honest to goodness Moose talk, Tuesday, the afternoon of May the 13th:
The raw data right now:
109 at-bats, 16 hits, 4 HR, 14 RBI, 10 walks, 22 strikeouts
.147/.215/.321, OPS = .536, OWAR = -0.4
Those are horrendous numbers as we all know. What I want to do is look at where we would all be comfortable with his numbers.
Among all qualified 3rd basement in MLB (23 players), Moustakas is #23 in BA, #23 in OBP, #20 in SLG, #23 in OPS, and #21 in WAR.
What if Moustakas had, let's say, 10 more hits at this point in the season. His numbers would look nearly identical to Detroit's Nick Castellanos (26 for 110, .236/.263/.400, 4 HRs, 19 RBI, -0.1 WAR). Those are pretty sad numbers also. How upset is Detroit with Castellanos? I don't know. They're in first place so nobody probably GAF. Would KC fans accept those numbers? Would we have a better record? (-0.4 WAR to -0.1 WAR is not much of a difference)
I guess my point is that Moose has obviously been unbelievably bad so far this season. And the Royals are still 18-19, right in the middle of a bunch of other .500 teams.
Do we have any reason to believe Moose will get better? Let's look at 2013, month by month:
Apr: .195/.276/.299, 1 HR, 5 RBI
May: .171/.229/.316, 3 HR, 7 RBI
June: .274/.307/.357, 1 HR, 3 RBI
July: .267/.337/.493, 4 HR, 9 RBI
Aug: .301/.338/.397, 1 HR, 10 RBI
Sept: .195/.239/.333, 2 HR, 8 RBI
So far his April and May are pretty comparable with last year. His best slugging month was July, coinciding with the Royals coming out of the All Star break on fire.
Questions:
1. how much does Moose sucking hurt the Royals right now?
2. if given the chance, would Moose improve in the middle of the season like he did last year?
3. if he had identical numbers for the rest of the season that he did last year, would that be acceptable?
4. does platooning Valencia and Giavotella get us to at least 12 HRs and 42 RBI (Moose's production last year)?
5. does Moose's defense factor into keeping him up here or not?
6. Moose's ceiling has obviously dropped considerably. what are the minimum numbers you would accept from him for a full season?