by Tony Aubry, BaseballEvolution.com
December 30, 2008
In case you haven’t realized it yet, I’m a big fan of Grady
Sizemore. In fact, I am secretly a member of Grady’s Ladies. All I had to do was
change the Y in my name to an I to make my name look more feminine (just
kidding). So if you must, you can take the following article with a grain of
salt.
To traditionalists, Sizemore had a good, but not great
year. He had a .268 BA, struck out over 100 times, and failed to knock in 100
runs. But if you examine his stats properly, he had a great year. As a matter of
fact, he might have been the best player in American League, with Joe Mauer and
A-Rod right there as well. How is this true? Well, lets take a look.
If you’re a Baseball Evolution veteran, you probably know
that when analyzing offensive value, I tend to favor
Pete Palmer’s Batting Runs.
I recently have used his Batting Wins, rather than simply dividing his ABR by
10, because the wins adjust for the run context in which the player performed.
Sizemore’s 2008 score comes out to 3.3 wins when you include his SB and CS
numbers.
Next is his defense. Whether you subscribe to the
sabermetric train of thought or not, you cannot deny that Sizemore is a great
fielder. My metric of choice is
ultimate zone rating. UZR is similar to the
+/- system by John Dewan that Keith happens to be very fond of. However, instead using plays, UZR
translates the plays into runs. According to UZR Sizemore was worth +11 runs, or
in other words, 1.1 wins.
The last step in evaluating Sizemore’s value to his team is
applying a positional adjustment. My views on PADJ’s have slightly changed
recently, but I will explain that sometime this week. The adjustment for
centerfielders is 2.5 runs, or in other words .25 wins per 150 games. Add this
all up, and Sizemore is worth 4.7 wins above average, which is great.
Despite Sizemore already looking like one of the best
players in the game, he still appears to be improving for a myriad of reasons,
and we may see a breakout (as if he isn’t good enough already) season as early
as 2009. One of the reasons why this is evident is because since 2005, he has
improved on something every year.
In 2006, his second full season, his BB% shot up over 3%.
He also saw a spike in his FB rate by 16% leading to an increase in his HR total
by 6. He also stole bases at a better rate, jumping from 66% to 78%.
In 2007, Sizemore swiped 11 more bags while his rate only
dropped by two percent. He also continued to walk more, increasing his rate by
over 3% again. However, Sizemore continued to strike out a ton, and saw a
decrease in his HR total by four.
In 2008, Sizemore seemed to have put it all together, but
somehow posted a career low batting average of .268. His BB rate dropped, but
was still above 13%. His FB% stagnated, but hit a career high 33 HR, which is a
sign that he is developing power. He also stole a career high of 38 bags, while
only getting caught five times. Sizemore also improved upon his biggest
weakness: striking out. He cut his K% by 4%, which lead to a career high .75
K/BB ratio. So, if it seems that Sizemore has honed his skills, why would he
post a career low batting average? The only plausible reason is poor luck. A
quick look at his batting average on balls in play backs up this claim. He had
never posted a BABIP below .330 in a full season before posting a .291 mark this
past season. Usually a player’s BABIP correlates well with their LD%. Grady’s
LD% did decrease in 2008, but only by 1.3%. Such a small drop does not explain
Sizemore’s 43 point drop in his BABIP.
Another reason to believe Sizemore’s upward trend will
continue is where he is in his career path. When the 2009 season begins,
Sizemore will still be 26 years old; he will turn 27 in August. It's conventional
wisdom that a player usually enters their prime at age 27, and men usually peak
in strength in their late 20s, so a power surge is not out of the question.
For now, it looks like everything is lined up perfectly. He
cut down on strikeouts while keeping his walks up, he has improved on the base
paths, and his power numbers are there. If his BABIP rises back up to his career
average of .324, there is no doubt in my mind that Sizemore will have a career
year.
Disagree with something? Got something to add? Wanna bring up something totally new? Tony resides in Queens, New York and can be reached at tony@baseballevolution.com.