SB Nation User Blog: DenverBears

ops rank by position...

DenverBears — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:48:53 -0000

I posted this last year and thought it might be interesting to look at this again this year. The following is the Rockies rank for OPS by position:
C 27 (.650)
1B 11 (.876)
2B 7 (.788)
3b 2 (.939)
SS 28 (.600)
LF 2 (.971)
CF 15 (.744) (note Houston ranked 23)
RF 2 (.900)

a couple of points below...

I think I wrote last year that I thought Sullivan could provide league average offense--and it looks like he (and his teammates at CF did). I'm still not quite sure why everyone is so eager to run Sullivan out of town. I agree that Taveras is a defensive upgrade and that is worth something extra at Coors, but I don't see replacing Sullivan as an emergency.
C/SS. It sure is convenient that the two rookies that are perhaps most ready to make an impact in the majors are at positions of weakness with the team. Tulo. would have to try really hard to finish with an OPS under .600.
1B. It has been said before, but the Rockies paid almost half of the team's salary (now ranked 28th in the majors) for that 11th ranked OPS at first base.

Something wrong or statistical anomaly?

DenverBears — Sat, 27 May 2006 12:35:17 -0000

Subtitle: Is Hurdle costing us too many runs?

I was looking over at the team stats and noticed that the rockies are 8th in the NL in OPS, but 14th in runs per game. An even bigger anomaly in the other direction is the Padres who are 15th in OPS (way below everyone but the Cubs), but are 10th in runs scored. Its possible that these numbers are just anomalous, but a couple of other stats caught my eye...

the rockies are first in sacrifice hits (way to go Clint) by a fairly large margin whereas the Padres are dead last. Is this a coincidence or is Clint hurting us? Hard to say, but I think it is interesting.
In fairness, however, the Padres have been really good in the stolen base department this year (39 of 42 attempts successful), so maybe this may explain part of it.

Poll

Is Clint costing us runs?

yes

8 votes

no

1 votes

9 votes | Poll has closed

can the rockies keep it up?

DenverBears — Tue, 09 May 2006 22:48:52 -0000

Is the hitting a fluke or are the rockies this good--I thought I would do a position by position analysis.

C--Ardoin/Ojeda--Ardoin is a career .206 hitter in the majors--he's unlikely to get better, but couldn't get much worse. Maybe time to bring back Closser
1B--Helton-.323/.482/.585--typical Helton--but he was out for a while, so production from 1b should improve.
2B--Carroll/Smith/Gonzalez--Carroll and Smith are playing over their heads, Gonzalez is slumping--overall a little better than expected, but not much.
3B--Atkins--huge improvement over last years numbers, but had some good years in the minors. Can he keep it up? My guess probably not, but I also don't expect him to drop back to last year's numbers either.
SS--Barmes--not a good start, but keep in mind he only had one good year in the minors, so he isn't a sure thing. Nonetheless, he should improve some.
LF--Holliday--he simply isn't this good--never hit more than 16 HRs or 28 2Bs in the minors--on pace for 45 and 50. He's due for a let-down.
CF--Sullivan--huge improvement over last year, but he hit in the minors (including a lot of 2Bs) and skipped AAA last year. The improvement may or may not be a fluke.
RF--Hawpe can hit as evidenced by his minor league records, but this is a bit ridiculous. I expect a decline, but not to 2005 levels.

So my guess--
From this point on, the rockies get more production out of the C, SS, 1B positions.

Similar production from 2B, CF

Small, but significant production drop from 3B, RF

Huge production drop out of LF

I fully expected when I started this, that I would conclude that the Rockies performance so far is a fluke, but now I'm not so sure. My guess, is that overall run production will go down a little, but not much the rest of the season. What does everyone else think?

Poll

Run production will be...

higher

0 votes

about the same

3 votes

lower during the rest of the season

2 votes

5 votes | Poll has closed

fun with stats...

DenverBears — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:36:53 -0000

I was just looking at espn's sortable stats and found some interesting things. First, the Rockies are up to 185 runs scored on the road--a mere 51 runs behind 29th place (the Phillies)--ouch. That works out to 3.3 Runs/game. Given that some of those runs are unearned and some games go extra innings--the opponent ERA would be somewhat lower than that even. By comparison, the Cardinals lead the majors in ERA at 3.43--ugh.

I also looked up the Rockies' rank in OPS by position, which I found interesting--obviously not adjusted for park--so make your own adjustments accordingly
C 11th
1B 4th
2B 22nd
3B 17th
SS 15th
LF 15th
CF 21st
RF 5th
P 17th (11th in NL)

A couple of things stand out--I'm actually surprised at how well the 1B rank given Helton's down year. And RF? Also, the catchers aren't too bad? Lastly, it makes apparent what we already knew---Miles needs to sit and CF is a problem

A step back?

DenverBears — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:07:05 -0000

First, great blog! I just discovered this blog and I'm impressed. It is great to find a place where I can read about the latest goings-on with the Rockies and their farm system. I am a Colorado ex-pat, who is stuck in the northeast for the forseeable future--as you might imagine Rockies fans in these parts are extremely rare.

Anyway enough of that...I was wondering if anyone else has come to the same conclusion I have...that the Rockies' offense isn't just bad, it is bad in historic proportions.

Aside from Helton, there is really nobody on the team that would be a starter on some of the better offensive clubs. Even with the Coors field effect, they are 3rd from the bottom in runs scored in the NL. The Rockies are averaging 3 runs a game, which puts them on a pace for fewest runs on the road of any team since at least 1999 (as far as I could find home/road splits)--by a fairly large margin. Compared to the league average, I'm guessing that this is one of the worst road performances on record--certainly in the last decade.

At this point, obviously the Rockies' are several years away from competing--I say trade everyone over the age of 30 that you can (except maybe Helton)--play even more of the youngsters and get ready to draft first next year.