February 03, 2009
Weeks Ahead
The Brewers and Rickie Weeks agree to a new deal just above the mid-point of their arbitration numbers. That leaves the Brewers just Corey Hart facing an arbitration hearing.
When I started reading Bill James back in the 1980s, Bill would take about batting average as a percentage of a player's offensive value. If batting average represented a high percentage of a player's value, he didn't draw many walks nor hit much for power. Weeks, on the other hand, has a very high percentage of his value in his OBA, due to his high number of walks, and very little power.
While we like to think all OBA is created the same, it's not. I'd much rather sign a player with a .300 BA and a .352 OBA than Weeks who comes in at .245/.352. There's a lot to be said for not making outs, but without power, Weeks does very little to advance runners in front of him.