Bored at 3AM, so I started messing around with some statistics for the first time all spring.
Did you know Preston Wilson has had 19 at bats and only three times has he made contact resulting in an out? To go with his seven hits (4 for extra bases) and seven strikeouts, Preston has grounded out just once, and flown out twice more. If he didn't have four walks, I might be tempted to say he was all or nothing.
The table below gives you OPS, Secondary Average, Runs Created, and RC27 for the Houston Astros this spring. Given that it's spring it sort of made sense to sort by RC, 'cause of the wide disparity in playing time. I mean it's nice that Alan Zinter led the club in OPS, but he hadn't played all that much, either. The raw RC weights it much nicer as to who's really made a large contribution this spring.
Berkman is down the list a little, but now that Zinter's gone, he does lead the squad in OBP at .481.
Betcha didn't know Eric Munson had been quite that good. I still don't take the possibility that he could make the team very seriously, but the official site is pitching the idea that he could head north as a backup catcher.
Whatever.
Those in the Luke Scott camp might take good news from the table's suggestion that Luke has contributed more this spring than Lance Berkman. He still ain't gonna make the team, but he's had a decent March.
And any supporters of Charlton Jimerson should recognize that while the OPS is higher than Luke's and the SecA suggests some hustle, the 13 K's show that Jimerson has not made any true progress in his game. Speaking of K's, Bruntlett has twelve to go with that fairly brutal OPS you're seeing for him. But those figures for Eric really don't mean all that much, not unless he's carrying numbers like them in May.
If the official site wants to pretend that Eric Munson and Charlton Jimerson (or JR House or Kevin Orie) have a chance to make the team, it does make for inspirational copy, if not anything of great predictive value.
Alright, maybe Quintero had/has a shot to unseat Chavez as backup catcher, and I think we all concur that a healthy Bagwell sends Willy T to Round Rock, but beyond that Spring Training this year is something of a charade. Especially with the position players, the team knew exactly who was going north when it came south.