Plate Approaches II

radio silence — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:12:10 GMT

I'm going to try and update the plate approaches of our team every two weeks or so, and suggest different types of line ups based on our approaches.

As I did in the first post on this topic, I am using five stats to attempt to measure a good plate approach: OBP, NP/PA, H/PA, BB/PA, and XBH/H. Basically, I am assuming that with a good plate approach a batter looks to get on base (OBP), take some pitches to find his best pitch to hit (NP/PA), attempt to hit (H/PA) or be ready to take a walk (BB/PA) -- and perhaps know the balance between those approaches, and finally, drive the ball (XBH/H). Obviously not every one of those elements is evident in every single plate approach, but I imagine that if we constructed a list of players with good plate approaches, we would find most of them successfully complete tasks such as getting on base, having a balanced approach, and sometimes driving the ball. Not only do we want players that get on base, but we want players that get to second base safely.

So, with that said, here are the most recent stat listings of our regular 8 thus far:

OBP

1. Fielder .363

2. Hart .356

3. Kendall .344

4. Weeks .330

5. Braun .321

6. Hardy .321

7. Cameron .313

8. Hall .286

NP/PA

1. Hall 4.26 (779/183)

2. Cameron 4.23 (351/83)

3. Weeks 4.04 (820/203)

4. Hardy 3.98 (673/169)

5. Fielder 3.87 (747/193)

6. Kendall 3.69 (583/158)

7. Hart 3.59 (653/182)

8. Braun 3.55 (695/196)

BB/PA

1. Fielder 12.95% (25/193)

2. Weeks 12.81% (26/203)

3. Cameron 10.84% (9/83)

4. Hardy 10.06% (17/169)

5. Hall 8.74% (16/183)

6. Kendall 7.59% (12/158)

7. Hart 6.04% (11/182)

8. Braun 4.08% (8/196)

H/PA

1. Braun 28.06% (55/196)

2. Hart 27.47% (50/182)

3. Kendall 23.42% (37/158)

4. Hardy 21.89% (37/169)

5. Fielder 21.24% (41/193)

6. Cameron 20.48% (17/83)

7. Hall 18.58% (34/183)

8. Weeks 16.75% (34/203)

XBH/H

1. Cameron 52.94% (9/17)

2. Braun 50.91% (28/55)

3. Hall 47.06% (16/34)

4. Fielder 39.02% (16/41)

5. Weeks 35.29% (12/34)

6. Kendall 29.73% (11/37)

7. Hart 28.00% (14/50)

8. Hardy 21.62% (8/37)

Placing all of these stats together, and ranking the players, we get the following ranking of plate approaches:

Plate Approaches (total)

1. Fielder 16

2. Cameron 19

3. Weeks 22

4. Kendall 24 (.344)

5. Braun 24 (.321)

6. Hall 24 (.286)

7. Hart 25

8. Hardy 26

Fielder's plate approach is tops, and Cameron's is high despite a low OBP because of his relative balance between H and BB, his ability to hit extra bases with high frequency, and his patience. Then follow Weeks and Kendall, with Braun moving to fifth because of his OBP and patience, although he is the best pure hitter and near the top for extra base hits. Rounding out the bottom of the order are Hall, Hart, and Hardy. Hart is near the bottom, even though he has a high OBP, because he does not have a balanced approach between H and BB, he does not see a lot of pitches, and he is not hitting extra base hits frequently.

Here are some other variation line ups:

First, let's look at the best line up that takes into account nothing other than hitting (H/PA) and OBP.

H / OBP

1. Hart 4

2. Fielder 6 (.363)

3. Kendall 6 (.344)

4. Braun 6 (.321)

5. Hardy 10

6. Weeks 12

7. Cameron 13

8. Hall 15

This line up is my favorite: it considers OBP and XBH/H:

Power / OBP:

1. Fielder 5

2. Braun 7

3. Cameron 8

4. Hart 9 (.356)

5. Kendall 9 (.344)

6. Weeks 9 (.330)

7. Hall 11

8. Hardy 14

Finally, here's our best line up for patience (NP/PA) and OBP:

Patience / OBP

1. Fielder 6

2. Weeks 7

3. Hart 9

4. Kendall 9

5. Cameron 9

6. Hall 9

7. Hardy 10

8. Braun 13

Milwaukee Brewers Blog - The Junkball Blues : Jason Kendall

Plate Approaches II