Durham Bulls Hitters at 40

The rainout gave me some time to update the Durham Bulls hitters tables to the 40 (actually 41) game point.

This table keys to two relatively new stats that we like a lot. The first is Weighted On Base Average (wOBA) and the second is Weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA). Think of them as two measures of overall offensive contribution to the team. The table is sorted by wOBA, the chart is sorted by wRAA. Players with * are on the Rays 40-man roster (I'm assuming that Cole Figueroa has been/will be added)

What’s changed since our last look?

First of all, new guy Curt Casali is at the top, but the sample size is really small, so let’s wait a while. Eddy Rodriguez, who was at the bottom last time, has been released. Cole Figueroa, who just went up to the Rays, moved from second place to first. Kevin Kiermaier’s wRAA improved from 3.0 to 6.1. Jerry Sands slipped slightly off his very hot start from 10.5 to 7.1.

Name	Age	Games	PA	AVG	OPS	wOBA	wRAA
Curt Casali	25	7	28	.318	.854	.403	1.6
*Cole Figueroa	27	33	145	.299	.859	.391	7.3
*Kevin Kiermaier	24	30	131	.322	.855	.387	6.1
Jerry Sands	26	39	158	.274	.857	.385	7.1
Wilson Betemit	32	34	151	.254	.815	.367	4.7
Mikie Mahtook	24	32	142	.297	.788	.363	4.0
Mike Fontenot	34	33	138	.274	.765	.355	3.0
Justin Christian	34	35	161	.261	.762	.351	3.0
Robby Price	26	19	67	.259	.708	.341	0.8
*Vince Belnome	26	34	153	.192	.637	.310	-1.9
*Hak-Ju Lee	23	18	64	.189	.544	.274	-2.5
Ray Olmedo	33	32	132	.224	.547	.265	-6.2
Ali Solis	26	24	90	.200	.495	.229	-6.7

Source: FanGraphs

Another important change over the last 20 games is Vince Belnome’s growth from .237 to .310. Hak-Ju Lee is new to the team and we are going to have to just wait and see how he goes. Ray Olmedo has slipped some, but he (and Ali Solis) remain keys to the defensive strength of the team.

As a help for understand what these numbers mean, take a look at this table adapted from FanGraphs that characterizes wOBA numbers. You can see that almost all the hitters are in the “Above Average” category.

wOBA
Excellent	.400
Great	.370
Above Average	.340
Average	.320
Below Average	.310
Poor	.300
Awful	.290

Lastly, a picture. Can't have a bunch of numbers on WDBB without a picture! In this case it is a simple chart of the wRAAs from the table above. Click on it for a larger view.