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Astros Player Performance Rankings - May 4, 2012

By Timothy De Block
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For an explanation of the methodology for these rankings go to the inaugural post of the Player Performance Rankings.

I'm changing the format a bit and including every player who has been with the Major League team a majority of the year. This means guys like Brian Bixler, Jordan Lyles and Fernando Abad are not on the board because they've spent most of their times in the minors and have very little data at the Major Leagues.

Hitters wOBA
1) Jed Lowrie .410
2) Jose Altuve .405
3) J.D. Martinez .364
4) Travis Buck .356
5) Chris Johnson .353
6) Jordan Schafer .331
7) Brian Bogusevic .319
8) Carlos Lee .269
9) Matt Downs .291
10) Jason Castro .284
11) Justin Maxwell .276
12) Marwin Gonzalez .239
13) Chris Snyder .210

Pitchers FIP
1) Wandy Rodriguez 2.35
2) Rhiner Cruz 2.51
3) Wilton Lopez 2.90
4) Wesley Wright 3.33
5) Brett Myers 3.76
6) J.A. Happ 3.86
7) Brandon Lyon 3.93
8) David Carpenter 4.10
9) Lucas Harrell 4.20
10) Bud Norris 4.35
11) Fernando Rodriguez 4.79

Fielder UZR*DRS
1) Jordan Schafer 3.75
2) Jed Lowrie 2.45
3) Marwin Gonzalez 1.6
4) Travis Buck .7
5) Justin Maxwell .5
6) Jose Altuve -.15
7) Carlos Lee -.2
8) Brian Bogusevic -.7
9) J.D. Martinez -1.25
10) Chris Johnson -1.3
11) Matt Downs -1.7

Thoughts after the jump.

Thoughts

  • Chris Johnson's monster Wednesday vaulted him from the bottom five to top five. Which reiterates the fact that player statistics of any kind still have a ways to go before they stabilize.
  • On the defensive side Johnson is out of the basement as a defender. The man who replaces him, Matt Downs. I'm sure some may want to flaunt this to the CJ opponents, and CJ has looked better in the field, however, the difference between Downs fielding and Johnson's fielding is .4 and insignificant.
  • On a side note, can we get past the CJ "hate," It's not hate it's debate. None of us wish bad things upon Johnson. On the contrary we hope he proves us wrong, however, statistical data and his start to this season have proven to us that he's just not a very good third basemen. Feel free to disagree, but lets avoid the notion that we hate him.
  • Jed Lowrie is heating up grabbing the number one spot this week and knocking, Jose Altuve, J.D. Martinez and Travis Buck down a notch.
  • The biggest worry I have in regards to the offense is that five players and three regulars have a batting average on balls in play (BABIP) over .400. Hopefully some balls start flying out of the park to balance that, but it's still a bit disconcerting.
  • I should probably keep Wesley Wright out of the rankings until he gets more data, but he's been with the Major League team the entire year, despite only having 5.2 innings pitched. Him being in the top 5 makes me want to use a different metric for rating. Both xFIP and SIERA have Wright around a 4.50 pitcher. We'll give it another week and re-evaluate. I have been tempted to just throw out the bullpen and go with something like game score for starters. Thoughts?
  • It's nice to have three reserves in the top 5; it's not nice to have three regulars in the bottom 5. Though I guess someone has to go there. Bogusevic is the obvious disappointment defensively so far, but I guess there's also a case to be made for Jose Altuve who is hovering around average.
  • Anything noteworthy you see?

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