Evan Grant ranks the Ranger roster

This is a discussion of player value to the team … contract is certainly relevant in setting expectations.

Look at his comments on Max Ramirez.

1/3 of his season he was phenominal

2/3 of the season so far he has been below average and even worse considering the spot in the lineup he hits in.

Overall his numbers still look good but its not because hes been good lately.

His WPA is -0.41!

My problem is his plate approach hasn’t changed when his superhuman numbers subsided. When pitchers started figuring out after april that he swings hard all the time at pitches up and/or away, he hasn’t taken anything off his swing, worked on taking pitches the other way, or shortened up and put the ball in play with 2 strikes.

Its still aggressive-come-hell-or-high-water and he needs to change his approach when the count, matchup, or game circumstances call for something other than a 400 foot shot. The popups and strikeouts are getting old.

That can’t possibly be it.

I’m doing all this to make you happy! :)

was located to mock many of the arguments presented here. Normally not Adam, who has a way of equivocating things, and who points out stats at times that counter popular perception. It’s a generality, applicable here because IMO any attempt to rank players in accord with their contribution can be jumbled by positional expectation and league average norms, by weighting SLG or OBP or RISP data heavier than other factors, by just about any mix of defensive data, and by isolating events in situational play. I’ve NO quarrel with performance statistics or their use. But if you get down to assimilating things pertinent to an individual players’ relative goodness, I think you have to take anomalies and situational events into account . You know we had an agreeable discussion with differing opinions on ‘most dangerous hitter’. I never got back on that. The turnkey for me was that among Cruz’s 28 walks in 2009, eleven came in situations where the Rangers could tie the game, take a lead, or extend a narrow lead. He was pitched around, and IBB’d (I think) three times of those eleven. Although that sounds like it ties into “the players and coaches voted him in” support, it had a bearing on wins and losses thus far. And doesn’t show up in his cumulative numbers.
Wow I sputtered this out too long.

…that part of it was because I think he got Bucked over by Buck and John Hart after he got hurt.

He won the job in 2004, was playing well, sprained his thumb, came back from the d.l. prematurely because the Rangers were inexplicably in the race and needed a backup catcher, but couldn’t hit because his hand was still jacked up.

And what is his reward? Being sent back to AAA the next year (and being told from the outset he wouldn’t have a chance to make the team, much less win his starting job back, before spring training even started), and then getting to ride the pine the following year, so that Popup could play.

I don’t get it. The old “you don’t lose your job because of an injury” rule that everyone seems to happy with went out the window with him, when him getting hurt meant one of Buck’s Bobos from Arizona could play.

Rod Barajas was flat a better catcher in his entire time with Texas than Laird was in his time here. I think he handled the defensive duties better, and he had a little more pop in his bat than Laird had.

you mean to tell me that chase utley isnt a better 2B than ian? what about aaron hill? hell even ben zobrist! thats why the players didnt vote him in, yes the players…

MY has performed above and beyond what the team needed him to do in 2009.

Ditto for Andrus, Cruz, Feldman, Jones and a handful of others.

Kinsler is playing about where one would expect, maybe even a little less than expected.

That isn’t “value” per say, because obviously Kinsler’s expected value was higher than Jones’s coming in.

It’s fair to say that the best way to arrange a lineup in a sabermetric way is to put your highest OBP guy up first because you really need them getting on base. But how much do you penalize Kinsler for being out of position? Furthermore, do we know if this is what the Rangers want from their leadoff guy? Personally, I don’t think they’ve told him/tried to get him to work on his OBP the way they have some of their other players.

Still, to get to your point, it is not optimal having an OBP that low as the leadoff hitter. So dock him some for that. But then you have to include his defense, which has been great by any way you look at it. The only player who’s close enough to Kinsler’s WAR that you could bump up due to Kinsler’s misplaced lineup spot would be Cruz. So, realistically, I don’t see how he’s any lower than 2.

And then batting order isn’t even that important, so it definitely shouldn’t really matter in any sort of player rankings like this.

It would just seem that the margin for error in starting those guys, is very very slim.