After the Nats traded for Ben Revere, Steve M. dove into the deep end to look past traditional Slugging % and OPS and even OBP to try to make sense of the greater value for these speed demon players like Revere and Turner in an attempt to give them credit for the speed game. A steal equals an extra base just like a double compared to a single and a caught stealing gets removed from the On-Base-Percentage as if the runner was never on base: Speed is the part of the game that is the hidden intangible
Here is what Steve M. came up with for his theory with Ben Revere:
As Steve wrote: “With a .760 adjusted OPS, only 3 Nats would qualify for enough plate appearances in 2015 to best that mark and that would be Harper, Escobar and Clint Robinson.”
If we look at Trea Turner’s stats the same way as Revere’s, we get a much different look at Trea this Spring. Do you remember that 1 hit changed to an error, we made the 3rd row to reflect that and changed it back to a hit! What a difference! The 2nd row is exactly like the 2nd row of the Revere chart.
Trea Turner could very well be the most valuable position player on the Nats with the exception of Bryce Harper.
Pitchers throw more fastballs compared to off-speed when you have a sprinter on base with a chance to steal.
Chris Diaz was a year ahead of Turner at NC State. Hard to compare apples to apples, but if you look at Diaz before Turner was hitting in front of him, Diaz had 12 doubles in 2011 compared to 25 doubles in 2012 when Trea Turner was batting lead-off and Diaz batting 2nd. You can bet Diaz was seeing more fastballs and holes opened up in the defense. RBIs for Diaz were way up also.
The Trea Turner effect? Probably.
Screengrab from Statcast
Trea #Burner Let's Go #Nats pic.twitter.com/kso3LMXRyA
— InsideThaDugout (@InsideThaDugout) March 13, 2016
