Jimbo directs us to an
MLB.com article about potential ROY. Here's what they say about Reggie Willits:
OF Reggie Willits, Angels: The Halos were floundering, unable to get over the loss of Juan Rivera to a Winter League mishap, until Willits became a regular and a regular thorn in the sides of opponents. With bat control to wear out pitchers, speed to unnerve defenses and a daredevil attitude on defense, he has become, at its most basic, the _________ of this Angels team.
Now, keeping in mind that Willits is small, white, "pesky," "full of grit" and "hustle" and plays for the Angels, guess to whom the comparison is made. Is it...
A. Alex Rodriguez
B. Three-Finger Brown
C. David Eckstein
D. Darin Erstad
If you answered C...
...you're wrong.
They compared him to Erstad.
The comparison to Eckstein is not very apt, in that Willits is much faster and gets on base more. But Erstad?
Actually, I suppose the .338 SLG Willits has laid down this year actually makes him more like Erstad than a lot of other people.
Okay. Never mind.
Labels: darin erstad, david eckstein, reggie willits
Reggie Willits is having an excellent year. He's absolutely slaughtering his 90th percentile PECOTA projections at the rookie age of 26. It is largely fair to say that his .439 OBP, and not Chone Figgins's .356, is what's making the Angels tick lately.
He is also under six feet tall and white. And he plays for the Angels.
Uh oh.
Reggie Willits is flattered by the many and obvious comparisons to David Eckstein, another leadoff hitter whose hustle and heart outweigh his small stature.Allow me to blanket this entire post -- as well as Helene Elliott's excerpted article, just because I'm generous -- with a Small Sample Size alert. Reggie Willits has had 243 ML at-bats in 91 games. All of his stats are suspect in terms of their predictive powers...especially considering how much better he is doing than those pesky PECOTA computers predicted. However.
I am going to be as nice as I can to David Eckstein by cherry-picking his season high totals in a number of different categories.
BA: .294 (2005)
OBP: .363 (twice)
SLG: .388 (2002)
BB: 58 (2005)
2B: 26 (twice)
HR: 8 (twice)
In his career he is 102-41 SB/CS. That's 71.3%.
Again, small sample blah blah blah, and also he's never played a full season so we have to extend outwards which is always risky, but here are Willits's seasonal averages, with his career numbers stretched out over 162 games. This includes the like 45 AB he has last year over 28 random games, which drag down his overall numbers:
BA: .329
OBP: .434
SLG: .387
BB: 84
2B: 21
HR: 0
Willits is on pace to be far better than that in several categories this year, including 2B and BB. And thus, SLG. To put it another way, Eck's career EqA is .262, or ever-so-slightly above league average. Willits's this year is .326. Willits is on pace for a 7.4 WARP3. Eck's career high was 7.1 -- and Eck was a SS! (Willits plays mostly LF and CF.)
Oh -- and Willits is 18-2 in SB/CS this year.
It's early, but at this moment, it is insulting to compare Willits to Eckstein. (Insulting to Willits, I mean.)
"That's a pretty big compliment. I definitely don't think I am where he's at yet," Willits said of Eckstein, a catalyst in the Angels' 2002 World Series championship and the most valuable player in the St. Louis Cardinals' title run last season."He's proven it over several years, and he's done a great job."He has done a league-average job.
Willits is aggressive on the basepaths, where he has 18 steals and has been caught twice. There are no statistics to measure how often he has pressured an outfielder into making a throwing error or how often he has prolonged an offensive flurry with patience at the plate and sheer grit.All right! Now we're getting Ecksteiny. "No statistics..." "patience..." "sheer grit...". Makes my heart sing.
I must ask again: why are no minority players ever called "throwbacks" or praised for their "grit" and "hustle" and "old-school"-ness? It is one of the oddest things. No Dominican players, no Afro-Am players, not even the odd Curacaoian. The closest you ever get is Chone Figgins, but I think that's just SoCal reporters missing Eckstein so much they have to lob their "hustle" grenades somewhere, and Figgins isn't that tall, and he's fast...
"Fans are certainly drawn to players for different reasons, and I think it's obvious why they're drawn to Reggie Willits, as they're drawn to David Eckstein or Adam Kennedy," Scioscia said. "I think there's a blue-collar element. He's very well perceived….Weird ellipsis belongs to Elliott, BTW. Incorrect word choice belongs to Scioscia.
Also: Willits. Eckstein. Kennedy. What do these three have in common? I'm surprised he didn't throw Gary DiSarcina in there for the hell of it.
The Angels just might keep him, even though he's not a second helping of David Eckstein and not the power hitter the other Reggie was. He's Reggie Willits, and that has been more than enough to excite everyone who sees him.
They should be thrilled he's not a second helping of Eckstein. That means he might become a better-than-average baseball player.
Labels: david eckstein, helene elliott, reggie willits
