American League left fielders are terrible so far

Posted by Andy on May 29, 2011

Reader Eddy E. wrote in with this gem:

Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	BAbip	tOPS+ ▴	sOPS+
as LF	706	2996	2705	308	623	124	19	60	292	228	605	.230	.294	.357	.651	965	.274	83	83
as C	706	2785	2490	262	567	121	5	73	294	237	533	.228	.298	.368	.666	917	.259	87	92
as 3B	706	2868	2556	301	603	142	8	63	334	244	494	.236	.306	.372	.678	950	.267	90	97
as 2B	706	3022	2698	349	668	144	13	52	275	235	473	.248	.312	.368	.681	994	.280	91	98
as SS	706	2938	2629	339	685	117	18	53	271	209	427	.261	.319	.379	.698	997	.291	96	104
as CF	706	3048	2763	390	722	143	30	74	307	223	564	.261	.320	.415	.735	1147	.303	106	100
as DH	688	2969	2619	313	685	145	4	74	342	308	519	.262	.340	.405	.745	1060	.298	110	102
as 1B	706	3017	2660	342	707	153	6	95	363	302	543	.266	.343	.435	.778	1157	.298	118	101
as RF	706	3040	2662	360	711	134	13	95	344	307	507	.267	.347	.434	.782	1156	.295	119	98

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/29/2011.

These are AL batting splits by position so far this year. As you can see, the LF cumulatively have an 83 OPS+ putting them as the worst group relative to league average (excluding pitchers, who have a very small number of PAs this year in the AL and are, of course, pitchers.) In raw numbers, LFers have a .651 OPS relative to a league average of .713. They are down about 25 points in OBP and 35 points in SLG.

Some of the guys to have played at least half their time at LF so far this year and have contributed to the poor performance include Delmon Young, Vernon Wells, Travis Snider, Ryan Raburn, Felix Pie, David Murphy, Carl Crawford, Sam Fuld, and Juan Pierre. These guys all have an OPS+ of 83 or less so far in 2011.

The only full-time AL LF who's crushing it is Alex Gordon, to the tune of a 135 OPS+. Luke Scott and Josh Willingham are also doing well, as the combo of Brett Gardner and Andruw Jones has been decent.

Also, just to emphasize how weird this overall performance is, in 2010 the AL LF position had a tOPS+ of 109. In 2009 it was 104. You have to go all the way back to 1999 to find an AL LF tOPS+ under 100. That year it was 96, and that's only because there was so much offense from all positions that most of the values hovered right around 100. Before that, I went back to the 1970s and didn't find any tOPS+ under 100--back then it was as we think of it--corner outfield was a power position and one of the leaders among OPS every year.

Also, to further show how odd it is, over in the NL, the LFers have a 117 tOPS+ so far this season. Guys raking so far include Matt Holliday, Logan Morrison, Ryan Bruan, Jason Bourgeois, Laynce Nix, Alfonso Soriano, and Chris Heisey. Plus there are a handful of other regular LFers have decent seasons: Mike Morse, Pat Burrell, Jerry Sands, and Jose Tabata. These guys have overcome disappointing starts from Carlos Gonzalez (99 OPS+), Raul Ibanez (90), Carlos Lee (85), Tony Gwynn (45), and others.

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13 Responses to “American League left fielders are terrible so far”

Timmy P Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 11:16 am
Andy what are the "other" positions listed? In the splits for ML I see 8 PA for a position of "other". Just curious, thanks.
Evil Squirrel Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 11:34 am
I believe "other" are pinch hitters who get a second at bat before the inning ends, meaning they don't have a designated position (And you can only pinch hit once). I always found it intriguing that there is no accepted way to classify such at bats (BR uses "Other", Retrosheet uses the generic "H" as the position indicator)
Timmy p Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 11:45 am
@2 Thanks, forgot about the PH hitting more than once.
bluejaysstatsgeek Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
And Corey Patterson's OPS and a LF'er is 0.745, 14% above position average. Given the previous entry, I felt compelled to through that in.
John Q Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Wow! that's kind of shocking. Normally LF should be right up there with DH and 1B. It's very odd that Al teams have had so much trouble with LF this year.

Here's a couple a thoughts on why this number is so low this year:

*Carl Crawford was really struggling this year after signing a huge contract. Crawford's ops+ is at 83 right now his career average is 106 so his number should go up.

*Bret Gardner is essentially a CF playing LF. Gardner should be playing CF and Granderson should be in LF.

*Sam Fuld has been awful for the Rays in LF and to make it worse he's been batting leadoff so he gets more plate appearances. The Rays would probably be better of with Damon in LF.

*Travis Snider was terrible for the Blue Jays this year.

*When Sizemore got hurt Brantley had to go to CF and Austin Kearns was horrible in left for the Indians.

*Ryan Raburn has been terrible for the Tigers

*Juan Pierre has been terrible for the White Sox

*Delmon Young has been brutal for the Twins.

*David Murphy has been terrible for the Rangers

*Milton Bradley's been bad for the Mariners.

*Vernon Wells was awful for the Angels.
Hartvig Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
And this is in addition to 5 historically bad seasons (so far, at least) by first basemen (as discussed in "Loney snaps homerless streak" yesterday) and a few highly visible , sub-par seasons by DH's (Posada, Dunn) plus Albert Pujols very un-Albert Pujols-like season in his contract year and you have the makings of a real offensive downturn.

Now the question is why? Is there some rule or equipment change I'm forgetting? Is this some kind of blow back from steroids? Is this just an era of dominant pitchers?
Bob Hulsey Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Damn! Maybe there is hope for trading Carlos Lee (OPS+ 88) after all. C'mon AL GM's! Just $18.5 million for a .251-hitting LF with 4 HRs. He's hot, too. Batting .313 with a .754 OPS in his last 28 days after being MIA in April. We won't ask for much. Just a AA prospect and some salary relief. Puh-leeeeeease!
Neil L. Says:
May 29th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
@6
".......and you have the makings of a real offensive downturn. "

Hartvig, see my post one thread forward. I am also intrigued by the offensive downturn.

The simple answer is lack of PEDs...... but I think that's too simplistic. Why reduced PEDs affects hitters more than pitchers, I can't tell.
Johnny Twisto Says:
May 30th, 2011 at 12:41 am
Bret Gardner is essentially a CF playing LF. Gardner should be playing CF and Granderson should be in LF.

Granderson is a perfectly cromulent CF. Gardner might well be better, but I doubt there would be much advantage gained. Yankee Stadium has a big left-center to patrol anyway. Plus Granderson is an everyday player, while Gardner will sit against some lefties. They don't want to bounce Granderson between positions based on whether Gardner is in the lineup. I have no problem with the lineup.
John Autin Says:
May 30th, 2011 at 1:29 am
@9, JT -- That reference really embiggened my day! 🙂
Morning News: May 30, 2011 | Crossing Wall Street Says:
May 30th, 2011 at 7:36 am
[...] American League Left Fielders are Terrible So Far [...]
Yanks climb to No. 1 spot in Power Rankings | Sports Says:
June 2nd, 2011 at 2:32 pm
[...] (Three NL players also have that unfortunate ratio.) But Raburn is not alone: AL leftfielders collectively have an OPS+ of 83, the worst mark in more than 40 years.Power-hitting third basemen do not make for prototypical [...]
Yanks climb to No. 1 spot in Power Rankings | Sports Says:
June 3rd, 2011 at 11:31 am
[...] (Three NL players also have that unfortunate ratio.) But Raburn is not alone: AL leftfielders collectively have an OPS+ of 83, the worst mark in more than 40 years. 14 Power-hitting third basemen do not make for [...]

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