Hey Uggla, Make Up Your Mind!

by
June 17, 2008

Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla seems primed to post his best offensive season yet. Through 67 games he is hitting .289/.369/.613—a .982 OPS—with 19 home runs, 23 doubles, and 49 RBI. His slash statistics and OPS would all be career highs should the season, for whatever reason, end today. His SLG has surpassed the .600 mark due to 43 extra base hits out of 73 total. His .324 ISO confirms that, yep, Uggla’s got plenty of power.

Interestingly enough, Uggla has been somewhat inconsistent, month to month, this season. In April (and March 31) he proved detrimental, represented by his -0.216 WPA. Since then, however, he has contributed 2.039 wins to the second place Marlins. Even though his June WPA is a positive 0.504, his general statistics look closer to his April than red-hot May:

April: 115 PA, .255/.330/.471, .801 OPS, 4 HR
May: 113 PA, .347/.425/.827, 1.252 OPS, 12 HR
June: 62 PA, .245/.339/.491, .829 OPS, 3 HR

His SLG in May essentially equaled or surpassed his OPS in both April and the first half of June. While a player with a K% as high as Uggla’s–he’s in Ryan Howard territory right now–may not sustain high and respectable batting averages it does not mean he cannot still prove to be a productive power threat. Last year, he hit 31 HR with a .245 BA and a .286 BABIP; right now he’s close to 2/3 of the way toward matching his home run total and he’s got a .289 BA/.351 BABIP helping to increase his productivity.

If the Marlins want to defy the odds and stay in contention until the end of the season, Dannyboy is going to need to sustain some semblance of consistent productivity since most would attest their young pitching staff is not very likely to hold up from now until September 30th.

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Eric is an accountant and statistical analyst from Philadelphia. He also covers the Phillies at Phillies Nation and can be found here on Twitter.

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