Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 03, 2005
Hipp to Pickering

Brian Hipp writes about this article on Calvin Pickering:

I thought you might be interested in this article from the KC Star. It's an article on Calvin Pickering and why sabremetricians prefer him over Ken Harvey. It's the first time I've seen the term "PECOTA" used in a daily newspaper. It also quotes Nate Silver and Rany Jazayerli. You probably don't know much about Pickering, but he has become somewhat of a cause celebre for Rob Neyer, Rany Jazayerli, and the sabremetric-minded community of Royals fans.

The article is interesting because it provides a pretty good outline of the sabremetric case for Pickering, but the author just can't help himself from arguing that Pickering's just too fat to actually play. The article is pretty funny because it lays out the case for Pickering like this: On one hand, Pickering has lots of power, walks a lot, and has tons of production in the minors; on the other hand, he's pretty fat. It also completely ignores that Ken Harvey is also fat and a poor fielder, and that Pickering's just going to DH anyway.

But even though the author and the Royals organization isn't convinced of the case for Pickering, it's nice to see some analysis of some sabremetric tools in our local sports page. I'm not holding my breath, waiting for the KC Star to mention how Angel Berroa ranks near the bottom of your Probabalistic Model of Range, but it's a start.

This is the third article I've linked to in the last few days that is at least addressing sabermetic issues and using stats other than batting average, RBI and stolen bases.

Here's Pickering's minor and major league career, so you can judge for yourself. I sometimes make the argument that if your problem is at first base, it should be easy to solve. Pickering is a perfect example of that. He probably hits better or as well as players making millions more. Now that he's actually lifting weights, at peak age, he could be a big surprise. Let's keep an eye on what kind of numbers he puts up this spring.


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Posted by David Pinto at 09:31 PM | Statistics | TrackBack (1)
Comments

Pickering ambled through the Reds organization a few years ago. They couldn't find pants to fit him, but I wish they had kept him around. He could always mash the ball.

I saw him play a few years back in a minor league game, and he absolutely crushed a ball.

Hmm...the Reds have had Pickering and Roberto Petagine at various times. Of course, rather than giving chances to these sabermetric favorites, the Reds keep signing the Joe Randas of the world.

Posted by: Chad at March 3, 2005 09:50 PM
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