Two years of Rich Aurilia

by JRPhillips on May 28, 2009 11:04 AM PDT Comment 29 comments

My coworker and I are having a discussion about Rich Aurilia and just how good he was in 2002 and 2003. Looking simply at BA and homers, he's arguing that Aurilia was below average because he hit .257 and .277 with 15 and 13 homers respectively. His OPS+ those two years was 92 and 91, so he seems to be correct. My assertion before looking at these numbers is that he's been above average for a shortstop these years, but it looks like that might not be correct after all.

So what say you? Was Aurilia, in 2002 and 2003 at all above average for a shortstop? Or was he just a below average shortstop? Most of you have better statistics to create a case than I do, so I thought I'd engage y'all in this.

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He was probably above average offensively, but my immediate reaction would be that you couldn’t say the same for his defense.

FWIW, Fangraphs has him at +6.4 and +3.6 defensively those two years, so maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, it looks like he was a 2.6 and 2.8 win player those two years, which Fangraphs has as being worth $7.2 mil (his salary those two years was $5.3 and $6.3). Is that in today’s dollars though? I don’t know.

So, he was solid. Above average, it would seem.

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by jponry on May 28, 2009 11:10 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

sOPS+ is great for stuff like this. It’s the OPS+ for a particular split (batter handedness, position, etc.). It works the same way as OPS+ — ie: a score of 100 indicates league average for that split in question.

By position (SS), Aurilia’s sOPS+ for 2002 and 2003 was: 98 and 102. So, as a hitter (not bringing defense into the discussion) Aurilia was basically right at league average. Which, has some value if he’s playing defense well enough.

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by xanthan on May 28, 2009 11:11 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Whatta nerd

Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all

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by baetown415 on May 28, 2009 12:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

My kinda nerd

Where do you get current sOPS+ calculations, xanthan?

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by achiappanza on May 29, 2009 10:35 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m late to this, but they are on any player’s split pages on BB-Ref.

Bay City Ball

by xanthan on Jun 1, 2009 4:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

No prob

Thanks.

"[Greg] Vaughn is in a funk so deep, George Clinton wearing a miner's helmet couldn't find him."
- Jim Baker, ESPN.com, May 2002

by achiappanza on Jun 2, 2009 2:27 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I got scared for a moment, thinking that Aurilia was signed to a two-year extension. You never know!

by Frank144 on May 28, 2009 11:24 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Me too

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by groug on May 28, 2009 11:25 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.

by jponry on May 28, 2009 11:42 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I did, too. I read it as “two more years of Rich Aurilia” and was about to screed.

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by nostocksjustbonds on May 28, 2009 12:50 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

this

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by BaronVonCurrentEvents on May 28, 2009 1:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yea. Otherwise I wouldn’t have even read this.

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by WalrusMan on May 28, 2009 2:04 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry for the minor scare, y’all.

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by JRPhillips on May 28, 2009 2:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought it was going to be a rant about the last two years.

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by Johnny Disaster on May 28, 2009 3:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

ME TOO

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by antinous on May 29, 2009 4:09 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I never really thought he was a good hitter until he left and hit the juice.

With us, he was a decent hitter, decent fielder, played hard, and got some clutch hits so he was a fan favorite

by m34josh on May 28, 2009 11:46 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, there was that one kind of okay year.

Matt Cain: He'll save children, but not the Dodger children.
PABLO SANDOVAL AM STEAL DEATH, DESTROYER OF WORLDS.

by jponry on May 28, 2009 11:56 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, even one year of a .324 AVG with 37 HRs helps a lot in making a guy a fan favorite.

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by EliminateMe on May 28, 2009 1:02 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That and the fact he always thinks he should get a hit. Such a competitor, such a gamer!

by Bay Area Sports Guy on May 28, 2009 2:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

He was pretty decent

I mean, it’s only one of the top ten offensive seasons ever produced by a shortstop. (Courtesy of Neyer, not me.)

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by antinous on May 29, 2009 4:10 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

He hit the juice in 2001?

by Netsky on May 28, 2009 12:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah probably

by Netsky on May 28, 2009 12:35 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm sure asking this will come back to haunt me, but...

Did you just ask a question and answer it yourself?

Stupid is as Ruben Rivera does...

by bkrhater on May 28, 2009 1:20 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

*pst * your move here would be to answer this yourself.

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by WalrusMan on May 28, 2009 2:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I hate being unwitty.

/kicks dirt and slinks away…

Stupid is as Ruben Rivera does...

by bkrhater on May 28, 2009 2:28 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It’s alright, we feel the same way most of the time.

The Basil Fawlty Moderating Strategy:
"We could run a nice blog here if we didn't have all these members getting in the way."
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by WalrusMan on May 28, 2009 8:14 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs