Sabermetric Stats

One of the things I love about The Bill James Handbook is its "extra" stats, most of which you won't find anywhere else. The following are a list of interesting stats and some that pertain to both the Cubs and Royals found in the book, mostly in the leaders section at the end.

Aaron Guiel had the second highest leadoff OBP in the AL at .387 last year. Something the Royals should consider as they analyze their lineup

Edgar Martinez led the AL by seeing 4.32 pitches per plate appearance while Scott Hatteberg took 66.9% of the pitches thrown to him

Ken Harvey was third in the AL in GB/FB ratio at 2.46, not very encouraging for someone at a power position

Carlos Beltran had the fifth highest OPS (OBP+SLUG) in the 2nd half last season at .968

As a leadoff hitter Grudz had a higher OBP than Lofton .358 to .354

Brad Wilkerson led the NL in pitchers per plate appearance with 4.36 while Bonds took the highest percentage of pitches at 65.9%. Derrick Lee is in the top 10 in both categories

Not suprisingly Luis Castillo and Juan Pierre led the NL in GB/FB ratio with 3.07 and 2.96 respectively. Grudz was 8th with 1.86. Aramis Ramirez is 9th in lowest GB/FB ratio with 0.79

Sammy Sosa had the 8th lowest OPS on pitches out of the strike zone at .083 underscoring the need for him to stay away from chasing high fastballs and low sliders

Runners only stole successfully 11.1% of the time off Brian Anderson in 2003 (he also had 6 pickoffs), only 44.4% off Darrell May putting him 8th on the list

As mentioned in the previous post May's .69 GB/FB ratio was lowest in the league. Interesting Derek Lowe's 4.38 ratio was almost 2 points higher than any other pitcher's in the AL

Brian Anderson was also third in the league in inducing 1.14 GIDP per 9 innings

Both Anderson and May in the top 10 for lowest average fastball at 87 and 86.1 mph respectively. They are also among the leaders in throwing changeups, 21.1% and 18.3% respectively

Prior, Wood, and Zambrano were 1,2 and 7 in number of pitchers per start, with 113.3, 110.7, and 106.4. The Cubs may need to be a little careful with these guys

All three Cubs aces were in the top 10 in lowest SB%, all around 40%

Kerry Wood had the lowest h/ip giving up 6.48 hits per 9 innings

Zambrano gave up the fewest homeruns per 9 ip at .38 (Prior was 5th with .64)

Zambrano and Clement were 3rd and 5th in GB/FB ratio at 2.38 and 2.06

Mike Remlinger has been valuable because he's an "opposite pitcher". In 2003 his opponent's AVG against right handed batters was jut .180. Farnsworth was the same against lefties to the tune of .189

Wood had the highest average fastball at 95.4, Prior and Zambrano were 5th and 6th

Matt Clement threw the highest percentage of sliders at 34%

In other notes, you may have noticed that I left off 20 year-old right-hander Zack Greinke from my analysis of the Royals rotation. While he is certainly the top prospect in the Royals organization (10 walks in 130 innings last year) and perhaps the top pitching prospect in baseball, he struggled a bit in Wichita last season, although I'm told his first starts were the roughest, at which point he settled down. I would expect him to start in Omaha and be called up if the trio of Snyder, Asencio, and Gobble struggle. However, if he really impresses in spring training and the others struggle, it's just possible he could break with the club but I doubt it.