Baseball Musings: Players of the Month

September 01, 2006

Players of the Month

Offensive Player of the Month for August is a tough choice between too similar players, one in a playoff race, the other playing out the season. Travis Hafner and Ryan Howard are both first basemen. They both are sluggers who do an excellent job getting on base. Both scored 25 runs in month. Both walked 22 times. Howard leads by one home run, but Hafner leads in extra-base hits 22 to 17. Howard's big advantage over Hafner is RBI, 41 to 30. RBI is a team influenced stat, however. RBI result from a combination of a batter's skills and the ability of his team to get on base.

The RBI percentage chart makes a pretty good case for Miguel Cabrera. But if you look down, you see Howard did indeed have many more base runners on than Hafner, but also delivered a higher percentage.

In figuring runs created, Bill James now uses two situational measures to adjust the result. Home runs with men on base and batting average with runners in scoring position. Howard wins both of those. Eight of his fourteen homers came with men on base, vs. four of thirteen for Hafner. He also hit extremely well with runners in scoring position. Hafner did fine, but not as well.

As for meaningful home runs, half of Howard's came with the game tied or trailing by a run. Hafner did him one better in this category, with eight of his coming in that situation.

But in the end, no matter how I try to spin the RBI, I'm left looking at a 20 point difference in OBA and a 100 point difference in slugging percentage, both in favor of Hafner. I can't help thinking if the two switched team, the Phillies would have scored even more runs in August. Congratulations to Travis Hafner, the Baseball Musings Player of the Month for August, 2006!

Pitcher of the Month was extremely easy this time around. Esteban Loaiza earned his money from the Athletics this month as he posted the best ERA in the majors, 1.48. He did in while allowing 1 home run, 4 walks and striking out 31. No one close to him in ERA put up those kind of numbers. If you look at the high strikeout pitchers for the month, none come close to him in ERA. On top of that, he was undefeated in six starts. Congratulations to Esteban Loaiza, the Baseball Musings Pitcher of the Month for August 2006.

Former Baseball Musings Players of the Month:

Month	Batter	Pitcher
July 2006	Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies	Francisco Liriano, Minnesota Twins
June 2006	Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins	Johan Santana, Minnesota Twins
May 2006	Jason Bay, Pittsburgh Pirates	C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland Indians
April 2006	Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals	Greg Maddux, Chicago Cubs
September 2005	Randy Winn, SF Giants	CC Sabathia, Cleveland Indians
August 2005	David Wright, NY Mets	Noah Lowry, SF Giants

Posted by David Pinto at 07:53 AM | Awards | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Any consideration given to Greg Maddux as Pitcher of the Month?

Posted by: fred at September 1, 2006 09:14 AM

Is there a pitcher in the game who's more unpredictable than Esteban Loiaza? This is at least the third time he's been given up for dead, and come back to pitch well. Remember how the A's were ridiculed for picking him up?

Not that I disagree with the ridicule; the acquisition seemed absurd at the time. You just never know what you're going to get with this guy: his ERA is either below 3 or above 6.

Posted by: johnw at September 1, 2006 09:16 AM

Fred,

Sure, but Lowe probably deserved more.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 1, 2006 10:09 AM

Loaiza's pitched well...but I'd point out that the only quality offense he faced in August was Texas, and they got 4 off him. He pitched against the Angels, Rangers, Royals, Rays, Red Sox, and Blue Jays...Boston had been replaced by Pawtucket, and the Rays/Royals are ranked 14th and 12th in the AL. The Rangers are fifth, they hit him pretty well, and the Jays (21 runs behind Texas)...well that one was impressive. My point is mostly in response to johnw...Loaiza's pretty unpredictable, but if you had to predict a month for him to rebound, this August was it.

Posted by: the other josh at September 1, 2006 10:16 AM

the cynic in me thinks you didn't want to give it to two phillies in a row. howard is doing it in a pennant race with every team knowing he is the only person they can't let beat them - but he still does! have you seen the distance of his hr's in washington? howard is doing getting all those rbi's while utley has had his worst month as a pro in august - don't forget that. and after the trade of one of the best obp guys in mlb.

most importantly you say they are both first baseman. they are not. ryan howard is a first baseman, hafner is a dh. it's offensive player of the month - i thought that meant "player of the month who isn't a pitcher" but i guess i was mistaken.

i disagree with your choice, but as usual respect your opinion and love your site.

Posted by: Tim at September 1, 2006 10:25 AM

I have no problem with giving an award to two Phillies in a row. If you look at the list of previous winners you'll see two pitchers in a row from Minnesota. I wanted to give the award to Howard, but the stats just don't justify it. Hafner beats him by 120 points of OPS. Hafner had the better month.

Hafner is a first baseman who is used as a DH. A National League team would certainly trade for him and put him at that position. DH hurts him in MVP voting, since he only has offense to count for him.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 1, 2006 10:39 AM

David,

While I certainly believe that Loaiza merits consideration, and even perhpas the "honor" of Pitcher of the Month, I wonder why you claim the race to be "extremely easy this time around." Again, Loaiza undisputedly has been one of the top 3 pitchers this month, I think that an equally strong case could be made for either Johan Santana or Cole Hamels. While Loaiza has the edge in ERA, Santana and Hamels both have an edge in K's. More importantly, however, Hamels and Loaiza have had BAA's of .224 and .223, respectively, whereas Santana has had an other-worldly .183 over the past month. More times than not, I'd take the guy with a lower BAA (or OBA) vs a lower ERA.

In addition, Santana has been singlehandedly keeping his team in the playoff race. While the A's and Phillies are also in races, I would argue that no player in baseball is as important to his team's success right now than Santana is to the Twins.

So, Esteban Loaiza is clearly worthy of consideration for Pitcher of the Month, but I think that it would have to go to Santana. At the very least, Santana (and Cole) deserves to be mentioned in the debate.

Posted by: Teddy at September 1, 2006 11:26 AM

I indirectly talk about Santana in terms of the high strikeout pitchers. Santana, however, allowed more home runs and walks than Loaiza. And while Santana is keeping the Twins in the race, Loaiza helped bury the rest of the AL West.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 1, 2006 11:43 AM

i'm sure you are right. i'm just a homer i guess.

can i at least get a "ryan howard for mvp" out of you?

Posted by: Tim at September 1, 2006 01:22 PM

Actually, Tim, I'd give it to Utley on the team right now, and Beltran for the league.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 1, 2006 01:31 PM

Willy Travus has a 30 game hitting streak and by the way, he has done it on the defensive side too. Not like these others guys, who suck at the defensive side of the ball. Then yer blog doesn't even have the guts to notice a 30 game hitting streak.

Posted by: Farmer at September 1, 2006 02:25 PM

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