Felipe Alou's Expos: Just following their manager's example

[nyy26wc]

FELIPE ALOU'S EXPOS: JUST FOLLOWING THEIR MANAGER'S EXAMPLE

In his latest column, ESPN's Rob Neyer presented some stats on the Expos's failures in OBA during the final years of Felipe Alou's tenure as manager. Neyer presented stats going back to 1998, which showed the Expos finishing last in the league in OBA in back to back years. Neyer was actually being generous towards Alou, by not also including 1997, another OBA last place finish. In this article, I'm going to go back 5 years.

Over the last 5 complete years, Alou's Expos .321 OBA ranked dead last in the majors. The .007 gap between the Expos and the 29th rated Dodgers was the 2nd largest gap between 2 consecutive teams on the team, exceeded only by a .007 gap between the 2nd place Yankees and 3rd place Mariners (the Yankees-Mariners gap was slightly larger when calculated out to more digits).

Excluding the 2 newest expansion teams, who were only around for 3 of those years, the Expos ran away with the major league leadership in fewest walks. The Expos's 2521 walks were 256 behind the 27th ranked Pirates. Meanwhile, the 256 walk gap was clearly the largest gap between any 2 consecutive teams on the list, far surpassing the 167 walks that separated the Astros from the Padres, who ranked 6th and 7th.

Teams that have trouble getting on base also have problems scoring runs. Alou's Expos were no exception. The Expos's 4.36 runs/game were the 2nd worst in the majors during this span, ahead of only the Marlins's 4.35. The absolute best the Expos managed was ranking a mere 22nd in the majors, in 1997.

In addition to having a team wide walks problem, the Expos found it difficult to find single players who were exceptions. Their team leader in walks over the past 5 years was Vladimir Guerrero. But, Guerrero's 174 walks merely tied him for 169th place in the majors.

In the past 5 years, with 2 exceptions, every team in the NL had at least 1 player appear in at least 1 season's top 10 NL walk list. One of them was the Diamondbacks. And you guessed it. The other team was the Expos. Meanwhile, only 3 teams didn't have any appear in any top 10 OBA list. Two of them had excuses--the Diamondbacks were only in the league for 3 years and the Brewers didn't have anyone in the NL, but did in the AL. The other team was the Expos.

If there was ever a case of a team following the example set during their manager's playing career, it was Alou's Expos. During Alou's career, he drew a mere 423 walks. But, one could argue that Alou was handicapped by playing in the 1960s, which featured a bigger strike zone than today's game.

Thanks to the sabermetric baseball encyclopedia, we can examine that claim. The encyclopedia gives us the league average figures for each player. Each player's league averages are perfectly tailored to that player, treating each year exactly prorated for that player's amount of plate appearances.

The average player during Alou's career drew 662 walks. This puts Alou 239 walks below average. That ranks as the 59th worst figure in baseball history. Meanwhile, for those who want to just compare a player to the league average at his position, Alou's league average OF drew 663 walks. But, while there is only a 1 walk difference between Alou's OF average and the overall average, by computing the all time chart based on a positional comparison, Alou jumped up to 45th worst.

Both of Felipe's brothers also had good cases of walkaphobia. Jesus was 243 walks worse than his league average, 55th worst, while Matty was 215 worse, the 81st worst figure.

There are 92 players who were at least 200 walks worse than their league averages. The Alous are the only brother sets on the list. But, the Alou nonwalking gene appears to skip generations, as Moises came into the year being 11 walks above average.

Expos fans can only hope their fortunes change with Jeff Torborg at the helm. Let's see if Torborg's playing career could give them any hope.

Torborg was only 27 walks below his league average. But, Torborg also only had 19% as many career plate appearances as Felipe Alou and if we prorate his figure out to Alou's career length, Torborg would be 140 walks below average. On the one hand, that's not good. But, on the other hand, he wouldn't be mistaken for an Alou brother.

-----

Every day, I send out around the majors reports, which feature the day's news, analysis and stats. Every Sunday, during the season, I send out a complete statistical package. Periodically, I write a column, with this being the latest example.

To subscribe, go to http://www.totk.com/subscribe.php

My lists are the around the majors list and the Baseball Immortals discussion list. Both lists receive the same exact material from me, with the only difference being the discussion list also allows list members to get involved in discussions.

For other baseball material, you can subscribe to Sportsbytes, which features TOTK's newest staff member, the talented John Brattain.

[BuzzBuzzard]

Originally posted by nyy26wc

Every day, I send out around the majors reports, which feature the day's news, analysis and stats. [/b]

Ah, yes, I have become a fan of this until the 6/4 piece in which you blasted 'Rey the terrible.'

I don't want to turn this into one of those arguments that you dislike and will ask one question and promise not to respond to your response.

I agree that Rey has a terrible bat. Won't begin to argue that. However, does he not deserve some recognition for what he brings defensively to the Mets? I am simply curious as to what you think of him as a fielder. You made your feeling for him as a hitter very obvious.

[NetShrine]

I think of Rey Ordonez every time I'm at the ballpark - - no matter what park I'm in - - when?

When I hear the vendor yelling "Hot Dog! Get your Hot Dog here!"

Rey-Rey, stay on your feet for once. Now, that would be impressive.

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by BuzzBuzzard

Ah, yes, I have become a fan of this until the 6/4 piece in which you blasted 'Rey the terrible.'

I don't want to turn this into one of those arguments that you dislike and will ask one question and promise not to respond to your response.

I agree that Rey has a terrible bat. Won't begin to argue that. However, does he not deserve some recognition for what he brings defensively to the Mets? I am simply curious as to what you think of him as a fielder. You made your feeling for him as a hitter very obvious.

I don't think much of him as a fielder. His fielding stats are erractic.

Good fielders have much better range factors than their backups. Ordonez has had slightly worse.

His zone ratings tend to fluctuate between poor to slightly above average, with his average being slightly below the league's SS average.

But, when it comes to diving for anything, regardless of the need, he's the best I've ever seen at doing that.

[NetShrine]

Originally posted by nyy26wc
But, when it comes to diving for anything, regardless of the need, he's the best I've ever seen at doing that.

Thaaank Yoooou.
Thought it was just me - - always thought he missed a golden endorsement deal. His picture should be on canned Cuban Hams or something.