May 17, 2015

Ignoring Batting Average

The Houston Astros continue to ignore their team batting average. The team currently sports a .230/.303/.418 slash line, the .230 BA the lowest in the American League. That should be a surprise, since their strikeout total of 343 (9.3 per game) is the highest in the league. More strikeouts lead to fewer balls in play, and fewer balls in play leads to fewer hits.

The Astros, however, continue to do other this well on offense. They have drawn 126 walks, fourth most in the AL. The big stat, however, is their home runs. With three more Saturday night in their 6-5 win against the Blue Jays, they now own 55 HR on the season, nine more than the second place Yankees. So by doing things other than collect hits well, the Astros manage to be middle of the pack in terms of runs scored per game.

On the pitching side, the Astros have allowed one of the lowest batting averages in the AL. They reinforce that by allowing the fewest walks, for the lowest OBP allowed, .288. So while opponents are beating the Astros in batting average .233 to .230, Houston handily wins the OBP contest .303 to .288. The Astros do a good job of keeping the ball in the park as well, so the slugging race is theirs too at .413 to .377. The Astros are putting more batters on base, and using power to drive them around the bases further than their opponents. That leads to outscoring the opposition by 21 runs, and with a little luck, three more wins than expected.

The Astros management understands the strengths and weaknesses of their team, and put together the pieces to maximize the ability of this group to produce wins. They may not hold up all year, but right now, they are a sabermetric dream team.

1 thought on “Ignoring Batting Average

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *