I should probably start off by apologizing to some of you as the title of this post might be somewhat misleading. This is not a Fifty Shades of Grey movie review. For those of you who arrived here with those expectations, I’m sorry. I’m not sure how it could have happened. Nothing in this post references BDSM, dominant/submissive tendencies, or bondage at any time. It’s all very confusing.
What this post does intend to cover is the MLB hitters who displayed above average power and plate discipline during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The main idea behind this exercise is to identify players who are power assets without being liabilities in the batting average category.
Let’s take a look at the search criteria that were used to identify these players:
Minimum 500 Plate Appearances
Isolated Power (ISO) of .170 or higher
BB/K ratio of .5 or higher
Although the league average ISO tends to vary slightly from year-to-year, that number can generally be expected to hover around the .140 mark, so .170 represents an above average (yet still only semi-elite) number. The BB/K requirement simply ensures that any qualifiers possess an above average awareness of the strike zone. The 500 PA criterion theoretically allows for a wide variety of players to qualify, from platoon options to players who missed a large portion of this two year span due to injury to rookies who logged close to a full season’s worth of regular playing time. Very simple search requirements. Hopefully this K.I.S.S. method will produce results that make your “Love Gun” tingle rather than conjure up memories of Paul Stanley sans makeup.
To provide some context, here are the MLB averages in some key statistical categories for hitters during the 2013-14 seasons:
Season | BB% | K% | BB/K | ISO | AVG | OBP | SLG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | 7.90% | 19.90% | 0.4 | 0.143 | 0.253 | 0.318 | 0.396 |
2014 | 7.60% | 20.40% | 0.37 | 0.135 | 0.251 | 0.314 | 0.386 |
As you can see, the ISO and BB/K criteria utilized for this exercise are significantly higher than the MLB averages during this span. Which players managed to make the cut? Here are the qualifiers, sorted by ISO:
Name | Team | PA | HR | R | RBI | BB% | K% | BB/K | ISO | AVG | OBP | SLG |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Edwin Encarnacion | TOR | 1163 | 70 | 165 | 202 | 12.40% | 12.40% | 1 | 0.27 | 0.27 | 0.363 | 0.54 |
David Ortiz | BOS | 1202 | 65 | 143 | 207 | 12.60% | 15.20% | 0.83 | 0.255 | 0.286 | 0.375 | 0.541 |
Mike Trout | LAA | 1421 | 63 | 224 | 208 | 13.60% | 22.50% | 0.6 | 0.254 | 0.305 | 0.405 | 0.559 |
Giancarlo Stanton | MIA | 1142 | 61 | 151 | 167 | 14.70% | 27.10% | 0.54 | 0.251 | 0.271 | 0.382 | 0.522 |
Miguel Cabrera | DET | 1337 | 69 | 204 | 246 | 11.20% | 15.80% | 0.71 | 0.248 | 0.329 | 0.405 | 0.577 |
Paul Goldschmidt | ARI | 1189 | 55 | 178 | 194 | 13.70% | 21.40% | 0.64 | 0.246 | 0.302 | 0.399 | 0.548 |
Troy Tulowitzki | COL | 887 | 46 | 143 | 134 | 12.10% | 16.00% | 0.75 | 0.243 | 0.323 | 0.408 | 0.566 |
Jose Bautista | TOR | 1201 | 63 | 183 | 176 | 14.40% | 15.00% | 0.96 | 0.239 | 0.274 | 0.383 | 0.512 |
Steve Pearce | BAL | 521 | 25 | 65 | 62 | 10.60% | 19.40% | 0.54 | 0.236 | 0.284 | 0.37 | 0.521 |
Hanley Ramirez | LAD | 848 | 33 | 126 | 128 | 9.80% | 16.00% | 0.61 | 0.216 | 0.308 | 0.382 | 0.525 |
Lucas Duda | NYM | 980 | 45 | 116 | 125 | 12.70% | 24.20% | 0.52 | 0.214 | 0.242 | 0.35 | 0.456 |
Anthony Rizzo | CHC | 1306 | 55 | 160 | 158 | 11.40% | 18.60% | 0.61 | 0.212 | 0.258 | 0.353 | 0.469 |
Andrew McCutchen | PIT | 1322 | 46 | 186 | 167 | 12.30% | 16.30% | 0.75 | 0.209 | 0.316 | 0.407 | 0.524 |
Josh Donaldson | OAK | 1363 | 53 | 182 | 191 | 11.20% | 17.60% | 0.63 | 0.2 | 0.277 | 0.363 | 0.477 |
