Thursday, April 19, 2007
WICHITA — One look at Wednesday’s box score shows that Kansas’ game against Wichita State was uneventful for junior second baseman Ryne Price.
He went 1-for-4 with a single and three strikeouts. In the field, three grounders and a blooper came his way, which he fielded cleanly, and he tagged out an attempted base-stealer.
Unfortunately for Price, his strikeouts and defense have become the subject of scrutiny. During a four-error series against Baylor last weekend, Kansas fans began to wonder out loud why he’s the only Jayhawk who hasn’t taken a game off this season. Nevertheless, he’s keeping his head up.
“He’ll be fine,” coach Ritch Price said. “He’s the most competitive guy on my team.”
It’s true. Ryne leads the Jayhawks in errors and strikeouts — two of the most infamous evils a baseball player can commit. But for Kansas, keeping Price at second base and in the heart of its order — despite his 17 errors and 50 strikeouts — is a necessary evil.
What has hurt Price’s image is how he’s performed lately. In his last six games, before Wednesday, he accumulated six errors and 10 strikeouts. The otherwise stellar offensive season he’s put together has been lost in the mix as a result.
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But for the most obstinate of critics, there’s still the question of whether Price is doing more harm than good.
Price leads the Jayhawks in home runs (8), triples (4), total bases (81) and slugging percentage (.579). He is second in runs (35) and on-base percentage (.421), third in doubles (9) and fourth in batting average (.286), RBI (23) and walks (21). And he’s accumulated those totals with the sixth most at-bats on the team.
In addition, Price provides pop from the left side of the plate in a predominantly right-handed batting order. Five of Kansas’ eight starting position players bat right-handed and the remaining lefties, freshman third baseman Robby Price and junior right fielder Brock Simpson, don’t have the power potential Ryne does. If anything, Price should be hitting higher than his usual sixth spot in the order.
But what cost has Kansas paid defensively to keep Price in the lineup?
Thanks in part to Price, who leads the Big 12 in errors, Kansas is at the bottom of the conference in fielding percentage. So, would Kansas be better off with Price at designated hitter and someone else at second? Actually, no.
Junior Matt Berner is next on the depth chart at second base, but there’s no guarantee he’d be any better in the field than Price and he almost certainly wouldn’t produce enough offensively.
For his career, Berner has a .923 fielding percentage, which is just 22 points higher than Price’s fielding percentage this season. Such a miniscule difference in fielding abilities isn’t nearly enough to justify, in effect, replacing one of Kansas’ normal designated hitters with Berner and his team-low .118 batting average.
But for the most obstinate of critics, there’s still the question of whether Price is doing more harm than good.
This season, Price’s 17 errors have led to 18 runs for Kansas’ opponents. However, with the help of sabermetrics, it’s clear that Price is the most effective run-producer on the team.
Sabermetrician Bill James devised a statistic known as “runs created,” which calculates how many of a team’s runs any one player is responsible for.
The equation is simple: [(hits + walks) x total bases/(at-bats + walks)] and according to it, Price is responsible for creating 31 of Kansas’ 285 runs this season. By comparison, junior shortstop Erik Morrison, who is second on the team with six home runs, is far behind Price in runs created at 23.
Ryne Price is not only the best option for Kansas at second base. He’s the only option.
Shroyer is a Mound City junior in journalism.
— Edited by Will McCullough
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Comments
Shroyer: Ryne Price is only man for second
Move Price to 1st and put Land on the bench. That guy is 0 for the century it seems like. His hands are slower than molasses. I could see Bern improving his bat, and his defense would be better than Price up the middle. Land will hit .118 by the end of the season if he doesn't change something at the plate.
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