I wandered through some of the ESPN stat toys earlier today and came across this nugget:
RNK TEAM HR BB HRa BBa BC 1 CLE 172 557 136 393 11 2 OAK 164 643 132 499 18 3 NYY 195 585 139 544 19 4 BOS 154 657 140 461 19 5 TOR 158 501 151 443 24 6 CHA 181 506 167 481 25
The White Sox rank sixth in the AL in the Beane Count, a ranking based on Billy Beane’s perceived love of homeruns and walks. Apparently the White Sox are, once again, a Moneyball offense. They ranked sixth last year and seventh in 2005.
If the White Sox are doing the HR and BB thing correctly, what’s going wrong? Well, on offense, the team is batting .245, 30 points worse than average. The low batting average pretty much explains their sub-par OBP and SLG.
From the pitching perspective, the Sox relievers sport an almost-humorous 5.33 ERA — that’s worse than replacement level. Thanks to leverage, however, the bullpen is only a win worse than average according to WPA.
Finally, the fielding also deserves some blame, ranking 24th in the majors with a .689 DER.
Isn’t that the classic (erroneous) Moneyball stereotype — team that values homeruns and walks while eschewing fielding and relief pitching? I’m not sure what my point is, other than the White Sox are bad on all three sides of the ball. And that yes, batting average, fielding, and relief pitching are important.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.