Carlos Santana | CLE | 1302 | 47 | 143 | 159 | 15.80% | 18.00% | 0.88 | 0.191 | 0.25 | 0.371 | 0.441 |
Adam Lind | TOR | 839 | 29 | 105 | 107 | 9.40% | 18.00% | 0.52 | 0.189 | 0.301 | 0.366 | 0.49 |
Albert Pujols | LAA | 1138 | 45 | 138 | 169 | 7.70% | 11.10% | 0.7 | 0.188 | 0.267 | 0.326 | 0.455 |
Jayson Werth | WAS | 1161 | 41 | 169 | 164 | 12.30% | 18.40% | 0.67 | 0.187 | 0.304 | 0.396 | 0.491 |
Bryce Harper | WAS | 892 | 33 | 112 | 90 | 11.10% | 22.20% | 0.5 | 0.184 | 0.273 | 0.358 | 0.457 |
Mark Teixeira | NYY | 571 | 25 | 61 | 74 | 11.60% | 22.40% | 0.52 | 0.183 | 0.209 | 0.308 | 0.391 |
Neil Walker | PIT | 1122 | 39 | 136 | 129 | 8.50% | 15.40% | 0.55 | 0.182 | 0.262 | 0.341 | 0.443 |
Adrian Beltre | TEX | 1304 | 49 | 167 | 169 | 8.20% | 11.70% | 0.7 | 0.181 | 0.319 | 0.379 | 0.501 |
Adam LaRoche | WAS | 1176 | 46 | 143 | 154 | 13.10% | 20.30% | 0.64 | 0.181 | 0.248 | 0.347 | 0.429 |
Matt Holliday | STL | 1269 | 42 | 186 | 184 | 11.30% | 14.70% | 0.77 | 0.179 | 0.285 | 0.379 | 0.464 |
Victor Martinez | DET | 1309 | 46 | 155 | 186 | 9.50% | 7.90% | 1.19 | 0.178 | 0.317 | 0.381 | 0.495 |
Joey Votto | CIN | 998 | 30 | 133 | 96 | 18.20% | 18.70% | 0.97 | 0.177 | 0.291 | 0.423 | 0.468 |
Freddie Freeman | ATL | 1337 | 41 | 182 | 187 | 11.70% | 19.90% | 0.59 | 0.177 | 0.303 | 0.39 | 0.48 |
Kyle Seager | SEA | 1349 | 47 | 150 | 165 | 8.90% | 17.80% | 0.5 | 0.176 | 0.264 | 0.336 | 0.44 |
Luis Valbuena | CHC | 938 | 28 | 102 | 88 | 12.60% | 18.80% | 0.67 | 0.176 | 0.236 | 0.337 | 0.412 |
Brian Dozier | MIN | 1330 | 41 | 184 | 137 | 10.50% | 18.70% | 0.56 | 0.172 | 0.243 | 0.33 | 0.415 |
Robinson Cano | – – – | 1346 | 41 | 158 | 189 | 9.40% | 11.40% | 0.82 | 0.171 | 0.314 | 0.383 | 0.485 |
That’s a fairly large group of players to analyze. Thirty-one in all to be exact. Here are a few observations:
• All of the players who qualified for this list hit at least 25 HRs. Only seven players (or 22.6%) launched less than 39 HRs, none of whom logged at least 1000 plate appearances across the ’13-’14 seasons.
• Seven of the thirty-one qualifiers (22.6%) produced a sub-.260 batting average during this time period, while twelve players (38.7%) hit over .300.
• Twenty-four players (77.3%) managed an .800+ OPS. Just three qualifiers (Teixeira, Dozier, Valbuena) had an OPS of less than .776.
• By opening day of the 2015 season, seven of these players will be at least 35 years old (eight if you include Teixeira’s mid-April birthday): Ortiz, Werth, Beltre, Martinez, Holliday, LaRoche, Pujols, and Teix.
• On the other hand, fourteen of the thirty-one players will still be under 30 years of age when the first MLB regular season pitch is thrown in ’15: Donaldson, Santana, Duda, Walker, Valbuena, Goldschmidt, McCutchen, Seager, Dozier, Stanton, Freeman, Rizzo, Trout, and Harper.
• Five of these players contributed in the stolen base category (not included due to space considerations) as well by averaging 10+ SBs over the past two seasons: Trout (49 total – 24.5 avg), McCutchen (45 – 22.5), Dozier (35 – 17.5), Goldschmidt (24 – 12), and Ramirez (24 – 12).
Overall, the majority of the players who qualified for this list will be highly sought after in fantasy leagues this season. Some players are platoon-only options for daily and/or deep leagues (Lind, Valbuena), while others are currently injured (V-Mart, Werth, possibly Votto) or on their last legs (Teixeira). However, a few potential draft-day bargains appear, most notably Pearce, Duda, Walker, and LaRoche. It might be wise not to forget about these players in the mid-late rounds.
Outside of the fantasy elite (Trout, McCutchen, Cabrera, etc.), are you targeting any of these players this season? Any names here that you’re avoiding?