Chris Colabello is batting .330, Smoak is batting .215

[NaturalGrass]

With that average, if Colabello had an extra 115 plate appearances he'd be second in the American League in batting average. How is this guy platooning with Smoak? He looks like a real pro at the plate and deserves to play full time. I don't care how great Smoak is in the field, if you're constantly whiffing at the plate it doesn't matter how many balls you dig out of the dirt.

[Krylian]

Batting Average FTW!!!

[bendera3]

Both generally split in opposite directions. A platoon is what would make them both better.

[AdamGreenwood]

Apparently, Smoak is marginally better at first base defense. And also, he has a higher walk rate, which explains that awesome .287 OBP, whereas Colabello doesn't walk as much which is why he has that awful .372 OBP.

[Trekkie]

Normalize BABIP for Smoak and Colabello per career...

 

Smoak should be batting .230-.240

Colabello should be batting .260-.270

[saskjayfan]

Normalize BABIP for Smoak and Colabello per career...

 

Smoak should be batting .230-.240

Colabello should be batting .260-.270

 

and exactly how did you come up with .260- 270 for colabello?

[Trekkie]

and exactly how did you come up with .260- 270 for colabello?

 

AVG - (current BABIP - career BABIP) = .264

 

It's a rough way to do it, obviously his career BABIP is too high still, but it beats arbitrary conjecture.

[Dr. Dinger]

Meh, Colabello has 0.7 WAR with a .370 wOBA. His defense really is extremely terrible, not that Smoak is an all-star.

[flafson]

Meh, Colabello has 0.7 WAR with a .370 wOBA. His defense really is extremely terrible, not that Smoak is an all-star.

 

His defense in the outfield is extremely terrible. If you just look at 1B then Smoak is still better defensively but it's not a huge gap anymore.

Batting wise, Colabello has wRC+ of 146 compared with 96 of Smoak.

Value wise, Colabello has 0.7 WAR at 304 PA compared with 0.1 WAR at 258 PA.

 

I guess they want to keep them both and make sure they are fresh.

[intentional wok]

I'm more than fine with a platoon + Smoak coming in for defence later in games.

 

Gotta say that watching Smoak hit can be absolute agony sometimes. I like his defence but I overall don't like him as much as some others seem to. But to be fair, Smoak's numbers have been a slow crawl down. Not sure how hot some are still on him or if I'm just remembering arguments from mid-season.

[Angrioter]

With that average, if Colabello had an extra 115 plate appearances he'd be second in the American League in batting average. How is this guy platooning with Smoak? He looks like a real pro at the plate and deserves to play full time. I don't care how great Smoak is in the field, if you're constantly whiffing at the plate it doesn't matter how many balls you dig out of the dirt.

 

Not everything that shines is gold. Portabello is s*** at D

http://www7.pic-upload.de/25.02.14/9wth27esyajc.gif

[burlingtonbandit]

Justin Smoak's problem is he can't hit a breaking ball to save his life. If you look at his Pitch value he's great at hitting the changeup (5.1) decent at the fastball (1.8) but awful against the slider (-4.1) and curveball (-3.1)

[Trekkie]

Meh, Colabello has 0.7 WAR with a .370 wOBA. His defense really is extremely terrible, not that Smoak is an all-star.

 

It's a pretty poor analysis to use his WAR against him which took a huge hit because of his time in LF (since he's no longer playing LF). He looks perfectly adequate at first base, arguably at par with Smoak.

[Sorrow]

It's a pretty poor analysis to use his WAR against him which took a huge hit because of his time in LF (since he's no longer playing LF). He looks perfectly adequate at first base, arguably at par with Smoak.

 

-4 DRS in 181 innings at 1B, -9 in LF in 256. So he's terrible at both.

 

 

As an edit his UZR is also not good at 1B.

[Trekkie]

-4 DRS in 181 innings at 1B, -9 in LF in 256. So he's terrible at both.

 

 

As an edit his UZR is also not good at 1B.

 

You can't use defensive stats over such small samples, it's fundamentally stupid. Over their careers I guess Smoak is marginally better.

[Followthelight]

You can't use defensive stats over such small samples, it's fundamentally stupid. Over their careers I guess Smoak is marginally better.

 

Marginally? Lol. Cola D is terrible he should never see the field. Smoak is great at picking the ball at first.

[Followthelight]

I'm more than fine with a platoon + Smoak coming in for defence later in games.

 

Gotta say that watching Smoak hit can be absolute agony sometimes. I like his defence but I overall don't like him as much as some others seem to. But to be fair, Smoak's numbers have been a slow crawl down. Not sure how hot some are still on him or if I'm just remembering arguments from mid-season.

 

I would be ok with that. Smoak is hard to watch at the plate, swinging and missing on breaking balls.

[saskjayfan]

AVG - (current BABIP - career BABIP) = .264

 

It's a rough way to do it, obviously his career BABIP is too high still, but it beats arbitrary conjecture.

 

so what your saying is you don't have a meaningful enough sample size to come to any conclusions.

[BigCecil]

I'm more than fine with a platoon + Smoak coming in for defence later in games.

 

Gotta say that watching Smoak hit can be absolute agony sometimes. I like his defence but I overall don't like him as much as some others seem to. But to be fair, Smoak's numbers have been a slow crawl down. Not sure how hot some are still on him or if I'm just remembering arguments from mid-season.

 

That works. I was higher on Smoak earlier in season because I thought his D was a very stabilizing force on the IF. But his numbers are on steady decline. He is a deep threat but just misses too many pitches.

 

I hate Cola's D at 1B but he has been getting by lately. He just keeps hitting. Luck and a great approach.

[Trekkie]

so what your saying is you don't have a meaningful enough sample size to come to any conclusions.

 

Not really. Cola is close to that stabilization point for BABIP, so the data is actually pretty meaningful.

[burlingtonbandit]

That works. I was higher on Smoak earlier in season because I thought his D was a very stabilizing force on the IF. But his numbers are on steady decline. He is a deep threat but just misses too many pitches.

 

I hate Cola's D at 1B but he has been getting by lately. He just keeps hitting. Luck and a great approach.

 

Funny thing is Colla actually whiffs a lot more than Smoak. Colla seems to have a much better 2 strike approach. Could just be confirmation bias but I feel like Cola swing and misses a ton early in the count when he's trying to hit HR and then when he gets to 2 strikes he shortens up his swing.

[BigCecil]

Funny thing is Colla actually whiffs a lot more than Smoak. Colla seems to have a much better 2 strike approach. Could just be confirmation bias but I feel like Cola swing and misses a ton early in the count when he's trying to hit HR and then when he gets to 2 strikes he shortens up his swing.

 

That's what I meant about his approach. He has this old school "shorten up" approach with 2 strikes and he uses the whole field with it. He is also BABIP lucky 2015 imo.

 

75Ks in 300 PAs for Cola.

Edited September 6, 2015 by BigCecil

[Boxcar]

You can't use defensive stats over such small samples, it's fundamentally stupid. Over their careers I guess Smoak is marginally better.

 

LTR is fundamentally stupid.

[Boxcar]

Not really. Cola is close to that stabilization point for BABIP, so the data is actually pretty meaningful.

 

Please don't pay attention to this clown, he has no idea what he's talking about.

[crederer]

I like cola better. His defence at first is fine. I think they keep smaok around for defence and he has good power. It seems every hit he gets is a HR. Someone along the line obviously values that.

 

Edit: Holy s*** I didn't realize cola had as many HR's as he does.