Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 25, 2008
The Ortiz Factor

Gordon Edes points out that the Boston offense performed just as well with David Ortiz on the DL as they performed before Ortiz's injury:

Consider the numbers, before and after Ortiz's injury:

Batting average: .280 before; .279 after.

Runs per game: 5 before; a hair over 5 after.

Home runs per game: 1.05 before; 1.15 after.

On-base percentage: .353 before; .360 after.

Slugging percentage: .441 before; .450 after.

Boston designated hitters posted a .308/.425/.496 line during David's time on the disabled list. That's not quite vintage Ortiz in power, but they obviously didn't lose much. Of course, a lot of that come from giving Manny most of his at bats at DH during that time. With Manny moving to left (if he knee allows it) and Ortiz returning, I suspect the Red Sox offense will get better but the defense might get a little worse.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:22 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

With Manny replacing Jacoby Ellsbury the defense *might* get a *little* worse?

Posted by: James at July 25, 2008 09:51 AM

Most of this is thanks to J. D. Drew.

From June 1 thru July 23: .300/.429/.700

This all happened mostly while batting in Ortiz's spot in the lineup, with Ramirez offering protection. It will be interesting to see if Drew's numbers are affected by being moved back down to the #5 spot.

Posted by: Neil S. at July 25, 2008 10:23 AM

Drew's numbers will drop, but not because of his line-up spot. They'll drop because he isn't a 1.129 OPS guy, so he'll regress to his own mean.

On a similar note: I expect the Sox to overtake the Rays and then pull away, but not for the reason that everyone will then give (that the Rays are young, "haven't been in this situation", etc. It's because Tampa is playing four games over their Pythagorean record, the Sox are two games under theirs. Even though the Boston bullpen is suspect, the teams are likely to regress toward their Pythagorean records of the next couple of months.

Posted by: James at July 25, 2008 10:51 AM

The proper comparison is from David Ortiz to Coco Crisp (sometimes Ellsbury) on offense.

Assuming 1/2 Coco and 1/2 Ellsbury are comparable to complete Coco as defensive CFs, the proper comparison is Manny to Ellsbury defensively in LF.

Or: JD picked it up after Ortiz left and Coco didn't suck too hard.

Posted by: eric at July 25, 2008 11:29 AM

And explain why Tito didn't give Brandon moss more opportunity when Coco and Ellsbury were making out after out after out.

Posted by: Bandit at July 25, 2008 12:23 PM
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