Outfield

by RA Dickey on Apr 26, 2007 9:41 AM CDT Comment 42 comments

Hopefully last night's performance by Wilkerson will put to rest any thoughts that he is anything more than a 4th outfielder. He doesn't make contact, he has bad plate discpline, and he's not great defensively. They need an outfielder in the worst way. Too many holes in this lineup. You can hope Cruz will be good, hope Wilkerson will regain his steroid form from a couple of years ago, hope Sosa will rebound...

That's too much uncertainty to bank your season on.

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Wilkerson

What makes you think he was on steroids?

He wasn't good last night, but if we're basing impressions on one game, Nellie Cruz should be relegated to DH for the rest of his career.

"Then I met some friends for a beer, went to a BoDeans's concert, and son of a vondruke, if I didn't leave him at the concert hall."

by RCCook on Apr 26, 2007 9:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah

i'll judge wilkerson based on one game after an injury layoff. that makes sense.

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 26, 2007 10:05 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Wilkerson

Judge him on the fact that he is lifetime .250 hitter. He had one year where he hit 32 home runs, 2004, in the height of steriod usage. Judge him by the fact that he strikes out twice as much as he walks in his career (418 walks/798 K's).

I just don't get how you guys see he has anything. He is average at best.

by RA Dickey on Apr 26, 2007 10:10 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The good thing about Wilk...

...is that you never really have to take him out of the lineup. Just run him out there for a few days and he will injure something and the situation is taken care of.

by tricer on Apr 26, 2007 10:15 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

2004

was not the height of the steroid use era.

but make no mistake, the fact that i pointed that out doesn't mean i agree with anything else you said. but, even if he put up his 2002 numbers where he batted a little over 250 and struck out twice as much as he walked, and got 20 HR's, I would take it.

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 26, 2007 10:15 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'll tell

you people on this board thought he was going to be the center fielder on this team. The guy used to be able to play defense and pretty well. I doubt that he'll ever regain that form again. For some reason he has lost a lot of his speed and quickness. It really puzzles me.

by gp on Apr 26, 2007 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

man, you know you suck when

R.A. Dickey is talking shit about you.

Where do you get that Wilk has bad plate discipline? He's 10th in the league in P/PA at 4.34 per.

------------
:) - Obligatory smiley showing I don't mean whatever mean
spiritedness is likely contained in the preceding post

by jtts on Apr 26, 2007 10:12 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I clicked on this diary

thinking I was going to read about RA moving to the outfield.

by shallrelicme on Apr 26, 2007 3:41 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Strikes out

2002- 161 K's in 507 ABs
2003- 155 K's in 504 ABs
2004- 152 K's in 572 ABs
2005- 147 K's in 565 ABs
2006- 116 K's in 320 ABs

Did he have a bad shoulder all those years too?

by RA Dickey on Apr 26, 2007 10:16 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Why are you focusing on strikeouts?

Why are you ignoring groundouts and flyouts?

by a bebop a rebop on Apr 26, 2007 10:17 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

How many walks those years?

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 26, 2007 10:18 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Adam,

I am beginning to think that high walk totals coupled with high strikeouts and occasional pop really means that the player is a pretty bad hitter and not someone with a good eye. Wilkerson seems to be a guy that never swings at pitches out of the zone yet he has always had a low batting average and high strikeouts. I think this means that he guesses.......a lot and the results are usually negative. The reason he walks is that he takes a lot of borderline pitches that he can't hit or was fooled by. The pitches he does hit well are most likely mistake pitches. When pitchers groove it to him he hits the ball a ton. When, they don't then he pretty much is an automatic out.

by gp on Apr 26, 2007 12:07 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

production

who cares if he can't judge a ball from a strike. if you have high walk totals and high strikeout totals with good power, you're probably a well above average player in terms of total production

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 26, 2007 12:14 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did you even read

my post or was it just not clear? The guy can't hit strikes and doesn't swing at balls. He is actually quite good at judging balls and strikes. He just gets fooled by pitches IN the strike zone a lot which more than likely means he is guessing. The guy often misses pitches by more than a foot. Oh, and since when as a Texas Ranger has he been productive. He certainly wasn't last night.

by gp on Apr 26, 2007 12:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Low BA

Despite his low BA, Wilkerson gets on base at a good clip. If you can put Wilkerson consistently on base in front of hitters like Young (who gets tons of hits) or Teixeira (who has power), then the Rangers will score more runs. That is the usefulness of Wilkerson. The bad years from both Young and Teixeira make Wilkerson look all the more foolish because he is not coming across home plate.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 26, 2007 12:28 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Adam Dunn

Strike outs over the past 5 seasons:
170, 126, 195, 168, 194.

People who think a guy sucks cause he strikes out a lot (even though he does other things well, like Wilk in '02, '03 and '04) are just plain dumb.

An out is a freaking out, dumb-dumbs. Strikeouts alone prove NOTHING.

