American League

Dee Gordon and Slugging Percentage Plus

 

For whatever reason, becoming a baseball blogger means you develop irrational emotional investments in certain players, or for certain underappreciated skill sets.  Max had Daniel Hudson, Cy Young candidate-in-waiting whose career has been derailed by two Tommy John surgeries (“I can definitely see some really good Cy Young battles in the National League between Dan Hudson and Clayton Kershaw”).  My irrational affinity landed squarely on the slender shoulders of Dee Gordon.  I made up my own stat to help measure the impacts of Dee’s stolen bases against his more powerful opponents.  Dee didn’t fare too well in that initial Slugging Percentage Plus (SPP) introduction, ranking, uh, last of the players that I pooled.  He didn’t fare too well in subsequent SPP updates either, as his career in the Majors was derailed by injury being bad.  It was a tough three years for Dee.  But, given his play so far this year, the metric conceived in his honor appears finally ready to recognize his abilities.

From my last SPP post, in April of last year:

For a refresher, here’s the formula for Slugging Percentage Plus:

SPP = ((TB + SB + Walks + HBP- CS) / (PA))

The aim of SPP is to create a cross-skill set measurement for offensive production, by accounting for speed while still balancing the value of steals with the damage of the caught stealing.  The dedicated reader will recall that the idea was born out of trying to quantify the greatness of Dee Gordon.  While SPP does not follow Gordon to AAA with the Dodgers organization, it has stayed relevant as a means to level the contributions of mashers like David Ortiz with the all around performance of a Nate McLouth or a Dexter Fowler.  For proof that the stat has some merit, check out the SPP standings from September of last year.

We’ll keep the formula the same, as I’m happy with its simplistic nuances.  I toyed with the idea of introducing subtractors for grounded into double plays and for multiplying caught stealings by 2 to incorporate the concept of losing the base that was occupied as well as the marginal benefit of gaining a base via steal, but that complicates things for the simple reader.  (I’m aware that the last sentence performs much that same function, so let’s get to the leaderboard!)

