2007 Offense Vs 2008 Offense
Written by Baqqs on 8:37 PM2007 Starting Lineup
Pos./Player----AVG|OBP||OPS
2B)Biggio--------.251|.285||.666OPS[4SB/2CS]
CF)Burke--------.229|.304||.662OPS[9SB/3CS]
1B)Berkman----.278|.386||.896OPS[.510SLG]
LF)Lee-----------.303|.354||.882OPS [.528SLG]
3B)Ensberg-----.232|.323||.707OPS [.384SLG]
RF)Scott--------.255|.351||.855OPS [.504SLG]
SS)Everett------.232|.281||.599OPS [4SB/2CS]
C)Ausmus-------.235|.318||.642OPS
2008 Starting Lineup (Bill James Projections)
CF)Bourn-------.276|.350||.708OPS [68SB/14CS]
RF)Pence-------.306|.357||.895OPS [.538SLG]
1B)Berkman---.290|.408||.954OPS [.546SLG]
LF)Lee-------------.291|.354||.866OPS [.512SLG]
SS)Tejada------.301|.359||.838OPS [.479SLG]
3B)Wigginton---.269|.332||.786OPS [.454SLG]
2B)Matsui-------.294|.350||.785OPS [25SB/8CS]
C)Towles--------.293|.355||.817OPS [14SB/10CS]
+Bold Indicates and improvement offensively.
Although the 2007 lineup was anything but stable, and many changes where made on a day to day basis, I chose the probable starters going into 2007 to compare to 2008's probable starters. It's pretty clear that this "new" team has a chance to drastically improve a lackluster offense. The other tricky part is that there are several players on the "new" Astros that will have question marks as far as performance. Can Matsui get on base outside of Coors? Will Bourn and Towles live up to the hype. Bill James seems to think so. Granted there are limited at-bats to work with, but if Bourn can get on base and Towles can simply not be an automatic out, then we may have the best offense in the National League.
All these stats looks really good individually, but how will the individual improvements effect the whole team?
Team Chemistry is a term occasionally used to describe how a team gels together both on and off the field. With the removal of Everett and Ausmus, The Astros should have amazing team chemistry offensively. By this I mean each player will effect those around him as well as be effected by the batters surrounding him. A great example is Tejada. He came from a dismal team with a sub par offense. Tejada individually is an outstanding talent and being surrounded with other outstanding talents will only help him. He will get better pitches to see, he will get more at-bats, he won't be held responsible for being the lone run producer, ect.. All these things will then help him relax, find a groove, and focus on himself and not winning the game alone. This is also true of our other sluggers. Two years ago Lance had to be superman for us to get to playoffs, this will not be the case this year. Although his production is still very important we can still win with a less than stellar Lance.
Defensively, a stacked lineup like ours puts extreme pressure on the pitcher. He can no longer pitch "around" our power hitters. Along with that, there is a good chance that we will consistently be threatening to steal bases with one of our 3 speedsters. All this puts pressure on the pitcher and the defense. Along with making defenses perform better than they are, with more runners on base the field looks different to the batter. Matsui as an example, hits a large percentage of his hits to the right side of the infield. If Bourn is able to get on base, that pulls the first baseman closer to first base, as well as set the 2B and SS up for the double play. This means that before Bourn was on base the right side of the infield was covered, now there is a very large hole in that same spot. All these things added up will do two things:
1)Get you to the oppositions bullpen faster, and 2)Score more runs for your own team.
0 comments: Responses to “ 2007 Offense Vs 2008 Offense ”