18% of his time on base he runs into an out
I probably made a lot of enemies just in the title here but before you chose to hate me and my blog forever please hear me out. My argument has nothing to do with batting average being an overrated stat, in fact after here I don't mention it again in the rest of the article. The problem with Jose Altuve is that he runs into outs and doesn't work the count. When I say that 18% of his time on base he runs into an out that doesn't include force play fielder's choices this only means caught stealing and outs attempting to advance extra bases. What this means is that even though Altuve's on base percentage is .343 which puts him just out of the top fifty and is one of the stats that makes him appear great. He spoils so many of the times he gets on base that he effectively only has an OBP .281. Even after adjusting every other player by the amount that they get out on base a .281 adjusted OBP still is well out of the top 100 let alone the top 50 it is also well below league average in this category which is .297. |
The other reason why Jose Altuve is overrated is that he is unable to work the count. He has the least pitches per plate appearance of anyone in the majors at just 3.25. He also has had about 4.29 pitches per out he makes so far this season which means that in an average start against Jose Altuve a pitcher would throw about eight innings before reaching 100 pitches and complete games would occur almost every other start. If everyone in the majors where more like Jose Altuve bullpens would have two or three pitchers and the extra roster space would be filled in with pinch runners who didn't get out 18% of the time on base.