SBNation.com User Blog: Wiers103

Jemile Weeks Should Stop Batting Right Handed

Wiers103 — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:02:01 -0000

Now, I say this based solely on the numbers, as since I (unfortunately) live in Michigan, and I didn't get around to buying MLB.TV this year, I only see a very limited amount of games. The grand total of PA's I've seen Weeks take is somwhere in the 15-20 range. Anyone (e.g. all of you lucky enough to watch our beloved A's on a daily basis) who has first hand, preferably live eye witness testimony is more than welcome to disagree with me. I'm just going by the numbers here. Please take all of this with a grain of salt, as the sheer number of PA that Weeks has acrued is still withing spitting distance of "Small Sample Size!" chants. Follow me after the jump to my reasoning and the numbers.

2011 ML Data	PA	BB Rate	K Rate	Line Drive Rate	OBP	SLG	wOBA
vs R as L	206	5.3%	14.6%	22.8%	.359	.442	.349
vs L as R	111	3.6%	11.7%	19.6%	.284	.356	.280
vs R as R	6	0.0%	33.3%	0.0%	.333	.500	.359

Again, smaple sizes aside, it's clear that there is a distinctly different result from each side of plate. The low overall walk rate is alarming, but given that Weeks had an above average walk rate int he minors, I'm not ready to totally overhaul his approach yet. After putting the numbers into such clarity, I can't imagine an argument for him to bat right handed at all. But now the question is this inablilty to swing right handed a recent trend, or something that has surfaced before?

Unfortunately I don't have access to Weeks' Minor League splits from earlier this year, so his 2010 AA data will have to do here. You'll notice a big difference there too.

2010 AA Data	PA	BB Rate	K Rate	OBP	SLG
vs R	208	10.1%	16.8%	.341	.370
vs L	109	6.8%	8.8%	.312	.422

My apologies for not offering identical statistics in the charts, but only so much data can be found in the world of MiLB and I did the best I could. I had to base my assumptions on that odds that Weeks did infact bat righty vs lefties, and vice versa. That being said, again there is a stark contrast in his numbers. You may see the difference in Slugging%, and not to discount 50 points of slugging, but the biggest difference here is hands down the 30 points of OBP. If you feel that I'm weighing SLG too little, or OBP too much, I suggest this fantastic study here (Note: Must be viewed in Adobe PDF form, also, it's great to see some of those old names again!). After reading that, and then realizing that Weeks will probably be our leadoff hitter for years to come, the OBP vs SLG debate isn't really much of a debate at all. On-base percentage is (obviously and intuitively) more imporatant than slugging at the top of the lineup.

I realize I'm mining from less than 500 PA and I'm missing half of the 2011 data, but to me, this isn't just wild speculation. It's been clearly shown that Weeks is an inferior right handed hitter in almost all aspects. I would love to have the coaches or Bob talk about this sometime. I would have Jemile exclusively hit left handed for the duration of the year, to see what happens.

You can't do much worse than .280 wOBA....

Any and all criticism is welcome, I'm not sports writer by profession, but this something that I felt had to be said, and I haven't heard anyone else voice this concern. MLB stats from FanGraphs, MiLB from ML Splits and Excell to HTML tables compliments of Tableizer!. In addition to (rarely) appearing here in game threads, I run my own blog at http://dwiers.blogspot.com/

Whats so wrong with the Atkins diet?

Wiers103 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:14:09 -0000

I've been picking up on some serious anti Garrett Atkins vibes here on AN.

Why?

What we're doing here is some dieting, counting stats, rate stats and of course jumping! Follow me for more! (Apologies in advance for my lack of pretty charts and graphs, I'm just not that good with that stuff.

Alright, let me see this now:

The guy had a BABIP of .247, only about 60 points below his career norm of .311. Oh sure you say, numbers like that must be because of his launching pad of a home park and that is true to a point (see his home/away OPS splits...yeeesh) but since its "Power" we are all worried about here, he has hit more 2 homers on the road than at home, and only 12 less doubles...for a career. His career ISO is .169, not exactly terrible.

