Outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier received honors Thursday as the best hitters at their positions, the first year since 1995 (Mike Piazza and Eric Karros) that the Dodgers had a pair of winners and the first time they've had two outfielders selected in the same season. It was the first such honor for each player.I'll give my full thoughts later, but my first impression is that Kemp is a well deserving recepient and Ethier was bested by a few other right fielders.
Update-Matt Kemp's .367 wOBA, 101.1 wRC, and .842 OPS led all qualified center fielders, so there is nothing to really argue in his case.
Unfortunately, Andre Ethier's case in right field is considerably more questionable. His wOBA of .370 was fourth behind Justin Upton (.388), Brad Hawpe (.384), and Jayson Werth (.382). Furthermore, Hawpe led all right fielders with a .903 OPS, while Upton (.899), Werth (.879) and Ethier (.869) followed in tow. Due to playing time issues though, Ethier's wRC (105.3) was actually second place to Werth (110.7), while Upton (99.2) and Hawpe (97.6) trailed behind.
The eventual order I settled on in right field was Werth, Upton, Ethier, and Hawpe. Werth is a clear winner to me, and Upton follows behind because his playing time issues were injury related. By contrast, Hawpe commonly sat in the second half for performance related reasoning. Also, despite his ranking of last in this grouping of four, Ethier does get bonus points from me for staying healthy, so i'll give him third place, but even if you're a total homer, second place is the highest you could reasonably go.
12 Comments:
I think the game winning hits, the extra base hits and runs also helped. Ethier was so huge...too bad he fizzed in the playoffs.
Huh? Ethier was one of the only Dodgers that actually did hit in the playoffs.
Ethier's "fizzle" in the playoffs: .355/.429/.806, 7 XBH in 8 games.
kensai/Eric Stephen- Those are just numbers, it's about what's in your heart!
The Silver Slugger isn't a sabermetric award. I think it probably should have gone to Werth too, though not by a big margin. The walk off hits had a huge bearing on the voting. Plus, it is time a team in the West gets a little love.
I do think that the late inning heroics won him a lot of votes. Add that to the fact that he wasn't in as good of a lineup as Werth and the fact that Werth plays in a joke of a park. Upton probably got dinged because his team under-performed and wasn't playing meaningful games down the stretch. I like Werth and think he could have won the award, but the lines were not all that different for a guy that plays in a sandlot park versus a stadium that is much harder to hit one out at.
Stig - Another good point. Ethier probably hits 40 in Philly. Great park for lefties, much weaker divisional pitching, etc.
Upton, Werth and Hawpe got to be all stars so it all balances out.
Originally I was surprised that Dre got it as well. I thought Werth should have, then I did some research.
Andre totally warrants it IMO.
"These voters consider several offensive categories in selecting the winners, including batting average, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage, in addition to 'coaches' and managers' general impressions of a player's overall offensive value"
Justin Upton being hurt, hurt his chances. But he'll have this award on lock down very soon.
Ethier had a higher SLG%, AVG, more hits, more doubles, more rbi, only 5 less HR(while not in that little league park). The walk-offs definitely helped his case and he sure as hell meant more to this team than Werth to the Phils.
So yeah, I think it's OK to be a homer here lol. Ethier earned it and so did Kemp as you pointed out Chad.
I meant to say:
"Ethier had a higher SLG%, AVG, more hits, more doubles, more rbi, only 5 less HR(while not in that little league park) than Werth.
Kensai, was that done before or after park factors? Dodgers stadium played as an pretty big pitching park this season, and I'm guessing that voters gave Ethier an unconscious boost for that, while Werth, Hawpe, and Upton all play in offensive parks.
Alireza-Nothing is a sabermetric award, but they should be based on it.
Stig-It's park adjusted.
Alireza-See above.
JuanLove-I don't think what the voters consider make it justified though. I mean you know how dumb they can be.
Tripon-For the wOBA with park factors, you can look at the hitting runs. The rest is after park factors.
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