 Rank Name      SPP
1 Troy Tulowitzki 0.828
2 Giancarlo Stanton 0.728
3 Jose Bautista 0.695
4 Shin-Soo Choo 0.667
5 Albert Pujols 0.667
6 Justin Upton 0.656
7 Charlie Blackmon 0.654
8 Jose Abreu 0.651
9 Adrian Gonzalez 0.643
10 Nelson Cruz 0.638
11 Mike Trout 0.630
12 Andrew McCutchen 0.628
13 Michael Morse 0.623
14 Victor Martinez 0.619
15 Jarrod Saltalamacchia 0.617
16 Carlos Gomez 0.606
17 Justin Morneau 0.606
18 Adam Dunn 0.603
19 Dee Gordon 0.602
20 Adam LaRoche 0.598
21 Anthony Rizzo 0.593
22 Buster Posey 0.592
23 Paul Goldschmidt 0.590
24 Brian Dozier 0.589
25 Melky Cabrera 0.584
26 Jonathan Villar 0.580
27 Rajai Davis 0.579
28 Yasiel Puig 0.578
29 Jacoby Ellsbury 0.576
30 Mike Napoli 0.570
31 Desmond Jennings 0.570
32 Anthony Rendon 0.569
33 David Ortiz 0.569
34 Joey Votto 0.568
35 Chase Utley 0.568
36 Yoenis Cespedes 0.567
37 Todd Frazier 0.566
38 Matt Wieters 0.566
39 Josh Donaldson 0.561
40 Carlos Ruiz 0.560
41 Freddie Freeman 0.557
42 Carlos Gonzalez 0.555
43 Brandon Belt 0.550
44 Colby Rasmus 0.544
45 Austin Jackson 0.543
46 Brandon Crawford 0.542
47 Jayson Werth 0.542
48 Torii Hunter 0.542
49 Brandon Moss 0.542
50 Matt Kemp 0.541
51 Dayan Viciedo 0.537
52 Marlon Byrd 0.536
53 Jay Bruce 0.536
54 Coco Crisp 0.536
55 Nolan Arenado 0.534
56 Danny Espinosa 0.533
57 Matt Joyce 0.533
58 Howie Kendrick 0.527
59 Jhonny Peralta 0.527
60 Miguel Montero 0.525
61 Pedro Alvarez 0.524
62 Hanley Ramirez 0.524
63 Michael Brantley 0.523
64 Alexei Ramirez 0.521
65 James Loney 0.519
66 Juan Uribe 0.519
67 Neil Walker 0.517
68 Carlos Beltran 0.516
69 Angel Pagan 0.515
70 Jason Kipnis 0.513
71 Chris Davis 0.511
72 Prince Fielder 0.510
73 Lucas Duda 0.510
74 Miguel Cabrera 0.508
75 Kyle Seager 0.508
76 Yadier Molina 0.508
77 Jimmy Rollins 0.504
78 Garrett Jones 0.504
79 Yangervis Solarte 0.500
80 Jose Altuve 0.500
81 Trevor Plouffe 0.500
82 Jed Lowrie 0.500
83 Starling Marte 0.500
84 Josmil Pinto 0.500
85 Daniel Murphy 0.496
86 Ryan Howard 0.496
87 Salvador Perez 0.496
88 Alcides Escobar 0.496
89 Aaron Hill 0.490
90 Welington Castillo 0.490
91 Evan Longoria 0.490
92 Hunter Pence 0.490
93 Joe Mauer 0.489
94 Edwin Encarnacion 0.486
95 Alex Rios 0.486
96 Kurt Suzuki 0.485
97 Christian Yelich 0.483
98 Jonathan Lucroy 0.480
99 Matt Holliday 0.479
100 Chris Owings 0.478
101 Emilio Bonifacio 0.477
102 Justin Smoak 0.476
103 Marcell Ozuna 0.474
104 Matt Adams 0.473
105 Ben Zobrist 0.473
106 Nick Markakis 0.471
107 Chris Colabello 0.469
108 Robinson Cano 0.467
109 Mike Zunino 0.464
110 Chris Denorfia 0.462
111 Starlin Castro 0.462
112 Jason Kubel 0.462
113 Jason Castro 0.458
114 Ian Kinsler 0.457
115 David Murphy 0.457
116 Chris Carter 0.457
117 Casey McGehee 0.454
118 Dustin Pedroia 0.453
119 Adam Eaton 0.451
120 Jackie Bradley Jr 0.451
121 Alfonso Soriano 0.450
122 Leonys Martin 0.449
123 Eric Young 0.449
124 Corey Hart 0.447
125 Xander Bogaerts 0.447
126 Ryan Ludwick 0.447
127 Alberto Callaspo 0.446
128 Andrelton Simmons 0.442
129 B.J. Upton 0.442
130 Brett Lawrie 0.441
131 Brett Gardner 0.441
132 Omar Infante 0.440
133 Eric Hosmer 0.440
134 Matt Dominguez 0.439
135 Nick Castellanos 0.439
136 Brian Roberts 0.438
137 Wil Myers 0.438
138 Carlos Santana 0.438
139 Matt Carpenter 0.431
140 Dustin Ackley 0.426
141 Dexter Fowler 0.424
142 Khris Davis 0.424
143 Aramis Ramirez 0.423
144 Jason Heyward 0.423
145 Scooter Gennett 0.420
146 Erick Aybar 0.419
147 Adeiny Hechavarria 0.418
148 DJ LeMahieu 0.414
149 Dioner Navarro 0.413
150 Jonathan Schoop 0.412
151 Marcus Semien 0.411
152 Ian Desmond 0.407
153 Denard Span 0.407
154 Elvis Andrus 0.406
155 Billy Hamilton 0.404
156 Andre Ethier 0.402
157 Gerardo Parra 0.397
158 Asdrubal Cabrera 0.397
159 Nick Swisher 0.396
160 Alex Gordon 0.396
161 Curtis Granderson 0.395
162 Jean Segura 0.395
163 David Wright 0.393
164 Yunel Escobar 0.391
165 Ben Revere 0.390
166 Norichika Aoki 0.388
167 Mike Moustakas 0.387
168 Domonic Brown 0.387
169 Billy Butler 0.386
170 Brandon Phillips 0.385
171 Brian McCann 0.383
172 Adam Jones 0.380
173 Alejandro De Aza 0.376
174 Brad Miller 0.373
175 Allen Craig 0.367
176 Derek Jeter 0.365
177 Everth Cabrera 0.354
178 Abraham Almonte 0.354
179 Chris Johnson 0.350
180 Pablo Sandoval 0.349
181 Martin Prado 0.347
182 Raul Ibanez 0.346
183 Jedd Gyorko 0.336
184 Zack Cozart 0.330
185 Dan Uggla 0.321
186 Will Venable 0.281
187 Nate Schierholtz 0.275
188 Yonder Alonso 0.263

 

If you look closely, you will see that Dee Gordon currently ranks 19th in baseball in SPP.  This is very exciting news for a certain blogger.

I usually use this space to mention a few surprises reflected in the SPP standings, both positively and negatively. We’ll call them the SPP Darlings and the SPP Clowns today.

SPP Darlings:

  • Justin Upton (ranked 6) is surprisingly high.  He’s likely helped by his power numbers (9 HR) and 4 steals, without a CS.
  • Justin Morneau (17) appears to have regained his form after missing so much time with concussion issues.
  • Brian Dozier (24) already has 8 homeruns and 11 steals.  Cuurently, 27.5% of his hits are homeruns.
  • Jonathan Villar (26) and his 5 early season homeruns and 6 steals at shortstop are interesting for the Astros

SPP Clowns:

  • Everth Cabrera (177) is another player in the Dee Gordon mold who one might think would shine more in the SPP light, but Cabrera currently ranks 177 among the 188 qualifiers.  He’s just 5 of 8 on stolen base attempts and one has to wonder about the Biogenesis affect.
  • Will Venable (186) looked poised for a big season after last years 22 homer, 22 steal campaign.  His SPP is currently .281 after it was .551 a year ago. That Venable is performing with the likes of Dan Uggla and not Carlos Gonzalez or Brandon Belt is a big reason for the Padres early season struggles.
  • Eric Hosmer (133) may not steal many bases, but the statistic’s top performer has yet to steal a bag this year.  Hosmer has just 1 HR, but his 13 doubles do rank second in MLB.  Hosmer may never be the masher that was envisioned, but a .296 hitter among the league leaders in doubles will be just fine.  SPP doesn’t have to like him.

Let me know what you think of the stat and of the rankings.  It’s good you’re back, Dee Gordon.

-Sean Morash

Stat of the Day: MLB catchers have 14 steals on the year.  Dee Gordon has 19.

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