In 2009, in 399 PA he drew 41 walks, to 58 strike outs
in 2008, he had 664 PA, and only drew 40 walks.

Call me crazy, but once his BABIP returns to normal, I would love to see him manning the hot corner.

Warning! I'm about to cite projections to support me, get your torches and pitchforks ready!
Bill James: .285/.353/.448
CHONE: .275/.345/.440
ZiPS: .267/.335/.428

Even if you go with the lowest, pro-rate that for 146 games, his career average since becoming a full timer in 2005, you have yourself a very solid 3B. The primary components of the past 3 seasons at our hot corner have been the following stiffs/bodies/mannequins-in-the-batters-box, broken down by innings played at 3B from 2007-2009:

Strand-ahan: 1680.1
Chavvy (he was/is my favorite player, I cannot bring myself to mock him): 774.2
Kennede-cently field it?: 691.2
Crossitively awful: 297.1
Scutaro (another favorite): 295.5
Atkins: 2693.0

Offensively, its not really close. In those 3 years, Hannahans wOBA was .307, and Atkins was .332. Yes, defensively there is a huge disparity as well, but for a 1 year deal, I love the upside to this deal.

The only cons I see is that he's 30. He had a groin injury that probably limited his defense, but fangraphs still listed him at pretty much average, -0.7 per 150 games. To my knowledge, this is his first semi-serious injury. If the A's are not serious about bringing up Wallace at all this year except for a September cup of coffee, I'd be all for this. Then again, if theres a chance, however unlikely, that the team may want to break camp with Wallace, then obviously don't throw 4.5 million at Atkins, unless you push Barton to the bench.

This is just one man's thoughts and ramblings. I'd love to see the other side of the opinion.

I've been picking up on some serious anti Garrett Atkins vibes here on AN.

Why?

This is just one man's thoughts and ramblings. I'd love to see the other side of the opinion.

My day at US Cellular

Wiers103 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:19:24 -0000

My friend and I were lucky enough to make the trip down to Chicago so I snapped a few pictures. Sorry, I'm not pro photographer, I just took what I could.

A little more glare than what I wanted, but not bad. (via wiers103)

Me in the middle, with the first 2 people I saw once I got out of my car. My first thought was that it was a good omen, you know, seeing 2 A's fans in the middle of Chicago...And yes, I have an A's Hero T on underneath, #3, EricChavez! (via wiers103)

Nice show of the scoreboard(via wiers103)

California Bob can't handle the midwest 65 degree weather...it did get cold in the 10th though. (via wiers103)

Kennedy leadin off! (via wiers103)

Rajai! (via wiers103)

Why hello there Sweeney! (via wiers103)

Liiiiittle blurry...I mean, I was 27 rows up, sorry Scott! (via wiers103)

Suzuki! (via wiers103)

I was hoping for another 3 run shot from Cust (via wiers103)

UNICORN!! (via wiers103)

Somehow I totally whiffed on Barton AND Pennington...still trying to figure out how, I think I turned my camera off too soon after snapping thier pictures?

But anyways, now its time to show off our pitchers! I mean, pretty much everyone got into the game...

Kennedy with his back turned while Cahill is throwing...might explain something tonight... (via wiers103)

Gray here pitching...in the 4th inning. (via wiers103)

Blevins, who looked pretty good in person. (via wiers103)

Ziggy!! (via wiers103)

Cool delivery, or coolest delivery? You be the judge. (via wiers103)

Honestly, I'm pretty sure Wuertz throws 97 mph. He was tossin gas I swear. (via wiers103)

Breslow. Another bullpen arm simply doing his job. (via wiers103)

I'll come clean...I missed Kilby because of a stupid phone call. Just another guy I owe pictures too...

