Root for This Team (AL)

Table of Contents
Here’s a clickable Table of Contents that completes the study that I introduced on Monday and of which I did the National League version yesterday.

1. American League Team Scores
2. AL Hitter Scores
3. AL Pitcher Scores
4. Conclusions and a Suggestion

Again, as ever, all charts herein are sortable by category.

 
American League Team Scores
The categories for the team scores were explained in yesterday’s post, so check there if you’ve forgotten how this works.

I did forget to mention that the “Market” numbers refer to a teams position within the entire league, not just the teams considered in this “study” — but that might have been obvious.

Team	PSA	WSA	DT	PSV	W%	Market	H-Score	P-Score	Score
Baltimore Orioles	1997	1983	1997	0	0.430	24	36	26.5	54
Oakland Athletics	2006	1990	2006	1	0.526	29	36.5	32	51
Tampa Bay Rays	2011	2008	2010	2	0.464	28	33	33.5	41
Chicago White Sox	2008	2005	2008	3	0.522	10	27	38	38.5
Detroit Tigers	2011	2006	2011	3	0.463	12	26	30.5	31
LA Angels of A	2009	2002	2009	7	0.561	5	49	24	30.5
Texas Rangers	2011	2011	2011	4	0.505	8	27.5	44	26
New York Yankees	2011	2009	2011	7	0.602	1	29	30.5	16

The Orioles place at the top of this chart shouldn’t surprise anyone. Despite the fact they have just the third “sweetest” hitter and a negligible pitcher entry, they come out “ahead” based on the fact that they’ve had one of the worst winning percentages of any team in the league, not just the remaining postseason contenders that I looked at for this “study.” They haven’t been to the World Series since 1983, and they certainly haven’t won a playoff series in the last decade. Plus, no argument about it, they have the awesomest cap in MLB.

Since I posted the intro to this series on Monday, many people whose teams are “out of it” have commented that they are adopting the Oakland A’s as their team. I myself am torn between the O’s and the A’s. It was less than ten years ago than Billy Beane put together an 100-win team, and they have a decent regular season record despite a lack of playoff success. Their second-place finish here is bolstered by the fact that the have the second-worst media market of any team in the Majors, and that they have exciting, young players as the base of this surprise contender. Oh, and they themselves have a sweet visual aesthetic.

Was the author biased?

 
American League Hitter Scores
Again, the categories in for the hitters scores were disclaimed in yesterday’s post.

Player	Team	Age	POS	PA	P/PA	ISO	Clutch	LD%	tSpd	Misc.	Score
Mike Trout	LAA	20	CF/LF	428	4.10	0.250	-0.71	25.1%	12.8	3	49
Yoenis Cespedes	OAK	26	CF/LF	332	3.60	0.203	0.84	22.9%	5.7	2	36.5
Adam Jones	BAL	26	CF	491	3.62	0.232	0.55	19.0%	6.5	0	36
Evan Longoria	TBR	26	3B/DH	123	4.05	0.190	0.05	24.7%	3.1	0	33
Derek Jeter	NYY	38	SS	521	3.68	0.105	-0.35	21.1%	5.3	1	29
Josh Hamilton	TEX	31	CF/LF	460	3.60	0.294	-0.9	20.5%	6.3	0	27.5
Adam Dunn	CHW	32	1B/DH	491	4.44	0.280	-0.92	24.5%	-0.2	1	27
Prince Fielder	DET	28	1B	499	3.73	0.201	-0.07	23.0%	-0.9	2	26

Surprise! Mike Trout leads this group. Who would have guessed?! Yoenis “The Human” Cespedes and Adam Jones follow him, just a couple of more reasons to be excited about the A’s and O’s. The hype that surrounded Cespedes’s entry into the U.S. and MLB, and the fact that he’s lived up to that hype (posting a .373 wOBA so far) gain him some major “Misc.” points here, which helped him to catapult past Adam Jones. Cespedes would have been third even without those points.

I liked Jeter as a bounceback guy (currently posting his highest wOBA since 2007). In terms of face-of-the-franchise players, he can’t be beat, and I actually gave him credit for his age in stead of penalizing him. Those things got him to the middle of the board.

Prince Fielder signed a huge contract (which is why I chose him over Miguel Cabrera), and is having an excellent season, but his lack of speed, lack of pitches taken, and lack of defensive value hurt him here — not to mention his relatively low ISO.

 
American League Pitcher Scores
The categories, etc., explained here.

Name	Team	Age	POS	TBF	P/PA	FPv	SwStr%	K%	Clutch	Misc.	Score
Yu Darvish	TEX	25	SP	628	3.86	92.7	10.8%	25.8%	0.41	3	44
Chris Sale	CHW	23	SP	543	3.86	92	10.4%	24.3%	0.43	1	38
David Price	TBR	26	SP	614	4.07	95.6	8.4%	24.6%	0.36	0	33.5
Jarrod Parker	OAK	23	SP	485	3.81	92.2	9.8%	19.0%	-0.19	1	32
CC Sabathia	NYY	31	SP	596	3.62	92.4	11.4%	23.5%	-0.45	0	30.5
Justin Verlander	DET	29	SP	691	3.96	94.4	11.2%	25.2%	-0.9	0	30.5
Chris Tillman	BAL	24	SP	168	4.13	95	8.2%	17.9%	0.22	0	26.5
Zack Greinke	LAA	28	SP	588	3.89	93	7.9%	23.3%	-0.61	2	24

It would have been easy to go with Wei-Yin Chen here for the O’s, as he’s been consistent and has the bland glamor of being an international signee, but to me Tillman is more interesting. Acquired in the same deal that brought Adam Jones to to Baltimore, it’s taken him a bit longer than Mr. Jones to develop. This year, he got his control under control at the AAA level while also posting an excellent walk rate, and since a July 4th season debut in the Majors, has been respectable with flashes of…something more.

Zack Greinke was an easy choice to represent the Angels, as he was one of the biggest mid-season acquisitions by a contending club. Surprisingly, he finishes very lowly, here.

Yu Darvish’s lead over Chris Sale at the top of this chart is bolstered by his “Misc.” total, but even if you take away that bonus, Yu still wins handily on the strength of his K%, SwStr%, and solid Clutch score. That was not enough to boost the Rangers in the overall standings, however.

 
Conclusions and a Suggestion
At the beginning of the season, virtually no one would have thought that both the A’s and the Orioles could make the playoffs, let alone one of them. There’s really no reason to root for any of the other teams, in my opinion, and according to this very objective “study” that I just did. Unless, of course, you are a fan of one of those teams to begin with. Then it’s okay.