Earlier in the Hot Stove season, when everyone thought we might be trying to do things that would make our club better, there was a lot of discussion about whether or not Miguel Tejada needed an adequate platoon to ensure that he got more days off. I've always been a little skeptical of that prognostication, but I wanted to put some numbers to the idea and see what stuck.
You can find out...after the jump.
What follows is a rather unwieldy table, but one that looks at every single Tejada off-game (defined as a game in which Tejada did not start and played no more than one inning) and what his Triple Slash (AVG/OBP/SLG) was for the five games prior to the off-day, the three games prior to the off-day, the three games immediately following the off-day, and the five games immediately following the off-day. This method of analysis was possible for every off-day except for July 6th and July 9th because there were only two games separating the off-days. After the four groupings around off-days, I measured the average change in each of Tejada's Triple Slash categories in both the three day groupings and the five groupings. Finally, Tejada's season average for his Triple Slash stats are compared to his average performance after an off-day, both three and five days groupings.
While there is hopefully a lot to gleaned from all of this, keep in mind that there are only 7 data points for us to look at. Even worse, because of my definition of an off-day, July 6th doesn't count because Tejada played multiple innings of an extra inning affair against the Braves. Thus in the case of the five day groupings, only 5 data points exist and for three day groupings, 6.
| Off Day | 5 Days Before | 3 Days Before (2 days for 7/9) | ||||
| AVG | OBP | SLG | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| May 15, 2008 | 0.400 | 0.435 | 0.400 | 0.385 | 0.357 | 0.385 |
| Jun 6, 2008 | 0.053 | 0.142 | 0.105 | 0.091 | 0.231 | 0.182 |
| Jul 6, 2008 | 0.143 | 0.143 | 0.143 | 0.167 | 0.167 | 0.167 |
| Jul 9, 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 0 | 0.111 | 0 |
| Jul 23, 2008 | 0.286 | 0.286 | 0.333 | 0.077 | 0.077 | 0.077 |
| Aug 8, 2008 | 0.286 | 0.286 | 0.304 | 0.286 | 0.286 | 0.357 |
| Aug 19, 2008 | 0.200 | 0.238 | 0.250 | 0.250 | 0.308 | 0.333 |
| Off Day | 3 Days After (2 days for 7/6) | 5 Days After | ||||
| AVG | OBP | SLG | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
| May 15, 2008 | 0.357 | 0.357 | 0.500 | 0.330 | 0.364 | 0.524 |
| Jun 6, 2008 | 0.182 | 0.308 | 0.455 | 0.300 | 0.364 | 0.75 |
| Jul 6, 2008 | 0 | 0.111 | 0 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Jul 9, 2008 | 0.231 | 0.231 | 0.231 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Jul 23, 2008 | 0.500 | 0.462 | 0.500 | 0.526 | 0.524 | 0.684 |
| Aug 8, 2008 | 0.308 | 0.308 | 0.615 | 0.381 | 0.409 | 0.619 |
| Aug 19, 2008 | 0.462 | 0.462 | 0.538 | 0.318 | 0.318 | 0.409 |
| Average Change | Season Average | Triple Slash After 5 Days | ||||
| 5 Day AVG | 0.126 | AVG | 0.283 | AVG | 0.371 | |
| 5 Day OBP | 0.118 | OBP | 0.315 | OBP | 0.396 | |
| 5 Day SLG | 0.319 | SLG | 0.415 | SLG | 0.597 | |
| Triple Slash After 3 Days | ||||||
| 3 Day AVG | 0.159 | AVG | 0.340 | |||
| 3 Day OBP | 0.126 | OBP | 0.355 | |||
| 3 Day SLG | 0.251 | SLG | 0.473 | |||
None of this is really significant in the statistical meaning of the word, but one thing is for sure, Miguel Tejada was measurably better offensively after an off day—especially in terms of power production. It seems that there is a clear benefit to giving Tejada more rest days than the schedule allows for, perhaps an extra 3-4 a month (maybe more, maybe less depending on which month it is). In that context, it doesn't seem like whoever Tejada's back-up will be will see a significant amount of playing time. So, at least we don't have to be mad about not acquiring a back-up for Tejada now...right?
Thoughts? Comments? Reactions? Any speculation as to why his SLG improves so much more?
This would not have been possible, for me at least, without Baseball Reference's Game Logs. Thank you Baseball Reference.