The 2006 PrOPS-Star Team
With the All-Star game tonight, I thought I’d check in on the league’s hitters using PrOPS. Bryan Donovan has done a fantastic job with the THT Stats section, and he’s made it easy to sort players by position for PrOPS. I’ve named my PrOPS-Star team based on the top-3 qualified hitters at the position. For NL catchers I had to lift the “qualified” requirement, since only Paul Lo Duca qualified, and counted catchers with at least 200 ABs.
Here are the players and their PrOPS.
Pos. AL NL C Jorge Posada .888 Mike Piazza .882 C Ramon Hernandez .874 Michael Barrett .868 C Joe Mauer .867 Brian McCann .867 1B Tavis Hafner 1.134 Albert Pujols 1.193 1B Jason Giambi 1.130 Lance Berkman 1.025 1B Jim Thome 1.109 Nick Johnson 1.000 2B Ty Wigginton .810 Ray Durham .861 2B Tadahito Iguchi .761 Chase Utley .850 2B Ronnie Belliard .757 Dan Uggla .810 3B Troy Glaus .939 Morgan Ensberg .987 3B Alex Rodriguez .915 Miguel Cabrera .913 3B Eric Chavez .901 David Wright .896 SS Miguel Tejada .900 Edgar Renteria .841 SS Derek Jeter .836 Bill Hall .806 SS Carlos Guillen .823 Khalil Greene .806 LF Manny Ramirez 1.099 Adam Dunn 1.059 LF Nick Swisher .950 Carlos Lee 1.001 LF Raul Ibanez .896 Pat Burrell .969 CF Vernon Wells .920 Carlos Beltran 1.022 CF Torii Hunter .827 Andruw Jones .909 CF Grady Sizemore .807 Jim Edmonds .861 RF Jermaine Dye 1.051 Bobby Abreu .986 RF Johnny Gomes .915 Brad Hawpe .877 RF Alex Rios .890 Austin Kearns .851 DH Frank Thomas 1.045
Congratulations, PrOPS-Stars!
Good stuff as always JC. One niggling detail: Although Wigginton has started more games at 2B than any other position, calling him a 2B is a bit dicey b/c he’s spent a majority of his time at other positions. His games started by position are 1B 21, 2B 39, 3B 19, and OF 6. Of course, it’d be even more dicey to call him a 1B or 3B.
Thanks Frank. I just went with the THT position designations. I don’t follow the D-Rays too closely.
I’m still waiting for the Red Sox fans to hate me for not including Ortiz as a DH. He’s had a better year than Thomas, but I didn’t feel like sorting through the 1B/DH players to make a distinction.
Two observations:
1. Second base in the AL is a wasteland of mediocrity. Brian Roberts should be leading this category, but his power has vanished.
2. Travis Hafner is the most underappreciated hitter in baseball. If he were a first baseman instead of a DH, we would get more recognition for the MVP.
Wow, Wigginton at 2B. Maddon is more of a stathead than I thought. It would be interesting to see if he is platooning him by starting pitcher or was it just an injury fill in.
Also, The Phils have been really unlucky by PrOPS. Is this unusual?
Also, you moron, Ortiz has to be above Thomas.
Last year, in the midst of the A’s offensive woes PrOPS tabbed them as very unlucky. They rebounded, so maybe there is hope for a good second half in Philly. If this occurs, I want all of the credit. If it doesn’t, I will delete this comment.
PrOPS or no PrOPS, the Hafner snub has to be one of the worst in history. .322/.461/.650/1.111 with 25 HRs and 74 RBI.
Wigginton has been TB’s version of Figgins. I think Wigginton’s play at 2B was mostly covering for the injured Cantu. His play at 1B was mostly in lieu of the lame Travis Lee.
JC,
I just saw something Sunday where Astros fans and Ensberg were really down on Ensberg’s play. Are his real numbers well below PrOPS or are their fans that crazy?
Ensberg has a low batting average but sure is doing a lot with it. He still has an OBP of .390 and s SLG of .500. There’s not much to complain about. I have have his PrAVE at .283, so PrOPS says he’s been hit unlucky on balls in play. The average will rise.
If Houston fans want to get mad at someone, blame Will Taveras and his .615 OPS (.638 PrOPS).
As a Red Sox fan, I hate you for not including Ortiz….
Regarding Hafner, if anyone else besides Guillen was managing the AL team in the All-Star game, Hafner would have been in. It’s simply an interdivision rivalry choice, but the commish shouldn’t have let this one go. And who are the dildo fans who voted in Pierzinski over Hafner, or even Liriano. I mean, Guillen put Gary Matthews Jr. on the team for the love of God, why not also bring Wigginton. At this point, it’s like it really matters. By the way, Trevor Hoffman has blown an All-Star game before, see 2000.