A season of WTF

Phil Gurnee ♦ July 8, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

Besides the Dodgers doing their best imitation of the 1927 Yankees this year has been full of bizarre offensive seasons from players either long given up or simply far exceeding expectations from what had been their previous norms.

This is like the 2004 Beltre season but from a baker’s dozen. It won’t include players like Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger simply because they had no track record so while their amazing success is WTF worthy, maybe that is who they are destined to be.

Using wRC+ I’ve included every player this season who at this point I think is a WTF player for 2017. The table includes their previous best wRC+ with at least 300 plate appearances.  For that reason, players like Trey Mancini didn’t make the cut even though his 137 wRC+ no one saw coming.  I’m keeping Chris Taylor on the list even though he never had at least 300 PA in a season before. Why? Because it is my list and I want Chris Taylor on it.

Name	wRC+	PreviousBest	wOBA	PA	HR
Marwin Gonzalez	161	110	0.41	248	15
Scooter Gennett	149	104	0.405	218	14
Yonder Alonso	148	110	0.389	289	19
Lonnie Chisenhall	147	117	0.396	211	12
Logan Morrison	147	116	0.389	338	24
Justin Smoak	144	112	0.39	325	23
Aaron Hicks	143	96	0.388	242	10
Zack Cozart	142	91	0.395	279	9
Eric Thames	138	107	0.391	320	23
Travis Shaw	134	87	0.385	323	18
Chris Taylor	134	103	0.373	269	10
Steven Souza Jr.	134	102	0.369	353	17
Tyler Flowers	131	110	0.374	220	6

Now that I’ve done the list and carved it done, it isn’t nearly as shocking as I thought it would be.

Hey, I told you about Marwin Gonzalez last fall when he was on my list as someone to target. Never expected this though.

Scooter Gennett was released this year by the first place Brewers.

The three slugging 1st baseman for the American League. Logan Morrison, Yonder Alonso, and Justin Smoak. All had shown promise as prospects but they have had years of suckitude before breaking out this year.

Travis Shaw had some success as a ppart-timeplayer for the Red Sox but when given full season at-bats he’d failed miserably. Brewers took a chance and he’s their clean up hitter.