From: navarra@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Navarra)
Subject: Re: Fred McGriff
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:35:05 GMT

In article <12225@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> zuhars@madrone.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Gary Hairless Primate Huckabay) writes:
>
>McGriff's JOB and Grace's JOB are exactly the same thing - to help
>their teams win games.  This perception that different people on the
>team have different *jobs* has always annoyed me.  And Fred McGriff
>does a better job of it than Grace.
	
	I agree that their 'primary' goal is the same -- to help win games.
But, Grace and McGriff do not have the same talents so they have to
accomplish this goal in different ways. McGriff is a power hitter and
an RBI man. Grace is NOT a power hitter, he is a pure hitter (and that is
what I meant when I said he had a better swing than McGriff). Grace, like
I posted in another article, is the glue of the Cubs lineup. He is the
transition point from Sandberg to Dawson (or the top of the lineup to
the middle -- except so far this year when he is batting 5th). Since he
does not have power, I would say it is Grace's job to get on base, move
runners along, take pitches to let a guy steal, walk (esp to get Dawson
or whoever bats behind him up to the plate in a 'game situation'), not
strikeout, not ground into double plays, and to get the runner in from
3rd with less than 2 outs. I would say Grace does all of these things
very well.

>
>Even the getting on base part - Grace lifetime OBP is about .375 - in
>Wrigley Field.  Call it .360-.365.  Very respectable.  Very nice.
>His SLG is about .415 - in Wrigley Field.  Be friendly.  Call it .400.
>
>Grace is a fairly valuable 1Bman.
	
	Grace is a *very* valuable 1st baseman! He wouldn't be as valuable
on other teams as he is for the Cubs but given his situation, he is very
valuable to the Cubs. 

>I'll give Grace the defensive edge.  But not enough to cover 150+
>points of OPS.

	Grace is an excellent defensive 1st baseman. But, you're right,
he doesn't cover 150+ points in OPS. (remember, I *never* said he was
more valuable than McGriff) Here are some numbers I dug up:
 
	      OBA         SF+SH     GDP        BB          IBB        SO
Grace   (.346,.372,.405) (11,9,6) (6,10,13) (70,59,80)   (7,5,13)  (53,54,42)
Clark   (.359,.357,.407) (4,13,8) (5,7,6)   (51,62,74)   (12,9,14) (91,97,103)
McGriff (.396,.400,.399) (7,5,6)  (14,7,14) (105,94,119) (26,12,12)(135,108,132)
Morris  (.374,.381     ) (12,5  ) (4,12   ) (46,21   )   (7,4   )  (61,32   )
Murray  (.321,.414,.342) (8,4,7)  (17,19,11)(55,82,87)   (17,21,24)(74,64,85)

The stats are over the last 3 years (91,90,89). except for Morris (91,90)
OBA=on base average
SF+SH=sacrifice flies and hits
GDP=grounded into double plays
BB=walks
IBB=intentional walks
SO=strikeouts

	These are the closest stats I could dig up to provide some insight
as to the areas where Grace is valuable. Over the last 3 years, the
plate appearances (both total and AB's) are almost the same for Grace
and McGriff as well as games played. (1961,1718,459) for Grace and
(1974,1728,467) for McGriff. Comparing this with the stats above, we see
for about the same time played, Grace does a very good job at the things
I said he is suposed to do. He gets more sacrifices, grounds into less
DP's, gets many less intentional walks (and many walks even though he
is not a power hitter), and strikes out way less than McGriff. Fred
has a better OBA though but that is not because be gets more hits than
Grace (Grace:511/McGriff:462) but Fred gets many more walks because of 
his position in the lineup (which he has earned to be sure).
 	I wish I had the average with men in scoring position stat or
somehting I would really like is a 'quality at bat' stat which would be
something like hits+walks+intentional walks+sacrifices+moving runner
along+any ab where you take 6+ pitches.
	I think Grace would do well in quality at bats.

-tms
-- 
From the Lab of the MaD ScIenTiST:
					
navarra@casbah.acns.nwu.edu		
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball