Lee's Down Year

[woodchip2153]

A somewhat interesting post from Fangraphs about Derrek Lee's poor BABIP.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/derrek-lees-down-year/

[Tyrant]

This could just be my perception, but it seems like Fangraphs has been posting a lot of articles lately where they point out a few trends and then eventually conclude with "Hmm, this is odd and I don't really know what it means." Some of the writers are better than others, but a lot of recent work has seemed a little half assed.

[jersey cubs fan]

This could just be my perception, but it seems like Fangraphs has been posting a lot of articles lately where they point out a few trends and then eventually conclude with "Hmm, this is odd and I don't really know what it means." Some of the writers are better than others, but a lot of recent work has seemed a little half assed.

 

I didn't think this article said anything.

[Guest]

This could just be my perception, but it seems like Fangraphs has been posting a lot of articles lately where they point out a few trends and then eventually conclude with "Hmm, this is odd and I don't really know what it means." Some of the writers are better than others, but a lot of recent work has seemed a little half assed.

Sometimes it's not good to speculate, especially if the data don't tell you anything you don't already know through observation.

[Guest]

This could just be my perception, but it seems like Fangraphs has been posting a lot of articles lately where they point out a few trends and then eventually conclude with "Hmm, this is odd and I don't really know what it means." Some of the writers are better than others, but a lot of recent work has seemed a little half assed.

 

Some of the blog entries have been like that for most of the season. Like CubinNY said, it's not so bad to investigate a topic of interest and report that there's not a big gotcha point in there. It does get a little frustrating at times though. But if the alternative is nothing or terrible analysis, I'll take the well educated looks that end up having no significant findings.

[Bull]

Does this hint that sabermetrics has hit a peak of usefullness, and that most of what we will glean from it, we already have? conventional wisdom is still a couple decades behind it, but does this hint at a chance that fewer "advancements' will lead to an opportunity for widespread understanding and wider acceptance?

[Guest]

Does this hint that sabermetrics has hit a peak of usefullness, and that most of what we will glean from it, we already have? conventional wisdom is still a couple decades behind it, but does this hint at a chance that fewer "advancements' will lead to an opportunity for widespread understanding and wider acceptance?

 

Far from it, I think it just hints that when looking at portions of a season, given what is currently available, there aren't as many definitive statements to be made. For example, in that article you saw the author wishing hit f/x was available to see if Lee was still hitting the ball as hard as his improved LD% indidcated.

[Tyrant]

Does this hint that sabermetrics has hit a peak of usefullness, and that most of what we will glean from it, we already have? conventional wisdom is still a couple decades behind it, but does this hint at a chance that fewer "advancements' will lead to an opportunity for widespread understanding and wider acceptance?

 

I don't think we've hit the "peak" of its usefulness, but there may be a plateau of some sorts at the moment. I do think we're seeing a lot more noise and new stats coming out that may not be great measures. With that, it's sometimes hard to separate what's good and what's either inaccurate/redundant.

 

But on the flip side, I think there's still a ton left to be discovered. For example (and related to this article), people are tracking LD%, BABIP, HR/FB% and all that, but no one has the full picture right now of how those correlate to one another. Lots of ideas, but plenty left to know.

[BigSlick]

COMPLETELY ANECDOTAL:

 

i was watching a game recently, think it was in the giants series (and this is remarkable because i really have avoided cubs games in the last 2-3 months) and Lee with 2 strikes reached out and and flailed around a breaking ball to strike out. I had never seen him do that. Sure i had seen him be a little tardy on a fastball, or go over the top of a breaking ball, or be in front of a change up before. I had never seen him full out, Soriano-style, flail at a ball down and away that was completely unhittable.

 

I think thats the proper coda on his career.

[jersey cubs fan]

I haven't watched a lot, but it seems to me that his stance is more wide open and for a lack of a better word, sloppy.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I haven't watched a lot, but it seems to me that his stance is more wide open and for a lack of a better word, sloppy.

Not only sloppy but slow. Maybe it's a product of age, or maybe it's because Brandon Phillips didn't call him a bitch, but his swing seems longer and slower this year than I remember.

[Bote McBoteface]

I haven't watched a lot, but it seems to me that his stance is more wide open and for a lack of a better word, sloppy.

Not only sloppy but slow. Maybe it's a product of age, or maybe it's because Brandon Phillips didn't call him a bitch, but his swing seems longer and slower this year than I remember.

 

 

Haha, this post is awesome.

