinks that the defense is a major issue considering he seems to be doing everything he can to find anyone other than Callaspo to play 2B for the 2010 Royals.

Since we've already looked at the C and 2B positions and there is a lot of scuttlebut and offseason action regarding those two positions lets look at the following chart.

Team	Split	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	sOPS+
Royals	as C	0.270	0.310	0.504	.814	124
Royals	as 2B	0.293	0.352	0.445	.797	112
Royals	as 1B	0.295	0.351	0.483	.834	97
Royals	as LF	0.273	0.345	0.412	.756	95
Royals	as 3B	0.264	0.322	0.413	.735	94
Royals	as CF	0.242	0.319	0.343	.662	78
Royals	as RF	0.257	0.326	0.353	.678	74
Royals	as DH	0.209	0.281	0.374	.655	67
Royals	as SS	0.222	0.251	0.319	.570	58

Most of this is familiar, the sOPS+ column is basically how our position compared to the league at that particular position in OPS (a flawed statistic, but a decent one). Our catchers and second basemen were the ONLY positions we fielded last year that were above average. And the Catchers have been completely dumped and Dayton Moore is doing his damndest according to rumor to trade the 2B. Is this REALLY where the team needs to be focusing?

--------------------
Why not get a 2010 Royals Calendar?