Richie Sexson

[Bulltalk]

Sexson is like a lesser version of Dave Kingman.

[TheUrbanZealot]

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If you want to talk about bringing Clement up to replace someone who isn't pulling his weight in the lineup, I suggest you look to Clement's current position. I know it's early in the season, but Johjima's .118/.211/.147 is a level of suckitude beyond anything Sexson has ever done. Why isn't there a thread knocking him?

Lol @ this nonsense. We could have used the same reactive example w/ Ichiro during spring training. The difference is that Johjima has been fairly consistent over the course of his Mariners run, you know he is going to give you 270-290. Sexson? He has been deplorable the last couple of years. Do you have faith that Sexson, all of a sudden, is going to break out of a 2+ year slump and hit .275 the rest of the way? Give me a break...

Sexson is just taking up unnecessary space. I don't give a flying f--- if he hits an occassional homer or two. The reality is the guy is a strikeout machine and is by far the most unreliable hitter on our roster.

This Sexson defending that some of you guys do is really really perplexing. You can't compare other people's struggles on the team to Sexson's because Sexson's CLEARLY has separated himself as our biggest deterrent.

Realize if Sexson were serving the purpose we signed him for to begin with, we wouldn't be talking about bringing in the albatross that is Barry Bonds to be our power broker. Sexson is HORRID.

How can I speak with Sexson's supervisor?

[TheUrbanZealot]

I'd like to see Clement come up and possibly platoon as a DH/1B/C not too long down the line from here.

Clement can't possibly be worse than Sexson at the plate, and maybe he can play 1B. Is there any truth to the notion that Clement might end up being a first baseman, rather than a catcher?

I am all for bringing in Clement as a 1st baseman. Hell, I'd rather have Vidro at 1st, Clement as our DH, than Sexson @ 1st and Vidro as our DH...

[Sweezo]

Lol @ this nonsense. We could have used the same reactive example w/ Ichiro during spring training. The difference is that Johjima has been fairly consistent over the course of his Mariners run, you know he is going to give you 270-290. Sexson? He has been deplorable the last couple of years. Do you have faith that Sexson, all of a sudden, is going to break out of a 2+ year slump and hit .275 the rest of the way? Give me a break...

Sexson is just taking up unnecessary space. I don't give a flying f--- if he hits an occassional homer or two. The reality is the guy is a strikeout machine and is by far the most unreliable hitter on our roster.

This Sexson defending that some of you guys do is really really perplexing. You can't compare other people's struggles on the team to Sexson's because Sexson's CLEARLY has separated himself as our biggest deterrent.

Realize if Sexson were serving the purpose we signed him for to begin with, we wouldn't be talking about bringing in the albatross that is Barry Bonds to be our power broker. Sexson is HORRID.

How can I speak with Sexson's supervisor?

Misplaced reliance on batting a average as a particularly meaningful stat? Check.

Misplaced belief that striking out is worse than any other kind of out? Check.

[Ex-hippie]

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Lol @ this nonsense. We could have used the same reactive example w/ Ichiro during spring training. The difference is that Johjima has been fairly consistent over the course of his Mariners run, you know he is going to give you 270-290. Sexson? He has been deplorable the last couple of years. Do you have faith that Sexson, all of a sudden, is going to break out of a 2+ year slump and hit .275 the rest of the way? Give me a break...

I can't believe you'd call my post "nonsense" and then post something this palpably stupid. No offense, but it's stupid. It's a one-year slump (which was in 2007 and has not continued into 2008); he's never been a batting average guy, deal with it; and FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME, the strikeouts are IRRELEVANT. Give me a break. Please, TUZ, learn something about how to evaluate baseball performance, then decide what you can and can't call "nonsense."

[Sweezo]

Let's see...after today, Sexson sits at .231/.367/.508. He's tied for first on the team for home runs, first in walks (nearly double that of second place), and behind Lopez and Ibanez by 1 RBI for 3rd place on the team in that category.

His OBP and power numbers right now are right in line with what he's done for his career, and that's typically translated to a 30 HR/100+ RBI season.

So, let's review what that .231/.367/.508 line tells us...

1. Sexson's getting on base

2. Sexson's hitting for power

3. Sexson's driving in runs

Can someone explain to me why this should be completely ignored and batting average/strikeouts should be the primary criteria for evaluating Richie's performance?

