Japanese hitting Metric

I previously made a Japanese pitcher metric (you can find that in the Yu Darvish article), that compared how pitchers' in Japan did in the Majors in America. Here I am going to do the same with hitters. There have been far less Japanese hitters in the Show than pitchers. So I am using all 7 that BaseballCube had reliable stats on and had significant time in the Big Leagues. Ichiro 1.82 PAPP 1.56 PPG 392 OBP in Japan.  In America: 1.29 PPG, 2.227 PAPP. , 370 OBP. So Taguchi: in America, .62 PPG, 2.58 PAPP, .332 OBP, In Japan: .329 OBP, 2.6 PAPP, 1.07 PPG. Kazuo Matsui in Japan: 1.58 PPG, 2.10 PAPP, .351 OBP. In America: .321 OBP, 2.53 PAPP, 1.07 PPG. Kosuke Fukodome in Japan: .390 OBP, 1.99 PAPP, 1.48 PPG. In America: .92 PPG, .361 OBP, and 2.27 PAPP. Akinori Iwamura in America: .95 PPG, .345 OBP, 2.46 PAPP. In Japan: .358 OBP, 2.15 PAPP, 1.39 PPG. Tsuyoshi Nishioka in Japan: 2.18 PAPP, 1.26 PPG, and .375 OBP. In America: .278 OBP, .51 PPG, and 3.51 PAPP. Hideki Matsui in Japan: .408 OBP, 1.71 PPG, 1.77 PAPP. In America: 1.32 PPG, .363 OBP, 2.22 PAPP. The 7 hitters averaged a 2.09 PAPP in Japan, and 2.83 in America, a .74 addition. They averaged a 1.44 PPG in Japan and a .95 PPG in the Majors, a .49 addition. They averaged a .372 OBP in Japan and .339 OBP in the Majors, a .033 subtraction. When going over hitters numbers in Japan, we will use this metric to grade how well they might do in the Majors in the United States.

When Moneyball wasn't Moneyball: Overpaid Athletics

As the Moneyball movie comes out (to some very positive reviews), its interesting to look at where the Athletics are currently. Not only are they third place in the AL West, but they have found themselves in some very bad contracts. The whole point of "moneyball" was to maximize production in a very small payroll. This is why they groomed the trio of Hudson, Mulder, and Zito, but let them go when they got expensive, and replaced them with groomed Rich Harden, Houston Street, and Joe Blanton, only to get rid of them when they got expensive to replace them with Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Dallas Braden (who can't stay healthy it seems). For the most part, the pitching has worked, but their struggles to develop hitters have cost them. Not to mention, Billy Beane has done something very anti-moneyball. This offseason, he signed/traded for 3 aging players with large deals. Hideki Matsui is making 4.25 million dollars this year (he was clearly worth this much when he was with the Yankees, but didn't show enough with the Angels last year to merit this), but barely has a positive WAR, giving him a WASP of over 6000. Josh Willingham is making 6 million dollars with a WAR of 1.5, giving him a sub-par 4000 WASP. Reliever Brian Fuentes is making a mind-numbing 5 million dollars, and with his .3 WAR, he has a WASP of 16,666. A GM that built his team using sabermetrics and avoiding deals like this has turned into the Cubs, who sign a bunch of old players that are overpaid and watch the thing blow up.

Is Mark Reynolds worth it?

Mark Reynolds is an interesting player that causes a mini-debate in baseball. He is someone who strikes out a lot (in fact, his last 3 seasons have been record breaking) but every once in a while gets into a ball and sends it a long way. The debate is whether all the strikeouts are worth the extra-base hits. He was originally drafted by the Diamondbacks (who were terrible last year with Reynolds, not a good sign), but moved onto the Baltimore Orioles in the off-season. His stats this year (at this point) look exactly like this: .220 BA, .322 OBP, .793 OPS, 32 bombs, 76 Rbis, 2 RAR, and a .2 WAR (a 2.7 offensive WAR is almost all canceled out by his horrific -2.5 WAR, and with Vlady on the team, they cannot DH him). Because of his big salary upgrade this season, his WASP is a miserable 25,000 (You want low numbers, and even the aging Hideki Matsui has a WASP of 6071). For what its worth, if Reynolds was an average defender, his WASP would be a 1851, a pretty solid number. So Reynolds isn't really worth it, but its not because of his offense, its because of his miserable defense.