A Look At What Could Be: Platoon

by 12kephartk on Dec 11, 2011 9:45 PM EST

Hello everyone! I obviously am new around here, so allow me to introduce myself. They call me Kep, and I am a huge Pirates fan. I have long been enamored with the team as long as I have understood baseball. I'm a pretty young guy and have not been alive since the Pirates have last been over .500. Needless to say I have absolutely no idea what it feels like to have a winning sports team as my team. This fact alone makes me obsessed with a winning team.

Now in my opinion, I feel that while the Pirates are far from a contender they are only a few pieces short of being a competitive team on a regular basis. The main thing holding back the Pirates is without a doubt the wasteland that is first base.

Having kept up with Neal Huntington's most recent interviews about being "content with the first base situation going in to the season" (I'm paraphrasing of course) the possibility of a platoon featuring Garrett Jones and minor league free-agent Nick Evans.

Personally, if this were to occur I might possibly have a brain aneurysm. However I thought I would take a closer look at the numbers of this possible platoon.

The common idea is that Garrett Jones is a killer against righties but couldn't hit a southpaw if he gave a polar bear a high five. This looks true taking into account his .147/.181/.279 (BA/OBP/SLG just to clarify) against lefties in 2011. A 1:10 K:BB ratio against lefties sure doesn't shade away from the conceptions about him.

Many see him as average or slightly above average against righties? Well it can be argued that he is very good against righties. An OPS of .808 is definitely nothing to scoff at especially when taking into account he had a Babip of .304.

If a real first baseman is obtained he looks to be obsolete however. Many people would like to see him stick around as a bench player, well according to his pinch-hitting stats and in-game-replacement stats he is actually quite horrible in that role.

To look at his (better?) half of the platoon we shift to Nick Evans formerly of the New York Mets. Evans is supposed to be a lefty killer correct? I see that as false. According to this past season's numbers he only had 65 plate appearances against lefties which is hardly enough to take a decent sample from. Even if you were to take these plate appearances as law, he only had a .236/323/.436 slash against lefties. Compared to his numbers against righties he does hit lefties better however he wouldn't even resemble a right handed platoon option.

In the field Jones is somewhat reliable. Having fielded 47 balls at first base this past season and only committing three errors. Which is 6% of balls he fielded resulted in errors by him. Evans on the other hand fielded 97 balls at first base and only committed three errors also resulting in roughly 3% of balls hit to him resulting in errors. So Evans believe it or not would seemingly be a much more reliable fielder.

I hope my thoughts help to give some more insights into what we could possibly be stuck with opening day. My numbers can all be found at baseball-reference.com

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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Comments

polar bears live in the north

Welcome to the blog! Good analysis, but I’d caution against deciding against Jones as a bench guy/4th OFer because of his splits off the bench — the sample size is minuscule (58 plate appearances vs. 1515 as a starter) and even so seems to be driven by a terrible BABIP.

Anyway, I see Jones as decent against righties, Evans as probably a bit above league average against lefties (as Vlad reminds us, we shouldn’t pay too much attention to right-handers platoon splits; he seems to be about league average overall, so probably a bit above on his dominant side). Given that they won’t always be able to get the platoon advantage, this would add up to pretty uninspiring production from 1B, but I’d expect it to be better than the Black Hole of Overbay — maybe 1.5 WAR, maybe 2 or 2.5 if things go well and Evans’s D is legit (or more important, Jones doesn’t hurt us too much in the field and on the basepaths).

(If you take Evans’s career line against LHP, it’s .295/.360/.489 in 197 PA, but that’s driven by .351 BABIP and anyway I think it’s best to look at his overall line.)

Not actually affiliated with whygavs.

by WHYG Zane Smith on Dec 11, 2011 10:09 PM EST reply actions

Defense

I think the importance of a good defensive first baseman is very underrated. Look at how great the Pirates defense looked all last year. I can’t help but think that having Overbay who despite swinging with a bat made of swiss cheese could pick the ball like a champ, and one of the best defensive first baseman in the past decade in Derek Lee manning first didn’t help Cedeno and Walker’s defensive numbers. My main concern would be throwing Jones out there for the majority of the time, his slightly above average offense, seems offset by his below average defense.

by 12kephartk on Dec 11, 2011 10:25 PM EST up reply actions

There's a bit of a split, but then again he was platooned by the Mets

Evans has an MLB slash line of 295/360/489 versus left-handed pitching, which is significantly better than his line from the right: 224/257/338.As you note, his first base defense is quite good. His UZR/150 at first is 12.8.

The other candidate would be Matt Hague, who seems to have a tiny negative split. Hague is also a good fielder, but not quite as good as Evans. Evans is also a more versatile player with a bit more power. Hague seems to be a better hitter. He walks more and strikes out less.

Viva Clemente!

by Roberto on Dec 11, 2011 10:19 PM EST reply actions

Hague

I really couldn’t find a lot on Hague detail-wise, however it doesn’t look like he is really tearing it up in winter ball. Of course it probably doesn’t mean much of anything what he does there, it is nice to see he is continuing to walk a ton.

by 12kephartk on Dec 11, 2011 10:36 PM EST up reply actions

May not be a platoon

I think the job is wide open and can be won by either player with a good ST. In the absence of a better individual option, I think platooning or playing the hot hand is the worst case scenerio (as opposed to one beating the other out or Pittsburgh acquiring a better first baseman). Welcome aboard!

by SuperBaes on Dec 12, 2011 4:51 AM EST reply actions

Kep

Have you ever been to Venice? If that sentence makes sense, I think I know your dad. If not, welcome anyway.

by crusty on Dec 12, 2011 7:47 AM EST reply actions

Evans

I saw a lot of Nick when he played in Binghamton and he does have good tools both in the field and at the plate. He won’t ever be a superstar, but he does have some pop in his bat, especially vs LHPs. He can also play other positions and that adds to his value as well. Is it the perfect situation to have him and Jones platoon at 1B? No, but is it a passable, low cost stop gap measure? Sure. It could be worse, it could be Overbay again. I would say that a 2.5 WAR total out of the two is not out of the question.

by Brakeman8 on Dec 12, 2011 10:45 AM EST reply actions