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July 06, 2006
Jeter's So-Called Power Outage
Derek Jeter has gone 165 At-Bats without a homerun. And, everyone wants to know what has happened to his "power" this season.
But, has Jeter's "power" left him this season? How about his Slugging Percentage [SLG] and Isolated Power [ISO] so far this year - compared to recent seasons?
Isolated Power is a player's Slugging Percentage minus his Batting Average. Bill James provided its current name. Branch Rickey championed the stat, calling it "Power Average." It's a measure of a player's ability to hit for power considered apart from his ability to hit singles.
Here are the SLG and ISO numbers for Jeter, this season to date, and the four years prior:
This is interesting. Jeter's SLG this year is right in line with recent previous seasons. And, his ISO this year is in line with what he did in 2002 and 2003. But, what's with the spike in ISO for Jeter during 2004 and 2005?
Don't forget that, in 2004, Jeter was the Yankees lead-off hitter about half of the time. And, he was their lead-off hitter just about every game last season. Prior to that, he was usually the Yankees #2 hitter.
I would bet that Jeter, as a lead-off hitter got more fastball strikes and he was able to sit dead-red in spots more often than now (or before when he batted # 2) and that led to some more longer-hits for him. (Think: Bobby Jones 2000 World Series.)
In any event, in terms of hitting for "power," Jeter is doing this year what he's normally done - it's just not coming out in the form of homeruns. (I would be more concerned if he had a big drop in SLG and ISO at this stage - and that's not there.)
Posted by Steve Lombardi at July 6, 2006 03:17 PM
Comments
great analysis, Steve!
Posted by: Nick from Washington Heights ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 6, 2006 05:56 PM
Some nice comments regarding Phil Hughes and Jose Tabata.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/chat/chat.php?id=2006070601&rnd=1#bottom
Posted by: Don at July 6, 2006 07:01 PM
Steve, I would love to see how those numbers stack up month to month as if I remember right, Jeter had a monster start (esp. power wise).
Posted by: James Varghese at July 7, 2006 01:12 AM
I looked it up - He had 14 of his current 26 XBHs in April. I'll have to check using the Dbd to see whether that thumb injury is a turnaround point as well.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?playerId=3246
Posted by: James Varghese at July 7, 2006 01:15 AM
Keep us posted James.
Posted by: Steve Lombardi at July 7, 2006 10:10 AM
Ben beat me to the punch though he doesn't statistically address the question of the injury:
http://yankees.mostvaluablenetwork.com/current-yankees/derek-jeter/jetes-lost-the-power/
Posted by: James Varghese at July 10, 2006 12:10 PM