BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez takes game to the next level by becoming top run producer

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Friday, July 03, 2009

Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez takes game to the next level by becoming top run producer

Sometimes I think Massive Dynamic invented The RBI Machine…just to screw around with the world..

This season, only Todd Helton (23.16 percent) has knocked in a higher percentage of the runners on base during his plate appearances than Ramirez (22.61 percent).

“Tremendous,” Ramirez said of his work with Tony Perez. “We’ve talked about [hitting] with runners on base, trying to hit the ball up the middle. Every day in batting practice we keep talking about it. He’s helped me a lot.”

Ramirez could not ask for a better resource. A renowned RBI man during his Hall of Fame career, Perez, in every season from 1967-71, ranked among the NL’s top five in percentage of runners driven in, according to Baseball Prospectus.

“That was my job,” Perez said. “That was what the team expected of me and I wanted to do it. Any which way, a ground ball, anything, if I knocked in a run I was satisfied even if I made an out.

“You can’t swing hard all the time. You have to play the small game, get your hits and drive in runs that way. The pitcher and the catcher aren’t always going to give you a pitch to hit home runs. You have to adjust and make the appropriate swing. That’s what [Ramirez] is doing now. ... He has more experience, has matured. He now sees and can realize what he needs to do.”

Repoz Posted: July 03, 2009 at 05:00 AM | 6 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: miami, sabermetrics

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. baudib Posted: July 03, 2009 at 07:05 AM (#3241213)

Obviously Perez was a great RBI guy because he was a solid enough hitter in a great lineup.

Still, this is a perfectly reasonable article, and Perez's advice is sound.

Hanley:
A. Has not hit in the middle of the order very often. Now, hitting leadoff seems just as important as hitting third, but the No. 3 hitter is a prestige spot in baseball, and you are held to be more accountable for your team's failures there, whereas leadoff is sort of a "play within yourself, let the other guys be the hero" role, traditionally.
B. When he has hit in the middle of the order, Hanley has not done well.
C. He has consistently hit very poorly w/RISP prior to this season.

Whether or not this is entirely due to sample size issues and luck, Hanley is still a young player capable of improving. Knowing that he hasn't done well in these spots in the past probably played with his head a little and getting reinforcement from someone with a gazillion lifetime RBIs probably helps.

Whatever adjustment he is making is probably a good thing and Perez deserves some credit. Again, luck and sample size, but he's hitting .472 this season w/RISP, he is making slightly more contact than usual and his ISO is slightly down. Whatever he has sacrificed in power is more than acceptable if you're hitting .472 in a key clutch situation and .348/.413/.572 overall.

It's certainly not a bad thing to focus on making solid contact w/RISP and understanding that you won't always get a pitch to hit out of the park is good. Hanley is good enough he's going to hit homers by accident anyway.

2. Srul Itza At Home Posted: July 03, 2009 at 07:28 AM (#3241217)

Obviously Perez was a great RBI guy because he was a solid enough hitter in a great lineup.

From the article:

Perez, in every season from 1967-71, ranked among the NL’s top five in percentage of runners driven in,

So, in addition to having the opportunities, he took advantage of them pretty good -- but this was actually BEFORE the Big Red Machine of the mid to late 70's.

I wonder whether, if it is a good hitting team you are on, the trick is not just that you are getting RBI opportunities, but you are getting them with less than two outs, so you have more chances to drive in runs with outs.

3. Ron Johnson Posted: July 03, 2009 at 01:04 PM (#3241265)

#2 Perez did hit a fair bit better with men on. Career .294/.342/.487 with runners on (IBBs removed) and .265/.322/.442 with nobody on.

And for the time frame mentioned he drove in about 9% more than you'd expect given his power and opportunity (assuming he had a fairly normal distribution of baserunners -- perhaps not a good assumption). And it's not driven by any big spike. Every year he drove in 5-12 more runs than you'd expect.

Thing is, if this was an ability it's pretty uncommon and expecting Ramirez (or anybody else) to be able to duplicate it makes as much sense as expecting a given player to duplicate Tony Gwynn's skills at making contact with the ball. Or any other extreme ability you could care to name.

4. Darren

Posted: July 03, 2009 at 01:50 PM (#3241279)

I was going to comment on Hanley's odd drop in power when moved into the 3 hole, but apparently he's been picking it up. And holy crow, just look at those numbers: .348 .413 .572. If he's doing that, and hitting great situationally AND has actually improved his defense (UZR says he's average the past 2 years), wow wow wow. Look out Albert, someone's coming for your crown.

5. RollingWave Posted: July 03, 2009 at 02:33 PM (#3241299)

As much as I think RISP is overrated. I think the Yankees need to get someone to coach Cano here. the dude simply DIES with man on.

Career

Bases empty : 321/.354/.509
Men on : .283/.316/.428
RISP : .263/.298/.408

This year's even worse

empty: 347/.380/.541
men on : 259/.294/.427
RISP : 213/.248/.340 <--- WTF

6. FBI Regional Bureau Chief GORDON COLE!!! Posted: July 03, 2009 at 04:02 PM (#3241364)

Hanley:
A. Has not hit in the middle of the order very often. Now, hitting leadoff seems just as important as hitting third, but the No. 3 hitter is a prestige spot in baseball, and you are held to be more accountable for your team's failures there, whereas leadoff is sort of a "play within yourself, let the other guys be the hero" role, traditionally.
B. When he has hit in the middle of the order, Hanley has not done well.
C. He has consistently hit very poorly w/RISP prior to this season.

The Soriano Effect?

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Friday, July 03, 2009

Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramirez takes game to the next level by becoming top run producer

Reader Comments and Retorts

Support BBTF

Bookmarks

Hot Topics