From: tedward@cs.cornell.edu (Edward [Ted] Fischer)
Subject: Re: Eck Wins MVP in Horrible Voting
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 20:12:55 GMT

In article <22NOV199212300507@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu> doctor8@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu (Jason Abner Miller) writes:
>	More stats.  Tettleton hit .238. Listach hit well over 50 points
>above that.  OK, Tettleton walked 122 times.  Big deal.  He bats in the
>heart of the Tigers' lineup - is it his place to clog the bases that
>many times instead of driving in runs in those opportunites?

I would certainly hope so!  Don't you just *love* having those bases
clogged when your big HR hitters step up to the plate?  Of course
sometimes only one base is clogged.  And it's really more fun when you
have two or three bases clogged.  Still, I don't think the Tigers mind
having Tettleton clog those basepaths as often as he can.

So Tettleton was batting fifth.  Not his fault.  I said at the
beginning of the year that he should have batted third, and the stats
bear me out.  He had the third best OBP on the team (behind Phillips
and Whitaker, of course), which means that he clogs the bases VERY
OFTEN.  He also bopped those HRs more often than anybody else on the
team except for Deer and Fielder.  A lineup of Phillips, Whitaker,
Tettleton, Fielder, Deer, Fryman would have been even better than what
the Tigers *did* put out there.

It's hard to compare

>Listach is leadoff hitter, so he should walk and get on base often.
>Tettleton is a run producer.

Hm.  You mean that Tettleton should be a leadoff hitter, and would
have been a better leadoff hitter than Listach?  I agree, except that
he has so much power that it would be a waste.  Besides, the Tigers
have two *better* leadoff hitters with less power.

That's why Tettleton should bat third.

>2-out walks generally don't produce runs.

But one only bats with two outs a third of the time.  And no-out walks
produce a *lot* of runs.  (Note that the #5 hitter leads off more
innings than any other spot in the lineup except the leadoff hitter.
Though no idea whether or not this was true for the Tigers...)

>It's an 
>impressive walk total, but I like them better on Tony Phillips' line
>because he batted leadoff most of the season and provided many of those
>RBIs for guys like Cecil, Mickey, and Deer.

I doubt Tettleton had much opportunity to drive in Phillips.  Fielder
will usually either get the RBI himself or kill the inning.  In fact,
getting 83 RBIs while batting behind Fielder is *very* impressive.
Maybe more impressive than getting 124 RBIs batting fourth in that
lineup.

>	Listach captured more attention among the sportswriters than
>Tettleton did.  Tettleton was the 2nd best catcher in the A.L. last year
>(I personally like Steinbach slightly better, flame wars to follow), but
>238 hitters generally don't rank high in MVP voting no matter how much
>else he produced.

Every player (in 600 PA) will reach base safely somewhere between 100
and 200 times via a hit.  But some players *never* walk, while others
walk 120-140 times a season.  The difference between the least and the
most patient is as important (in terms of reaching base) as the
difference between the best batting average and the worst batting
average.

Listach had 40 more hits than Tettleton.  However, he had almost 70
fewer walks!  Therefore Listach wasn't doing his job as well as
Tettleton was doing Listach's job.  Would Tettleton walk less if he
were batting higher in the lineup, in *front* of the big bats instead
of *behind* them?  I don't know, but don't you think he deserves a
chance to find out?

Which is all beside the point, as Tettleton slugged *so* much better
than Listach that the comparison isn't even close.  I'll take 30 HR
over 54 SB (and 18 CS) any day.

-Valentine
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball