Itís not a surprise that the Stros (8-15; five straight losses) are bad this season. But this is looking to be one of the worst hitting teams in the history of the Strosí franchise.
As regular readers of this blog know, the RCAA ("runs created against average") and RSAA ("runs saved against average") statistics, developed by Lee Sinins for his Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia, provide a simple but revealing benchmark of how an MLB player or club is performing during the long MLB season.
RCAA reflects how many more (or fewer) runs that a player (or team) generates relative to a league-average player (or team). An exactly league-average player’s (or teamís) RCAA is zero.
Similarly, RSAA measures how many more (or fewer) runs that a pitcher (or pitching staff) saves relative to a league-average pitcher (or pitching staff). As with RCAA, an exactly league-average pitcherís (or teamís) RSAA is zero.
After a rough start to the season, the Strosí pitching staff has come around to a 3 RSAA (through Fridayís game), which means itís a slightly above-average NL pitching staff.
But the hitters? Well, thatís another story.
Through 23 games (a bit over 14% of the season), the Stros hitters have created an astounding 42 fewer runs than an average NL club of hitters would have created using the same number of outs. Thatís by far the worst in Major League Baseball (the Orioles are the next worst at ñ26) and ñ with still over 80% of the season to go ñ already the 10th worst performance in Stros franchise history:
1 Colt 45ís 1964 -138
2 Colt 45ís 1963 -107
3 Colt 45ís 1962 -101
4 Astros 1989 -64
5 Astros 1982 -63
6 Astros 1968 -51
7 Astros 1990 -49
8 Astros 2006 -47
9 Astros 2008 -46
10 Astros 2010 -42
11 Astros 1991 -39
12 Astros 2009 -34
13 Astros 2005 -26
14 Astros 1971 -16
15 Astros 1979 -13
To make matters worse, the Stros hitters do not appear poised to improve over the balance of the season. The clubís best hitter ñ 1B Lance Berkman ñ is gimpy with a balky knee and other assorted injuries. The clubís only other consistently good hitter ñ LF Carlos Lee ñ has fallen off a cliff to the point where he is one of the worst hitting regular NL players (-11 RCAA).
In fact, the only regular Stros player with a positive RCAA is CF Michael Bourn and he is barely above-average (3 RCAA). With the exception of RF Hunter Pence, there is not another regular Stros player who appears capable of generating a positive RCAA over the rest of the season.
Similarly, there is no player in the upper levels of the Strosí farm system who appears capable of generating a positive RCAA for the big-league club.
Thus, it appears almost certain that this will be the worst hitting Stros team in club history. Even the club-record worst performances of the three Colt 45 teams from 1962-64 are within reach of this seasonís team.
And if the pitching staff falls apart in the second-half of the season as it did last year, this season could get really ugly.