JABO: The Matter With Andrew McCutchen

by
May 8, 2015

Andrew McCutchen has been bad. I think I’m allowed to say that. Used to be, it was just a bad start. It’s still a bad start, but we’re a week into May, so that “just” is disappearing by the second. Attention to this thing is warranted.

Now, at any given time, lots of baseball players are in the midst of being bad. What’s weird about McCutchen being bad, in particular, is that he’s usually not. He goes beyond just being an All-Star; he’s one of the five best players in the game today. The spotlight shines a little brighter, and so when things are going awry, people notice.

How much do I need to go over, here? I know McCutchen’s numbers are bad. You know McCutchen’s numbers are bad. I don’t need to review a ton of information proving as much. Here, let’s just look at one graph. As I write this, McCutchen has played 26 games in 2015. Below, his whole career, in rolling 26-game stretches of OPS. Pretty simple measure of hot streaks and cold spells:

mccutchen-rolling-ops

Two things to take from that. One, McCutchen has had bad 26-game stretches before. They’ve just been tucked into the middle of seasons, rather than being right at the start, all conspicuous-like. Two, McCutchen has been quite bad this season. As far as the graph above is concerned, McCutchen has achieved a career minimum. It’s not proof that something’s wrong, but it’s enough to make you wonder.

Read the rest at Just A Bit Outside.

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Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.

8 Comments
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Pirates Hurdles
11 years ago

And Pirates fans everywhere thank you for this article’s timing. 😉

After 3 hits last night, Cutch was downright jovial in the post game interviews. He has tended to go on hot streaks in May/June, lets hope this is the start of something with or without his pull power.

-3
Deelron
11 years ago
Reply to  Pirates Hurdles

Not to burst your bubble, but Casey McGee had a 3 hit game right about when an article was posted about him.

Also I hope I didn’t curse McCutchen by mentioning McGee. Apologies.

3
Pirates Hurdles
11 years ago
Reply to  Deelron

Well, he does get Wacha tonight, but I’m not going to doubt Cutch.

0
Jeff
11 years ago

I think the lack of hair just changed his center of gravity. He’ll adjust.

11
Eltorostrikesagain
11 years ago

Nice graph. His slow start is especially concerning due to the mystery around the condition of his knee and/or knees. Looked frisky on the basepaths last night so here’s hoping.

0
Tom McFeeley
11 years ago

Brilliant, Jeff. Well done

1
Meh
11 years ago

so now I have to go to another site to finish reading this? And it’s fox based? Gross.

-2
joser
11 years ago
Reply to  Meh

Are you new here? They’ve been doing these Fox-related JABO articles for months now.

Personally I’d rather that Fangraphs put most of their data behind a paywall, which I’d pay a subscription for, but that’s a fraught move for a previously-free website. In the absence of that kind of revenue, or a wall of ads on every page, it’s traffic-driving deals like this that allow them to keep the lights on and keep adding info like the batted-ball data.

0