[Ex-hippie]

^ This. Presumably, the people who highly value batting average are the same people who highly value RBI. Sexson has 16 of those in 20 games, which is a pace for 130 RBI in a 162-game season. Sexson had a terrible year in 2007, but he was a very good player in 2005 and 2006, and is thus far a very good player in 2008. Yet he continues to be described as a free-agent bust. Sexson could unseat Benoit Benjamin for the honor of "most unfairly maligned player in Seattle sports history." With luck, we'll be putting that to rest now.

[Bulltalk]

^ This. Presumably, the people who highly value batting average are the same people who highly value RBI. Sexson has 16 of those in 20 games, which is a pace for 130 RBI in a 162-game season. Sexson had a terrible year in 2007, but he was a very good player in 2005 and 2006, and is thus far a very good player in 2008. Yet he continues to be described as a free-agent bust. Sexson could unseat Benoit Benjamin for the honor of "most unfairly maligned player in Seattle sports history." With luck, we'll be putting that to rest now.

Sexson has done better than I thought he would so far. I'll give credit where it's due.

I looked upon Sexson this year much like I will look upon Marcus Tubbs this year for the Seahawks. Expect not much of anything, consider it a bonus if they surprise.

[MrNate]

I approve of Sexson so far this year and sincerly hope he keeps it up. If he finishes with a .370 OBP and 30 HRs I'm going to consider it a success.

On the other hand strikeouts are somewhat important, because you get out without even putting the ball in play to move runners. Also they may say a double play is a pitchers best friend, but a strikeout is a close second.

Anyway, if Sexson finishes the season with a 141 OPS+ and anybody bitches, I think they probably had some unrealistic expectations.

[BlackMamba]

well, i think that with his past many expect sexson to be a 30hr 100 rbi guy.

he's had injury issues the last couple of seasons, i think that if he keeps this rythm he's a valuable player batting at 6.

[Ex-hippie]

On the other hand strikeouts are somewhat important, because you get out without even putting the ball in play to move runners.

For it to make a difference, two conditions have to be met: (1) runners have to be on base, and (2) there must be less than two outs. One or the other won't suffice; you need both.

By my computations, from 2005 through 2007, that accounted for 412 of Sexson's 1,583 plate apperances (26%). (His player card on ESPN lists 749 PAs with men on, and 337 PAs with men on and 2 outs; 749 - 337 = 412.) In those situations, Sexson struck out 102 times (25%). About 17% of all major league plate appearances resulted in strikeouts*, so a league-average player would strike out 70 times in those situations, compared to Sexson's 102. That's 32 fewer chances to move a runner over, during the course of three seasons, about 11 per year.

Then ask, what was the probability that the balls in play actually did move runners over? Maybe 50%, optimistically? Certainly not in the case of shallow fly balls or infield dribblers where the runner is checked off. What was the probability that said runner actually scored, meaning it made a difference?

And then, net that against the number of balls in play that turned into double plays, which are even worse than strikeouts. If there's a runner on first and one out, I'd rather see a big, slow right-handed hitter strike out than ground the ball to shortstop. Can we agree on that?

All told, Sexson's strikeouts probably cost the team a handful of runs, maybe 3 or 5, per season, and they may or may not have cost the team a win or two.

Conclusion: strikeouts matter just a little bit, but not very much, and certainly not enough to outweigh the benefits of a guy who can hit it out of the park 30 or 40 times a year.

* slight fudge - I only looked at league numbers for 2007, while I used Sexson's numbers for a three-year period. Just a little bit of laziness there.

[MrNate]

Yeah well I said they were SOMEWHAT important. I would way walks, hits, XBH, SLG, OBP are all more important (and not in that order)

[Basketball Jesus]

Interesting note: The Big Sexbomb is ninth in the AL in IsoP. Tenth is Raul Ibanez.

[Sweezo]

So...after being benched for quite some time and becoming Pentland's last project, what to make of the new and improved Sexson with his wide open stance?

Small sample line alert, but here's his stats for the month of June: .296/.367/.296.

Is this an improvement? You've taken a power hitter, made him a singles hitter, and he's being out-slugged by your shortstop.