Sunday, January 01, 2006

Comparing 2005 vs. 2006 Position Players

In my previous blog, I compared the starting pitchers from last season with the projected starting pitchers for 2006. In this blog, I will compare the 2005 starting lineup and bench with the 2006 projected starting lineup and bench.

Here is the 2005 starting lineup and bench, along with their stats and my grade of their performance (I'm sorry the formatting isn't better - I don't know how to do nice formatting on this website):

Starters:
Position/Player/AVG/HR/RBI/OBP/My Grade
DH David Dellucci .251 29 65 .367 B-
SS Michael Young .331 24 91 .385 A+
1B Mark Texiera .301 43 144 .379 A+
3B Hank Blalock .263 25 92 .318 B
2B Alfonso Soriano .268 36 104 .309 A-
OF Kevin Mench .264 25 73 .328 B
OF Gary Matthews .255 17 55 .320 B-
OF Richard Hidalgo .221 16 43 .289 C-
C Rod Barajas .254 21 60 .306 B-

Bench:
Position/Player/AVG/HR/RBI/OBP/My Grade
DH Phil Nevin .237 12 55 .287 D
SS Mark DeRosa .243 8 20 .325 B-
1B Adrian Gonzalez .227 6 17 .272 C-
3B Marshall McDougall .167 0 0 .167 D-
OF Laynce Nix .240 6 32 .267 C
C Sandy Alomar .273 0 14 .306 C+

Here is the projected 2006 starting lineup and bench, along with their 2005 stats and my grade of their performance:

Projected Starters:
Position/Player/AVG/HR/RBI/OBP/My Grade
DH David Dellucci .251 29 65 .367 B-
SS Michael Young .331 24 91 .385 A+
1B Mark Texiera .301 43 144 .379 A+
3B Hank Blalock .263 25 92 .318 B
2B Ian Kinsler* .274 23 94 .348 B+
OF Brad Wilkerson .248 11 57 .351 A-
OF Kevin Mench .264 25 73 .328 B
OF Gary Matthews .255 17 55 .320 B-
C Rod Barajas .254 21 60 .306 B-
* Ian Kinsler stats are from AAA

Projected Bench:
Position/Player/AVG/HR/RBI/OBP/My Grade
OF Adam Hyzdu .194 0 4 .286 C+
SS Mark DeRosa .243 8 20 .325 B-
C Gerald Laird .225 1 4 .262 C+
DH Phil Nevin .237 12 55 .287 D

Overall, I think the Rangers have stayed at the same level of hitting but have improved on defense. If you put this with their improved pitching, they are a better team overall.

4 comments:

Ken Pittman said...

Once again, very nice post Grant. I hope you're right with saying the offensive level has remained the same. I'm a little worried that your expectations of Kinsler in a full MLB year are a bit too high, but I hope you're right. I definitely agree that the defense will be improved. Keep it up! GO RANGERS!

Grant Schiller said...

You're right I probably do expect too much from Kinsler.

JBS said...

A friend of mine watched Kinsler closely in spring training last year and he can't wait to see how the kid improves the Rangers defensively. He may struggle a bit at the plate at first but he has a huge upside.

michael said...

Grant, fantastic blog! I'll look forward to following the new Rangers' performances with the help of your site.