And though the season's still young, Tejada's futility at the plate currently places him among some of the worst offensive seasons in San Francisco Giants history. Since 1958, there have only been seven San Francisco Giants (non-pitchers) to have 125+ PAs in a season with an OPS+ of less than 40...
| Rk | Player | Year | PA | Age | Tm | Lg | G | AB | HR | BB | SO | GDP | Pos | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miguel Tejada | 2011 | 36 | 126 | 37 | SFG | NL | 32 | 118 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 5 | .195 | .230 | .263 | .493 | *6/5 |
| 2 | Ivan Ochoa | 2008 | 33 | 134 | 25 | SFG | NL | 47 | 120 | 0 | 4 | 28 | 3 | .200 | .244 | .267 | .511 | *6/4 |
| 3 | Marquis Grissom | 2005 | 39 | 147 | 38 | SFG | NL | 44 | 137 | 2 | 7 | 18 | 9 | .212 | .248 | .285 | .533 | *8/79 |
| 4 | Johnnie LeMaster | 1977 | 16 | 152 | 23 | SFG | NL | 68 | 134 | 0 | 13 | 27 | 0 | .149 | .223 | .201 | .424 | *6/5 |
| 5 | Hal Lanier | 1968 | 38 | 518 | 25 | SFG | NL | 151 | 486 | 0 | 12 | 57 | 17 | .206 | .222 | .239 | .461 | *6 |
| 6 | Chuck Hiller | 1964 | 37 | 230 | 29 | SFG | NL | 80 | 205 | 1 | 17 | 23 | 3 | .180 | .243 | .244 | .487 | *4/5 |
| 7 | Joey Amalfitano | 1963 | 36 | 153 | 29 | SFG | NL | 54 | 137 | 1 | 12 | 18 | 5 | .175 | .245 | .219 | .464 | *4/5 |
And in actuality, OPS+ is rather kind to Tejada, as it doesn't put enough weight in on-base abilities (something that Tejada lacks). Even so, his season ranks among the worst by San Francisco Giants over the last five decades (by OPS+).
So far, only 20% of the balls that Tejada has put in play have gone for hits. That's about 10% less than his career average, indicative of the fact that he's actually had some bad luck in that respect. Tejada's batted ball rates are as follows:
Line drives - 14.0%
Groundballs - 52.3%
Flyballs - 33.6%
Generally, and these are rough estimates, 24% of groundballs go for hits, 15% of flyballs go for hits, and 73% of line drives go for hits. Based on that, we would expect that 28% of Tejada's batted balls would have landed for hits, compared to 20%. All in all, that roughly equates to an extra seven hits for Tejada, which would put his batting average (.195) at a much less dismal .254; as Tejada's batted ball luck regresses back toward normal levels, we should expect his average to improve. (Though this is even a bit generous perhaps, as Tejada's speed (or lack thereof) might be contributing to his "bad luck" on balls in play.)
The thing is, Tejada's futility at the plate extends beyond a bad batting average.
For one thing, his plate discipline is awful, and it's only going to get worse. From 2008 to 2010, Tejada posted the following respective walk rates: 3.6%, 2.8%, 4.4%. In 2011 thus far, he's been at 4.8%, and we can only expect that to get worse (ZiPS projection system has him walking in 3.6% of his PAs over the rest of the season).
Tejada's been swinging at a lot of pitches out of the strike zone this year -- more than he ever has -- and it's consistent with his career trend. Here's a graph of Tejada's O-Swing rates (swing rates on pitches out of the strike zone) over the last ten years (2002-2011).
See a trend?
Only eight hitters currently have a higher O-Swing rate than Miguel Tejada.
Lastly, Tejada's been hitting with Andrus-ian power. Literally. His ISO (.068) is currently identical to that of Texas Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus (who, by the way, failed to hit a home run in 674 plate appearances last year).
While we shouldn't reasonably expect Tejada to continue to be this bad (ZiPS projection system currently has him hitting .274/.307/.394 over the rest of 2011), he just isn't going to be any good, really. A .308 weighted on-base average paired with awful defense makes for a mediocre player.
So even given the uncertainty surrounding Mark DeRosa (though ZiPS projects him for .251/.323/.404 over the rest of the season), I'll wholeheartedly advocate for him to be the starting third-baseman in Pablo Sandoval's absence. And hopefully Mike Fontenot continues to be a serviceable shortstop until then.
Perhaps when Sandoval returns, DeRosa and Fontenot could platoon at shortstop, or the Giants could try to acquire Marco Scutaro on the cheap. It's a tough situation.
But the fact of the matter with Tejada is that he's just not good.
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