Wood Watch 2009 (now with more Howie!)

June 15th, 2009, 10:50 am · 2 Comments · posted by Sam Miller, The Orange County Register

300_87 Wood played first base Friday for, by my count, the third time — as journalists all know, three makes a trend — but he was back at third Saturday and Sunday. He got into some rallies, going 4 for 13 with a homer Friday (that made three straight games) and a double Sunday. He walked once and struck out three times, all the Ks coming on Sunday when OC-born Hector Ambriz started for the Reno Aces.

Wood’s line: .297/.374/.600, which translates to .237/.301/.456 in the majors. Not for nothing, but the leading statistical projections forecast a major league line of .237/.295/.424, which means Wood is doing pretty much what we could have expected from him, and that (despite a big spring training) he hasn’t necessarily taken a BIG step forward*. I’m still encouraged by his improving strikeout and walk rates, which haven’t cost him any power in Salt Lake.

Other famous Bees:

Howie Kendrick went 3 for 8 with two doubles and two walks over the weekend. Free Howie Kendrick! (Too soon?)
Jose Arredondo threw one and a third hitless, scoreless innings, striking out one and … geez … walking three. He threw 31 pitches and only 13 were strikes. Get a grip, Jose.

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Angels 2009 projections

Player	Projection
Mike Napoli	.246/.351/.481
Jeff Mathis	.222/.288/.364
Kendry Morales	.274/.317/.430
Howie Kendrick	.304/.335/.440
Erick Aybar	.268/.309/.369
Chone Figgins	.278/.354/.367
Brandon Wood	.237/.295/.424
Maicer Izturis	.273/.343/.383
Juan Rivera	.273/.321/.453
Bobby Abreu	.282/.376/.440
Torii Hunter	.273/.331/.462
Vladimir Guerrero	.306/.369/.513
Gary Matthews, Jr	.260/.331/.402
Ervin Santana	3.87 ERA
John Lackey	3.82 ERA
Kelvim Escobar	3.93 ERA
Jered Weaver	3.94 ERA
Joe Saunders	4.24 ERA
Dustin Moseley	5.34 ERA
Brian Fuentes	3.33 ERA
Scot Shields	3.67 ERA
Jose Arredondo	3.75 ERA
Darren Oliver	4.01 ERA
Justin Speier	4.23 ERA
Kevin Jepsen	5.05 ERA

(These projections are an average of six common statistical forecasting systems. They are based on the players' previous performances, ages and, in some cases, physical characteristics.)

Stephen C. Smith says:

June 15, 2009 at 11:20 am

Wood played 1B on June 8, 11 and 12 … I’ve written on FutureAngels.com many times over the years about how important it is to look at Salt Lake home/away numbers because the park is so hitter-friendly. Wood’s AVG/OBP/SLG splits for 2009 to date:

Home: .369/.448/.702 (84 AB)
Away: .231/.304/.505 (91 AB)

The real test is to take Salt Lake and the other four high-octane parks (Reno, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas and Albuquerque) and split them out from the rest. I’ll give it a shot if I get time, but it would seem likely that the result would be even more extreme than above.

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Stephen C. Smith says:

June 15, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Okay, per the above I split out Wood’s performance in the five hitter-friendly parks vs. the rest of the PCL. Here’s what I got:

Hitter-Friendly: .338/.415/.669 (130 AB)
Other: .178/.255/.400 (45 AB)

11 of his 14 HR were in hitter-friendly parks, the rest in neutral/pitcher-friendly parks.

As much I want to see Woody in the big leagues, these numbers suggest maybe the Angels know what they’re doing by keeping him in Triple-A.

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