The first thing to understand about the Oakland Athletics is this: Billy Beane trades the team’s best player whenever they are on the cusp of greatness.
First he traded Tim Hudson following the 2004 season. Would the Athletics have won the World Series in 2006 if he hadn’t done so? Probably. Instead they got swept in the ALCS. WEAK!
Then he traded Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline during the 2014 season. The team proceeded to totally collapse. MORE WEAKNESS!
The team was finally ready to compete again this season. Then, Beane made another genius move. This time he traded Ryon Healy, the leader of the Athletics young core to the Seattle Mariners. Big mistake.
The Athletics have gotten off to an ok start this season. They are 36-36 through 72 games. But they are 2-4 in their last six.
Where would they be now if Beane hadn’t traded Healy?
They would probably be one of the best teams in the American League. Healy was the anchor of a solid group of young players including Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. Trading Healy would have been the equivalent of Dayton Moore trading Eric Hosmer prior to the 2014 season. The SABRmetrics people will tell you the Royals won the World Series the following season because of relief pitching and shifts but the truth is they won because Eric Hosmer is Awesome. So is Ryon Healy.
Matt Chapman is a good player. Not a great player. A good player.
He plays third base for the Athletics. His defense is apparently Super Awesome. The thing is, 8/10 of what makes a player great is slugging. 1/10 is hitting for average. The other 1/10 is everything else – obp, arm strength, baserunning and defense.
There is obviously a place in Major League Baseball for players whose primary skill is defense. But defense is a skill that is being highly overrated in today’s game. Why is that?
It’s simple.
The Intelligentsia is made up of weaklings. When they see great power hitters like Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, Matt Kemp, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge they get intimidated. Power hitters intimidate them because they are weak. Power hitters remind them of The Guy from high school with The Girl. They then tremble and shiver and lash out. They try to tear down the power hitters. How do they do so? By elevating defenders like Matt Chapman into the ranks of The Best Players in Baseball.
These players are nothing more than pawns in The Intelligentsia’s evil schemes.
On April 16th of this season, RJ Anderson of CBS Sports said that Matt Chapman “might be one of baseball’s best players.”
Chapman was off to a hot start. He had a .333 batting average, a .403 obp, and a slugging percentage of .650.
Those are legitimately impressive numbers. At the end of the season. This was 16 games into the season.
Chapman was never going to be able to keep up that pace for the entire season, obviously. But after Anderson’s article was published on April 16th, Chapman’s numbers plummeted. By May 12th his batting average was just .220, his obp was .321, and his slugging percentage was down to .433. How much of that was because of a natural cooling off? How much of it was because of the high expectations that were placed on Chapman by Anderson? Expectations that Chapman was presumably pressing to try to live up to?
Chapman got hot again after that. By May 20th his batting average was back up to .254, his obp was back up to .351 and his slugging percentage was back up to .479. Then, he cooled off again. By June 1st he was hitting just .228. His obp was down to .318 and his slugging percentage was down to .427. He’s on the upswing again now. He’s hitting .250 with a .346 obp and a .447 slugging percentage. Will he maintain that? Or will his numbers take another dip this year?
The Intelligentsia will tell you that even with his offensive numbers way down, he still provides a ton of value as a defender. Presumably, Chapman has been falling back on that as his offense has suffered of late.
Then this happened.
That was in a big game against the Houston Astros last Wednesday afternoon, June 13th. It was a major test for the Athletics. They had gotten off to a decent start this year, but they had just lost the first two games of the series to the Astros. A loss that afternoon would have meant a sweep. It was a major swing game in the season for the Athletics.
With the pressure ratcheted up, how was Chapman’s defense?
Not Super. That is a scientific term.
See, Matt Chapman is not one of baseball’s best players. He isn’t even close. Matt Chapman is a role player.
Teams are made up of two kinds of players – role players and star players. Putting a role player into the level of star players – saying Matt Chapman “might be one of baseball’s best players” for example – is bad for that player. It puts the burden of expectations that can never possibly be lived up to on that player’s shoulders.
People only thrive in their proper roles.
Put a number 2 into a number 1 spot and that number 2 will struggle badly. Number 2s belong in number 2 spots. Number 1s belong in number 1 spots. Put people outside of their natural role and they will suffer.
Just look what happened to Matt Chapman’s numbers when he got put into a number 1 spot. He’s a number 2. A role player. Not one of baseball’s best players. Albert Pujols and Matt Kemp are laughing at him as we speak.
It doesn’t matter to The Intelligentsia what happens to Matt Chapman. Either way, The Intelligentsia will be rich. That’s the whole point to them. They think that if they make as much money as the jocks they will be above the jocks. They won’t be. They will always be seething with resentment, no matter how much money they have in the bank. Besides, the jocks will still be richer than them anyway.
Eric Hosmer got paid this offseason, despite The Intelligentsia’s best efforts. There is justice.
SABR Skeptic 