MIsc. Monday - 05-30-2011 - Will Carlos Santana just swing?
Even with a healthy Travis Hafner, there is no reason that Carlos Santana should be batting fourth in the lineup. It wasn't until this past weekend that Tribe manager Manny Acta finally moved Santana out of the clean-up spot and down in the lineup.
Listen, walks are all great and important. But when your four hitter is watching pitches go by when there are runners in scoring position, then you are not much of a clean-up hitter. I understand Santana using his good eye to work deep into counts, but when he watches strikes grooved down the middle of the plate and he shows no interest in swinging his bat, it frustrates the best of die-hard Tribe fans. That is how
an eight or nine hitter approaches at-bats, not your CLEAN-UP hitter! Get aggressive Carlos. Look what happened when you did against the Tigers, when you hit that walk-off home run.
This is a warning. This blog is going to get a little deep with statistics. Continue reading at your own risk of boredom.
Carlos Santana has had 25 plate appearances with runners in scoring position and two outs this year. He is just .211 in those situations.
If you don't count that walk-off grand slam, he has driven in just two runs in those situations. Santana walked in six of those at-bats. Again, when you are the four hitter and you have runners in scoring position, the last thing you should be doing is trying to draw a walk.
Santana's BABiPs (batting average on balls in play) this season is .185. This measures how many batted balls actually result in hits. So is Carlos just having bad luck? Are defenses making great plays on his batted balls? Great question. As a matter of fact, Carlos Santana's LD% (line drive rate percentage) of 10.8 percent answers that question. The more line drives you hit, chances are, you will have more hits. Santana is not hitting a lot of line drives.
Santana's on-base percentage is .324 for the season. This is right at the top of the league average. So while his .200 batting average suggests he is having an awful season, arguments are that his OBP makes up for that. I don't buy that.
To take it a bit further… Let's look at all the players batting fourth for their team.
A few of these guys having been hitting in the fourth spot most of the year, some all season, and a couple teams (Rays and the Padres), I used the player that has been in the fourth spot the most over the past two weeks because these two teams have a different lineup nearly everyday.
Vladimir Guerrero (7,611,455) .303 5 21
Kevin Youkilis (12,250,000) .272 8 34
Alex Rodriquez (32,000,000) .288 9 27
Even Longoria (2,500,000) .209 2 9
Juan Rivera (5,250,000) .242 4 15
Paul Konerko (12,000,000) .287 10 37
Carlos Santana (416,000) .207 6 21
Miguel Cabrera(20,000,000) .310 9 35
Jeff Francour (2,500,000) .278 9 29
Jason Kubel (5,250,000) .309 5 28
Tori Hunter (18,000,000) .245 6 27
Josh Willingham (6,000,000) .238 8 30
Jack Cust (2,500,000) .233 1 16
Michael Young (16,174,975) .339 2 34
Chipper Jones (14,000,000) .259 4 29
Gaby Sanchez (431,000) .314 7 31
Carlos Beltran (19,325,436) .281 8 28
Ryan Howard (20,000,000) .247 11 38
Lance Nix (700,000) .306 6 19
Aramis Ramirez (14,600,000) .283 1 17
Scott Rolen (8,166,667) .263 2 18
Carlos Lee (19,000,000) .246 4 25
Prince Feilder (15,000,000) .280 11 41
Neil Walker (473,000) .266 6 31
Matt Holliday (16,317,744) .349 6 31
Chris Young (5,200,000) .234 9 27
Troy Tulowitzki (5,500,000) .246 11 30
Matt Kemp (7,100,000) .313 12 34
Brad Hawpe (2,000,000) .238 4 13
Buster Posey (575,000) .284 4 21
The average batting average of all clean-up hitters through the end of the day
Sunday, May 29 is .272.
The average home runs of all clean-up hitters through the end of the day
Sunday, May 29 is 6.33.
The average RBIs of all clean-up hitters through the end of the day
Sunday, May 29 is 26.53.
Obviously, Santana's now .212 average still isn't even close to the league average for fourth in the lineup hitters. There are even a few on this list that really bring down the averages. Joe Madden, the skipper of the Rays, has Evan Longoria back in the fourth hole and we all know what he can do now that he is back from injury. Also
Seattle's Jack Cust isn't exactly ripping the cover off the ball either. Those two really bring down that average, along with our boy Santana.
So why did it take Tribe skipper Manny Acta so long to drop Santana from the four hole in the lineup? Not sure really. Usually in baseball, the stats speak the truth and right now, unfortunately for Santana, they are making him and Acta's decision making look pretty suspect.
What I am hoping for, for Carlos' sake, is that this is just another example of a player coming off a major injury. I really think that this has been overlooked this season when talking about Santana's struggles… and surprisingly so.
For his salary, Santana isn't all that bad, although I would rather have Lance
Nix right now. But Carlos is very young and still has a ton of upside. You heard it here first. He will have a monster year next year.
