People, you really have to get it out of your head that batting average is a good way to judge a player.
There's nothing wrong with hitting .300, certainly, and even a .279 average, like the one Jason Tyner carries, can, in the proper context, be decent.
The proper context being like, 25 homers or 100 walks or something.
Jason Tyner is a .279 hitter with no power who draws few walks. He makes an out about 67 percent of the time, and when he does get on base, it's a single or walk 90 percent of the time. Again, getting on base is getting on base, but a guy who can hit a gap or clear a fence once in awhile, say Jason Kubel, is more valuable even if his average is lower.
I will admit to being something of a stat nerd and subscriber to sabermetrics, so you'll have to bear with me as I drop some nerd-knowledge on you.
Tyner's OPS+ this year is 82. For his career it's 62 (really bad). The best OPS+ he's ever had was 98.
I know what your'e thinking. You have no idea what OPS+ means.
An OPS+ of 100 is average. So a guy with a 119 OPS+ is 19 percent better than average. A guy at 79 is 21 percent below average.
Again, Jason Tyner, 82 this year (18 percent below average) 62 for his career (38 percent below average).
If you still think Jason Tyner should be anything more than a pinch-hitter, this, stolen from AaronGleeman.com, should do it.
"Even with an improved approach at the plate, Tyner's complete lack of secondary skills make him one of the rare hitters who can avoid having significant value even when batting .300. Despite a .271 career batting average (including an even .300 with the Twins), Tyner's OPS is just .624. When compared to the league average, that ranks as the second-worst OPS of any outfielder with at least 1,250 plate appearances in the past 50 years:
PLAYER LEAGUE DIFFWhat's amazing is that Tyner's .271 batting average is the highest of anyone on the above list and four of the other nine hitters batted .250 or worse (including Peter Bergeron at .226). In other words, not only is he incredibly unproductive, Tyner is the epitome of an "empty batting average." Tyner hasn't lost much speed yet and possesses just enough range defensively to be passable in center field, which makes him at best a "textbook" fifth outfielder."
Peter Bergeron .612 .786 -.175
JASON TYNER .624 .765 -.141
Doug Dascenzo .590 .715 -.125
David Hulse .644 .763 -.120
Darren Lewis .645 .764 -.116
Eric Owens .664 .780 -.116
Brian Hunter .660 .773 -.113
Adrian Brown .666 .779 -.113
Chuck Carr .649 .760 -.112
Milt Cuyler .631 .739 -.109
It's nothing personal. I kinda like the guy, too. He's better than Lew Ford. He's a decent pinch-hitter because he makes contact. But DH'ing him is embarrassing, and giving him regular at-bats is well, lame. He is, the above numbers prove, a historically unproductive offensive player.
*The Twins traded Ramon Oritz to Colorado for IF Matt Macri.
Macri, stunningly, appears to be a decent prospect, someone the Rockies liked. He can play 2b, ss and 3b, and was hitting .298 at Double-A before a callup to Triple-A where he went 6-for-9 before the trade. He's probably already a better player than Nick Punto.
I wouldn't count on him being an all-star or anything, but he appears to be a guy who can help at the major league level.
The fact that the Twins got a better return for a failed 5th starter-turned-mop-up reliever than they did for an all-star and gold glove 2B shows how desperate the Twins were to simply clear space so Alexi Casilla could begin training on the job at 2b.
The signing of Ortiz wouldn't have bothered me had it been cheap, like the Sidney Ponson deal, but for $3.1 million I hated it. I predicted before the year he would go 13-11 with a 4.86 ERA, and was only that optimistic based on his strong spring. It looked like he was on his way after a strong start in April, but he started getting hammered and the Twins gave him a quick hook, banishing him to the mopup role in the pen.
Another failed experiment from Terry Ryan, but the acquisition of Macri allows him to save face somewhat.
8 comments:
Batting average is all that matters. Anyone hitting over .270, no matter how many homers they have, is awesome.
I'd take a .300 hitter any day, dude. I've told you this before, give me six guys who are singles hitters -- Ichiros, Tony Gwynns and Pete Roses -- with speed and defensive ability and three guys with gap-to-gap power and you'll win a lot of games. Not to mention that OPS or OPS+ with a guy doesn't take into account speed that would make a single into a double. EFF sabermetrics -- part of the lies, damned lies and statistics argument if you ask me. Too many GOOD hitters get overlooked and don't get a chance to play in the bigs because they don't have power. That's garbage.
What TRULY makes Tyner terrible is in 55 at bats with runners in scoring position, he's only hitting .218 with 14 RBIs. What makes his stats empty is that he's hitting sub-.250 with runners on the pads. And that he's hitting .357 when leading off an inning, but considerably lower with guys on base or with one or two outs. He's just not a clutch hitter. Nor does he steal any bases, which would greatly benefit a .300 singles hitter. All his OPS, OPS+, OPP, POOP would all be higher if he would get more hits in situations with guys on base. Because a single with two on brings in two runs. Simple as that.
I'd take a .300 hitter, too, so long as his OBP is better than that of say, Mike Hampton.
Tony Gwynn and Pete Rose are a terrible comparison for an argument about Jason Tyner, or even an argument about the merits of batting average, because you know those guys offered much more than a pretty average.
For one, those guys often hit .350, not .300, and plus, Gwynn, Rose, Ichiro, etc., did/do have power. Not a lot, certainly, but they hit 5 to 10 homers a year, often with as many as 40 doubles and 10 triples.
Tyner's lack of power is so legendary that it makes most singles hitters look slugger-ish by comparison.
He doesn't even hit doubles or triples, and OPS does take that into account.
Again, batting average is not the answer to evaluation.
Gwynn, Ichiro, Boggs, Rose, etc. had healthy numbers at OBP, SLG, and some of them stole bases, too, which, as you say, Tyner does not (not since his Tampa days anyway).
I will also take six Tony Gwynn's and three Justin Morneau's in my lineup.
But if I tried to put three Morneau's with six guys who all have a .330 OBP and a .330 SLG, I wouldn't win, even if those six guys all had a .303 batting average.
Here's how I see it. A guy puts a OPS on a player 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.
Ya think if you leave that player under your pillow at night, the OPS Fairy might come by and leave a quarter.
The point is, how do you know the OPS Fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy, but we're not buying it. Next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I seen it a hundred times.
By the way, Tori's grand-slam is the turning point in the Twin's season. I'd be suprised if they lose again.
take that - Punto just hit a triple and hten scored on a wild pitch - take that Zim buddy - we won
THE PIRAHNAS ROCK AND RULE
Manny has the ninth best OPS of all time. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Jason Tyner is the Grand Champion of Kick Ass. Those of you Tyner-Haters out there better recognize that it's Tyner Tyme!
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