Today, I published a roster analysis classifying the Astros Roster as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Last Year, I defined a measurement I called the Total Batting Index (TBI).
TBI = Plate Appearances * (wRC+ - 100)
The purpose of TBI is to highlight the relative biggest impact hitters on the Astros this year. This data will not necessarily surprise you, but it is more likely help quantify the beliefs you already have.
Uncover with me now the Astros 2024 Total Batting Index (TBI) and see how it reveals the pivotal impact hitters, shedding light on the team's offensive dependency.
I left the color from above article in this TBI data table so you can see how "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" labels hold.
The "Good" players (in green) that are lower in this list were good defensively.
Looking through this list you get the very real sense of how dependent the offense is on the top 5 and explains why the team to choose use Caratini more to help the bats.
As a team the Astros TBI (below) is 69,166 and just Alvarez and Tucker are 70,101. EVERYONE ELSE added together is negative. Is it any wonder how challenged the Astros bats are without either of these stars?
You also see how terrible relatively McCormick and Abreu were in impacting the Astros offense. Abreu ended the season with a ZERO wRC+. That is horrible.
How does the likely postseason hitter group look without those players taking plate appearances?
The Astros WC roster has a combined 102,713 TBI. We will compare this to the Tigers when we do the ALWC Preview.
How do the Astros compare as a team in TBI?
The Astros were fifth as they were fifth in wRC+.
As we showed above and in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" the Astros had very distinct good and bad hitters. Let's look at all of the batters in the MLB with more than 40 PA (546 hitters total).
This list is long. Don't try to see the names. Just look for the Astros in orange. Remember that the real issue here is being at the top (or bottom) of this list.
The Astros on the list include:
Alvarez - 6th - 98.9 Percentile
Tucker - 13th - 97.6 Percentile
Altuve - 29th - 94.7 Percentile
Bregman - 57th - 89.6 Percentile
Diaz - 69th - 87.4 Percentile
Caratini - 137th - 74.9 Percentile
Singleton - 165th - 69.8 Percentile
Gamel - 171st - 68.7 Percentile- IL
Pena - 209th - 61.7 Percentile
Dezenzo - 242nd - 55.7 Percentile
Whitcomb - 247th - 54.8 Percentile- Maybe Out
Heyward - 257th - 52.9 Percentile
Cabbage - 313rd - 42.7 Percentile- Out
Dubon - 405th - 25.8 Percentile
Meyers - 456th - 16.5 Percentile
McCormick - 492nd - 9.9 Percentile- IL
Abreu - 521st - 4.6 Percentile- Cut
Not on the list but probably filling the last couple of roles
Salazar - Emergency catcher - 32 PA
Leon- Pinch Runner - 21 PA - this was described in
https://www.larrythegm.com/post/my-astros-al-wild-card-position-players
Is Whitcomb a longshot now to be included?
What does it all mean?
Alvarez is key to the offense.
The Astros offense depends on five batters.
Lower batters may need to get hot like Pena did in 2022.
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