But maybe he's in that picture? (via wiers103)

I felt bad for poor Edgar. (via wiers103)

Final thoughts on the game:

-Very impressed with the bullpen, I find zero fault in them tonight

-Not impressed at all with the hitting, but who's suprised on that?

-Hated the bunt, I called a pop-up bunt for an out even before it happened. Not a huge fan of the running either...5 SB vs 3 CS...Then again, Ellis was safe on his 2nd steal, so I guess 6 bags vs 2 outs isn't as bad.

-Between me and Dave, we finished 6 hot dogs, 2 nachos, 6 beers and a 1 churro. What can I say, us Michigan folks love to eat.

-Actually happy they didn't PH Nomar for Barton. Let the kid develop!

-Disappointed in losing, and that Bailey didn't make an appearance

-White Sox fans are as dumb as thier TV announcers. Every routine fly ball and grounder they expected a double.

-Our so called "fundamentals" killed us tonight. Thats running the bases, not necesarrily stealing, and defense. Obviously over a 162 game season these things will be inevetiable, but tonight I swear was worse than normal.

-I love the A's, hoped you like my pictures.

My friend and I were lucky enough to make the trip down to Chicago so I snapped a few pictures. Sorry, I'm not pro photographer, I just took what I could.

A little more glare than what I wanted, but not bad. (via wiers103)

Nice show of the scoreboard(via wiers103)

California Bob can't handle the midwest 65 degree weather...it did get cold in the 10th though. (via wiers103)

Kennedy leadin off! (via wiers103)

Rajai! (via wiers103)

Why hello there Sweeney! (via wiers103)

Liiiiittle blurry...I mean, I was 27 rows up, sorry Scott! (via wiers103)

Suzuki! (via wiers103)

I was hoping for another 3 run shot from Cust (via wiers103)

UNICORN!! (via wiers103)

Somehow I totally whiffed on Barton AND Pennington...still trying to figure out how, I think I turned my camera off too soon after snapping thier pictures?

But anyways, now its time to show off our pitchers! I mean, pretty much everyone got into the game...

Kennedy with his back turned while Cahill is throwing...might explain something tonight... (via wiers103)

Gray here pitching...in the 4th inning. (via wiers103)

Blevins, who looked pretty good in person. (via wiers103)

Ziggy!! (via wiers103)

Cool delivery, or coolest delivery? You be the judge. (via wiers103)

Honestly, I'm pretty sure Wuertz throws 97 mph. He was tossin gas I swear. (via wiers103)

Breslow. Another bullpen arm simply doing his job. (via wiers103)

I'll come clean...I missed Kilby because of a stupid phone call. Just another guy I owe pictures too...

But maybe he's in that picture? (via wiers103)

I felt bad for poor Edgar. (via wiers103)

Final thoughts on the game:

-Very impressed with the bullpen, I find zero fault in them tonight

-Not impressed at all with the hitting, but who's suprised on that?

-Between me and Dave, we finished 6 hot dogs, 2 nachos, 6 beers and a 1 churro. What can I say, us Michigan folks love to eat.

-Actually happy they didn't PH Nomar for Barton. Let the kid develop!

-Disappointed in losing, and that Bailey didn't make an appearance

-White Sox fans are as dumb as thier TV announcers. Every routine fly ball and grounder they expected a double.

-I love the A's, hoped you like my pictures.

First A's game...in Chicago

Wiers103 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:00:10 -0000

Alright, well I was lucky enough to receive tickets to the A's @ ChiSox Wednesday, September 9th. This is more of a reaching out for local/Chicago A's fans. I'll be wearing an Ellis or Chavez (yeah, I'm sentimental like that) shirt, and sitting in Section 124, row 35. I'd love to watch the game with some A's fans instead of being completely surrounded by Southsiders.

I've only been to US Cellular once before, and that was way back in the late 90's, and needless to say I'm beyond thrilled to see some A's live for once. I'll bring my camera, and take as many (hopefully good) pictures as possible.