[Old Style]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

[gflore34]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

It has been, its too bad him and Ramirez crapped the bed for 4+ months for, if they'd been anything remotely resembling competent. The Cubs would be right there, they've managed to take 5 of the last 7 from one of then NL' supposed best teams in the Cardinals. As terrible as they've been yet, it could have been so much better.

[questionmarkgrace]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

 

This just seems like typical lee to me. He shows up in the boxscores when it no longer matters. It happened this year and to a degree last year. He played great in 05 when it didn't matter. When it comes to crunch time as in the post season, the guy has zero rbi's with the cubs and 8 total in 100 at bats. Hes just not a legitimate star, team leader, nor a three hitter. Unfortunately year after year we were left to depend on him in this capacity.

[SouthSideRyan]

lol

[davell]

I envision Lee and Ramirez both having solid finishes this year, which is totally useless to us obviously. In fact, all it can do is hurt our draft position and possibly knock us out of the running of a potential future franchise type player.

[SweetZombieJesus]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

 

This just seems like typical lee to me. He shows up in the boxscores when it no longer matters. It happened this year and to a degree last year. He played great in 05 when it didn't matter. When it comes to crunch time as in the post season, the guy has zero rbi's with the cubs and 8 total in 100 at bats. Hes just not a legitimate star, team leader, nor a three hitter. Unfortunately year after year we were left to depend on him in this capacity.

 

If only we had more Jaw jutting, forward leaning, scruff of the beard type winners like Darin Erstad or Scott Brocius.

[questionmarkgrace]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

 

This just seems like typical lee to me. He shows up in the boxscores when it no longer matters. It happened this year and to a degree last year. He played great in 05 when it didn't matter. When it comes to crunch time as in the post season, the guy has zero rbi's with the cubs and 8 total in 100 at bats. Hes just not a legitimate star, team leader, nor a three hitter. Unfortunately year after year we were left to depend on him in this capacity.

 

If only we had more Jaw jutting, forward leaning, scruff of the beard type winners like Darin Erstad or Scott Brocius.

 

Nice sarcasm but this was hardly a post about having more hustle-type "winners." How does that make us better? Its about getting some consistent hitting out of the three hole and having a real run producer in our line up.

[Sammy Sofa]

So he was great in 2005 because it didn't matter? He had an OPS over 1.200 through April. He had an OPS over 1.000 every month through August. Apparently it didn't matter from day one, because he was [expletive] killing it the entire time.

[SouthSideRyan]

So he was great in 2005 because it didn't matter? He had an OPS over 1.200 through April. He had an OPS over 1.000 every month through August. Apparently it didn't matter from day one, because he was [expletive] killing it the entire time.

 

He knew in April that the team was going nowhere.

[17 Seconds]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

 

This just seems like typical lee to me. He shows up in the boxscores when it no longer matters. It happened this year and to a degree last year. He played great in 05 when it didn't matter. When it comes to crunch time as in the post season, the guy has zero rbi's with the cubs and 8 total in 100 at bats. Hes just not a legitimate star, team leader, nor a three hitter. Unfortunately year after year we were left to depend on him in this capacity.

 

If only we had more Jaw jutting, forward leaning, scruff of the beard type winners like Darin Erstad or Scott Brocius.

 

Nice sarcasm but this was hardly a post about having more hustle-type "winners." How does that make us better? Its about getting some consistent hitting out of the three hole and having a real run producer in our line up.

 

jesus

[Guest]

His swing has been OK this weekend.

 

This just seems like typical lee to me. He shows up in the boxscores when it no longer matters. It happened this year and to a degree last year. He played great in 05 when it didn't matter. When it comes to crunch time as in the post season, the guy has zero rbi's with the cubs and 8 total in 100 at bats. Hes just not a legitimate star, team leader, nor a three hitter. Unfortunately year after year we were left to depend on him in this capacity.

 

Lee 2007 OPS: .913

Lee September 2007: .365/.431/.654/1.085

Lee May-July 2009 when the Cubs were 0.5 back entering August: .314/.395/.594/.989

Lee August-September 2009 when the Cubs fell out of the race: .340/.442/.670/1.112

[Tarver]

So he was great in 2005 because it didn't matter? He had an OPS over 1.200 through April. He had an OPS over 1.000 every month through August. Apparently it didn't matter from day one, because he was [expletive] killing it the entire time.

 

He knew in April that the team was going nowhere.

 

Dunn now or wait for Gonzalez?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The guy hit .545 in his last playoff series, for Tebow's sake.