McCarroll21
11-12-2007, 03:03 AM
Will Diaz Receive His Shot In 2008?
By: Josh McCarroll (http://www.braves-nation.com/forums/member.php?u=1) | Braves-Nation.com
When posed with the question of "should Matt Diaz be given an opportunity to have an every day job in left field," the automatic answer has become, "yes." However, to be fair, I'm going to dig deeper into this in an attempt to prove why I believe that is the case.
Two things that are factored into questioning if a player is an every day player or a part time player are:
Can he hit equally well against right handed and left handed pitching?
Will he hold up to receiving a heightened workload (more at bats)?
The first part of that can be answered rather quickly through the player's batting splits. As I was looking up Diaz's splits, one thing that jumped out at me is the amount of plate appearances he has versus right handed pitching in his career. The perception that many have about Diaz is that he mashes left handed pitching, but over his career, Diaz has accumulated just 50 less plate appearances versus right handed pitching as he has against left handed pitching.
I don't believe in looking at just one season to determine splits, so I will look at the splits over his entire career to provide a larger sample size.vs. RHP - 396 PA - .310/.349/.416 - .765
vs. LHP - 442 PA - .330/.364/.525 - .889It's clear that Diaz has more power versus left handed pitching, but at the same time his career splits prove that his bat will not hurt you against right handed pitching either.
The second question is a little more subjective. One has to wonder if a player would break down with added plate appearances, but it's hard to do that when there is not a season of a full 500 plate appearances to go by in his career.
One thing we can look at to determine such is the difference in his first and second half splits. Will his second half take a hit? Will it prove to be the same? Over Diaz's career, his first and second half splits are very similar.First half - 416 PA - .327/.354/.452 - .806
Second half - 422 PA - .314/.360/.494 - .854Based on his career splits, his batting average takes a hit, albeit a very minor one, but his on-base percentage and slugging percentage have both risen over the second half of the season.
Another way to look at how he progresses throughout the season is to take his total plate appearances and compare them in sections to other time periods in the year. By this, I mean to divide his plate appearances into four and compare his first 'x' amount of plate appearances to the other sets througout the season. This should tell us if additional plate appearances will effect him, or if it would be better served to continue splitting his playing time with another outfielder.
Note: For this, I'm not going to get technical and search for an even split by taking, but I will find the most consistent split through games. Some sections may get an additional plate appearance or two, but I'm not going to search within games to find a cut off.
Diaz received 384 total plate appearances in 2007. For this, I'm going to look at a breakdown based on 96 plate appearances.96 plate appearances (April 2-May 20) - .352/.375/.484 - .859 OPS
95 plate appearances (May 23-July 3) - .349/.372/.453 - .825 OPS
98 plate appearances (July 4-August 21) - .341/.378/.582 - .960 OPS
95 plate appearances (August 22-September 30) - .311/.347/.467 - .814 OPSAs you can see, Diaz numbers were, in large part, very steady throughout the season. His batting average slipped throughout the year, but his isoOBP (OBP-AVG) and isoSLG (SLG-AVG) were very steady. This means that his hits may not have fallen in, but when they did they generally had the same effect.
In order to qualify for a batting title, Diaz would need 502 plate appearances. The most he has had in a given season is 384, which came in 2007. Would Diaz hit a wall and struggle after hitting the 400 plate appearance plateau? It's a question one would have to ponder, but one that will also not receive an answer until we are given a chance to find out.
All in all, Diaz has done everything he needs to do to earn the chance at receiving an every day job. In baseball today, players are often handed jobs they haven't earned as part of the economics in baseball. In Diaz, the Braves have a player that has earned his stripes, so to speak. Will the work he's put in to earn those stripes finally pay off in 2008?
If the alternative is another platoon that sees him sitting in favor of a player the caliber of Ryan Langerhans or Willie Harris, one can only hope it does. One can only hope...
By: Josh McCarroll (http://www.braves-nation.com/forums/member.php?u=1) | Braves-Nation.com
When posed with the question of "should Matt Diaz be given an opportunity to have an every day job in left field," the automatic answer has become, "yes." However, to be fair, I'm going to dig deeper into this in an attempt to prove why I believe that is the case.
Two things that are factored into questioning if a player is an every day player or a part time player are:
Can he hit equally well against right handed and left handed pitching?
Will he hold up to receiving a heightened workload (more at bats)?
The first part of that can be answered rather quickly through the player's batting splits. As I was looking up Diaz's splits, one thing that jumped out at me is the amount of plate appearances he has versus right handed pitching in his career. The perception that many have about Diaz is that he mashes left handed pitching, but over his career, Diaz has accumulated just 50 less plate appearances versus right handed pitching as he has against left handed pitching.
I don't believe in looking at just one season to determine splits, so I will look at the splits over his entire career to provide a larger sample size.vs. RHP - 396 PA - .310/.349/.416 - .765
vs. LHP - 442 PA - .330/.364/.525 - .889It's clear that Diaz has more power versus left handed pitching, but at the same time his career splits prove that his bat will not hurt you against right handed pitching either.
The second question is a little more subjective. One has to wonder if a player would break down with added plate appearances, but it's hard to do that when there is not a season of a full 500 plate appearances to go by in his career.
One thing we can look at to determine such is the difference in his first and second half splits. Will his second half take a hit? Will it prove to be the same? Over Diaz's career, his first and second half splits are very similar.First half - 416 PA - .327/.354/.452 - .806
Second half - 422 PA - .314/.360/.494 - .854Based on his career splits, his batting average takes a hit, albeit a very minor one, but his on-base percentage and slugging percentage have both risen over the second half of the season.
Another way to look at how he progresses throughout the season is to take his total plate appearances and compare them in sections to other time periods in the year. By this, I mean to divide his plate appearances into four and compare his first 'x' amount of plate appearances to the other sets througout the season. This should tell us if additional plate appearances will effect him, or if it would be better served to continue splitting his playing time with another outfielder.
Note: For this, I'm not going to get technical and search for an even split by taking, but I will find the most consistent split through games. Some sections may get an additional plate appearance or two, but I'm not going to search within games to find a cut off.
Diaz received 384 total plate appearances in 2007. For this, I'm going to look at a breakdown based on 96 plate appearances.96 plate appearances (April 2-May 20) - .352/.375/.484 - .859 OPS
95 plate appearances (May 23-July 3) - .349/.372/.453 - .825 OPS
98 plate appearances (July 4-August 21) - .341/.378/.582 - .960 OPS
95 plate appearances (August 22-September 30) - .311/.347/.467 - .814 OPSAs you can see, Diaz numbers were, in large part, very steady throughout the season. His batting average slipped throughout the year, but his isoOBP (OBP-AVG) and isoSLG (SLG-AVG) were very steady. This means that his hits may not have fallen in, but when they did they generally had the same effect.
In order to qualify for a batting title, Diaz would need 502 plate appearances. The most he has had in a given season is 384, which came in 2007. Would Diaz hit a wall and struggle after hitting the 400 plate appearance plateau? It's a question one would have to ponder, but one that will also not receive an answer until we are given a chance to find out.
All in all, Diaz has done everything he needs to do to earn the chance at receiving an every day job. In baseball today, players are often handed jobs they haven't earned as part of the economics in baseball. In Diaz, the Braves have a player that has earned his stripes, so to speak. Will the work he's put in to earn those stripes finally pay off in 2008?
If the alternative is another platoon that sees him sitting in favor of a player the caliber of Ryan Langerhans or Willie Harris, one can only hope it does. One can only hope...