You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad!

by thedirkatron on Apr 26, 2007 10:21 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

thats always been my point

an out is an out! it doesn't matter if its a strikeout, groundout, flyout its an out.
taking more pitches increases the chance of a K but also increases chance of a walk or a really good pitch to hit

"Pimps be damned, it's harder out here for a Rangers fan!" "If you don't throw strikes first, you're last."

by rentz on Apr 26, 2007 11:42 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree an out is an out....

in almost all cases. That said....I read a lot from the stat heads about pitchers that have high ball in play numbers being just lucky when they have low era's since eventually some of those will fall in. If that's the case then why wouldn't you want a player to have a high ball in play number instead of a high strikeout total? If it's bad for pitchers to allow balls to be hit at all then you'd think it's good for players to hit the ball.

by bdavison94 on Apr 26, 2007 11:45 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Poorly worded....

you'd think it would be better for players to put the ball in play than K.

by bdavison94 on Apr 26, 2007 11:47 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tejada

Yes, Tejada. Like Miguel Tejada (for all of you who thought I misspelled Robinson's first name). He puts the ball in play about 83% of the time (very high) and most of those are ground balls (few walks and K's). The result, a lot of GIDP. You can see some info on this in the following article:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tht-mailbag-underway/

Yes, this is an extreme example of how a K would be better than a ball in play.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 26, 2007 11:57 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tejada

is Robinson's first name?

by t ball on Apr 26, 2007 9:35 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sigh...

so much for tyring to be witty.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 26, 2007 9:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

tyring?

by t ball on Apr 26, 2007 10:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes

But one of the reasons people tend to accept high k rates from guys like Dunn and Wilkerson is that a lot of the K's can be traced back to a willingness to take close pitches, which leads to a high walk rate.

So, yes, you're right, it's probably better to put a ball in play than to strikeout (cause with a ball in play at least you have a chance ), but a walk is also going to be better than an out (and, yah, there are exceptions to this... but, almost always a walk is better than an out).

You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad! You don't win friends with salad!

by thedirkatron on Apr 26, 2007 12:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

But generally, putting the ball in play comes at the expense of walks.

The players who walk a ton AND never strike out are your Albert Pujols or Ted Williams-type superstars.

Here's an interesting comparison. Here's the top 10 in K's last year, minimum 500 PA:
Adam Dunn - 194
Ryan Howard - 181
Curtis Granderson - 174
Bill Hall - 162
Alfonso Soriano - 160
Jason Bay - 156
Richie Sexson - 154
Grady Sizemore - 153
Jhonny Peralta - 152
Nick Swisher - 152

And the bottom 10, minimum 500 PA:
Nomar Garciaparra - 30
Juan Pierre - 38
Paul Lo Duca - 38
Todd Walker - 38
David Eckstein - 41
Scott Hatteberg - 41
Kenny Lofton - 42
Kenji Johjima - 46
Jose Vidro - 48
Albert Pujols - 50

Which group would you rather have in your lineup?

by a bebop a rebop on Apr 26, 2007 9:47 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

OPS+

2002-119
2003-105
2004-128
2005-104
2006-83

Well Mr. Burns had done it. The power plant had won it. With Roger Clemens clucking all the while.

by WyoRanger on Apr 26, 2007 10:24 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

THANK YOU

hes still a career 108 OPS+

by knockoutking24 on Apr 26, 2007 10:29 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

is there a way to end this thread

really, are we going to learn anything new from this?

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 26, 2007 10:19 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Walks

Walks those years 81, 89, 106, 84, 37.

I'm done, I got all of my Brad Wilkerson agnst out.

by RA Dickey on Apr 26, 2007 10:21 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Out and out

Is an out an out when there is a guy on third base with 1 out?

by RA Dickey on Apr 26, 2007 10:30 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Sure is

especially when the catcher drops the ball and it rolls to the backstop.

The only way to fix Ranger's pitching is to move to the NL, it's not like we have a DH anyways.

by cgolden on Apr 26, 2007 10:32 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

wilkerson

give him a full season.

if he sucks this year i think all his supporters (including me) will be off the bandwagon.

that said, he was hurt last year, and was hurt recently.

by knockoutking24 on Apr 26, 2007 10:35 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Hell

If he's sucking in June, I'll be fine with cutting bait...

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 26, 2007 10:36 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

but dont shoot him now

when hes hurt....

by knockoutking24 on Apr 26, 2007 10:41 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

well

the hurt thing will only get you so far. if he's constantly hurt, then whats the difference between that and sucking?

"I want him focused on figuring out a way to beat that lefty's ass." - RW

by ab03 on Apr 26, 2007 10:48 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yep

As I've said before, he might be doing a Rusty Greer, suddenly falling apart in his late 20s...

And if that's the case, cut bait and move on.

by Adam J. Morris on Apr 26, 2007 10:59 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Can we

just shoot the entire offense?

"Everyone in the world thinks they know everyhing" - DStar

by Mike Simonek on Apr 26, 2007 11:44 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Missing the point

I think that many people are missing the point when evaluating Wilkerson. Namely, people do this in a vacuum. Currently, Wilkerson is better than Laird, Yound, and Cat with respect to AVG, OBP, and SLG. In fact, Wilkerson has the third best SLG on the team (if you discount Kata and his 18 AB's). You can gripe all you want about Wilkerson, but there has not been ANYBODY who has proven that they deserve a chance to start in place of Wilkerson. Now, this could very well change as the season goes on. But for right now, there are no better options on this team.

Furthermore, who will the Rangers use in his place next season? There are no real great FA's available in the corner spots, nor do the Rangers have the postional prospects to use in his place (though this could change).

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 26, 2007 10:59 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs