Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

by lyricalkiller on Nov 1, 2006 11:11 AM PST Comment 8 comments

Felipe Alou finished last, dead last, behind even Dusty Baker. I think most people would agree there is some small stathead disfavor of the Giants, but still.

But still.

Bonds finished 15th in MVP; Schmidt 16th in Cy Young; Cain sixth in ROY. Durham was 45th in MVP, which seems a shame. Chase Utley, whose raw numbers look an awful lot like Durham's, finished sixth. As I argued earlier this year, I thought Durham deserved some downballot mention.

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"Baseball is life, the rest is just details."

by nick on Nov 1, 2006 11:59 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Durham was lower in the rankings becuase of how many games he missed during the season. I still think he should have been much higher then 45th, though.

Keeping a close eye on the Giants AAA players

by Andy In Fresno on Nov 1, 2006 12:52 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Chase Utley: 309/.379/.527 in 739 PAs with outstanding defense.

Ray Durham: .293/.360/.538 in 555 PAs with poor defense.

Sorry, their raw numbers are not close at all. Chase Utley is a legit MVP candidate - certainly a better candidate than Ryan Howard. Durham had a nice season, but can't touch Utley.

by Salemicus on Nov 1, 2006 4:19 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Right, they're not equal. Obviously Utley is better. But they're close ... or, closeish.

I'll put it another way:
Durham's VORP (47.9) was .3 below Soriano, who was 9th in voting.
It was 1.8 below Jason Bay, who was 12th.
It was higher than Rollins, and Bonds, and Dan Uggla, and Bill Hall, all of who finished well ahead of Durham in the voting. He tied in voting with Laroche (33 VORP) and trailed Adrian Gonzales (32).
Obviously this is a simple way of looking at a lot of different performances. I'm not saying Durham was an MVP; I'm just saying 45th qualifies as way under the radar, for what was a pretty darned good year.

Saving countless runs with my defense

by lyricalkiller on Nov 1, 2006 4:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Utley led second basemen in errors, was in the middle of the pack in range factor and zone rating, and is well below average by BP's metrics. (Durham had fewer errors but fared even worse in the other measurements.) I would refute your post with these numbers if I had even the slighest amount of faith in defensive statistics.

Instead I'll just ask: it it generally accepted that Utley plays outstanding defense?

After you take into account park factors (Durham was a better road hitter than Utley), it's not a blowout in my opinion. But where Utley gets a lot of separation in my book is in playing time... he had 184 more plate appearances than Durham.

"Robb Nen is going to get you" - Benito Santiago to Chipper Jones, 10/7/02

by Pants Man on Nov 1, 2006 4:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Well, Utley was +3 by Chris Dial's adjusted Zone Rating and Durham was a -2. Not that big a difference over the long run.

LicensetoPills: they say this to my family. to barry bonds family. and i say, "i'll bust you up. here is a candy corn."

by jponry on Nov 1, 2006 5:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Actually, it's +3 to -3 in he relevant category (i.e. the rate stat. Durham only gets a -2 because he played few innings - which is not to his credit).

BP's defensive metrics are junk.

by Salemicus on Nov 1, 2006 6:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Alou in the Internet Baseball Awards

Also, I'm sure the splits for pre- and post-ASG are something telling, probably, if I cared to look. Durham really played two seasons, anyway: one craptastic first half and one anotherwalkofftasticholycraphesswiningthebat second half.

I like to think that players don't get MVP for half a year, however rounded it makes their whole year look. I might be wrong. I don't know. But I like to think it. I'm not trying to down on Durham. In fact, I think he should be re-signed. But this is the fact of his 2006 season.

Coming to you by proxy

by howtheyscored on Nov 2, 2006 8:25 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs