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March 3, 2009 You Could Look It UpMatt Wieters
Matt Wieters 2009 Weighted Mean PECOTA Forecast PA R 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS EqBRR AVG/ OBP/ SLG MLVr EqA VORP WARP 649 105 33 2 31 102 77 102 4 2 -1.0 .311/.395/.544 .281 .319 59.6 7.9 PECOTA is an essentially conservative program. Its player-performance projections are neither wildly optimistic nor pessimistic, but built purely from the data, and from its own understanding of the way that player careers progress based on literally thousands of antecedents. Thus, when it proposes that Orioles catching prospect Matt Wieters, a rookie-to-be who has never played above Double-A, could hit .311/.395/.544 in the majors this year, we took notice-this was the first time that PECOTA had looked at a prospect and predicted an MVP-caliber, Hall of Fame-level season right off the bat. By way of comparison, consider the two players who were the 2008 Rookie of the Year Award-winners in their respective leagues, both of whom PECOTA quite liked from the get-go. Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria received a weighted mean projection of .266/.339/.459. This was no surprise; by acclamation, Longoria was one of the most talented young players in the game. However, PECOTA can only go by what it sees in the player's profile, both in terms of performance and vital statistics, so though it was quite high on Longoria compared to most other prospects, it did not overstate its estimation. In fact, PECOTA proved to be a little too reserved in this instance, as Longoria hit .272/.343/.531-the projection model nailed the batting average and on-base components of Longoria's rookie year, but missed low on his power. Over in the senior circuit, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto was projected to hit .273/.352/.470, another enthusiastic projection, but still a bit short of historic as far as introductions go. As with Longoria, PECOTA anticipated a bit less power than Soto displayed in major league action, but was quite close on the other two legs of the production tripod, as Soto hit .285 while posting a .364 on-base percentage. Soto had had an explosive year in the minor leagues in 2007, one almost as impressive in its own way as Wieters' breakout campaign, but it was one that because of Soto's age, the context of the league and performance levels involved, and other factors did not receive the same rave review from the system. These same factors are the key to Wieters' stunning PECOTA projection. PECOTA does not take a prospect's minor league stats as is, but translates them first, adjusting for the park and league context. It also considers the player's age, position, and body type before making its projection. The key for Wieters is just how well he makes out, despite the discounts on his performance wrought by these various translations. It is the rare young player who towers above his league to the degree that Wieters did last season, and then goes further by making the difficult jump to Double-A, not only maintaining production, but actually accelerating it. It is the rare 22-year-old who bats .345/.448/.576 in High-A ball, let alone .365/.460/.625 at Double-A. No matter how aggressively one reduces Wieters' numbers through translation, you simply can't make all of that go away. Any young player looking to receive a Wieters-style PECOTA and become an instant fantasy (and real-world) darling, should follow a simple formula. First, dominate your league. Second, be the appropriate age for your league; PECOTA is properly skeptical of four-year college players who beat up on high school pitchers as 24-year-old players in short-season rookie ball. Third, do not rely too much on your ballpark to help you. Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, fourth, do your best to show no weaknesses in any phase of your game. Just like Wieters did last year. This is largely what Soto and Longoria did, just not to the same degree. In 2007, Longoria had hit .299/.402/.570 in the minors, including .307/.403/.528 at Double-A. These numbers are stunning, but not quite of the same quality as Wieters'. Soto had hit .353/.424/.652 at Triple-A Iowa in 2007, but that was in his age-24 season, so he was a critical two years older than Wieters, and so had (and has) less room for growth than did his younger catching counterpart. Of course, as we've often said in our annual book, PECOTA is not destiny. Much stands between a young player and the achievement of his projection, whether that projection is as boldly put as Wieters' is, or merely average. Injury is a particular risk for a young catcher, as an errant foul tip can mangle a finger, or a contact play at the plate can mangle an entire body. What makes Wieters' projection all the more impressive is that PECOTA is aware of the toll that catching can take on a backstop's offensive skills, and yet it still sees such impressive short-term results for the Orioles tyro. Perhaps, then, it is wrong to say that PECOTA lacks optimism, that it doesn't rave. In its own way, Wieters' projection is its way of saying, "Hey, I think I spot a very rare talent here; you might want to pay attention." Then again, PECOTA is merely a computer program, and this interpretation is, appropriately, an act of translation.
Steven Goldman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 31 comments have been left for this article.
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I'd be interested to know what PECOTA projected for Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, and (if you can go back that far) Travis Lee - three players who were similarly dominant in AA and then slowed afterwards.
I remember that PECOTA projected Gordon to be #2 in VORP among 3Bs in '07.
Pecota burned many a fantasy player on Alex Gordon. Or at the very least, disappointed them because their late round sleep didn't pay off.
The line that made me go "Huh?" was "It is the rare 22-year-old who bats .345/.448/.576 in High-A ball, let alone .365/.460/.625 at Double-A."
Maybe not everybody is hitting .360, but plenty of 22 year olds dominate AA. And since when is 22 young for an elite prospect in AA?
Players who dominated AA ball as 22 year olds...
Howie Kendrick- .369/.408/.631
Mark Reynolds- .318/.401/.633
Justin Huber- .343/.432/.570
Mark Teahen- .335/.420/.543
Jeremy Reed- .409/.472/.591
My guess is PECOTA really likes Wieters' walk and strikeout rates, but even so, to make a Hall of Fame level prediction after 437 at-bats is a little ridiculous, especially when similar players before him have failed.
Justin Upton OPSed 800 ... in the majors ... as a 20 year old. That is elite, this Weiters guy is a chump.
Kidding.
A-Rod and Ted Williams both OPS+ed 160 at the age of 20. Compared to those two, Upton and Wieters are both chumps ;)
According to the BP book (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here, so please correct me if my memory is failing me), no one in the past 40 years has had as good of a minor league season as Wieters had last year. No one in the past 40 years.
does that imply he should have been called up earlier?