Welcome to Behind the Plate With DJ, a weekly look at what is going on in the world of baseball. This series will weigh in on the interesting, the controversial, and the downright cool. The play of the week could be an incredible play or an unusual one. If something made you scratch your head, you will probably find it here. So sit back, relax, and let’s take a look at the week that was.

Hot and Cold Hitters

After the April 15 games, there were still 10 players hitting .400 or better, including two rookies. Daniel Murphy led with a .464 average with the Nationals. His replacement on the Mets, Neil Walker, is hitting just .250. Walker’s replacement in Pittsburgh, Josh Harrison, is not hitting much better at .256. The Nationals have won the second base shuffle at this point in the season.

There were also 10 hitters that had five or more home runs, led by surprising rookie sensation Trevor Story with seven. Mark Trumbo is the only hitter to appear on both lists, hitting .400 with five home runs. Shortstop Story and third baseman Nolan Arenado give the Rockies a powerful left side of the infield with a total of 11 home runs between them.

Twelve players who have had at least 3.1 at-bats per team game is hitting .150 or less, including two players that were keys to the teams that they were traded to at the deadline last season Troy Tulowitzki is hitting a paltry .132, but he does have two home runs and five RBI. Curtis Granderson is doing even worse, hitting .111 with no home runs or RBI. Russell Martin has the lowest batting average (.067), giving the Blue Jays two players on the list.

Twelve players have struck out 15 or more times, led by Mitch Moreland and Story, who each have 17. High strikeouts can translate into more home runs, but only three players on this list have multiple home runs: Story (7), Josh Donaldson (5), and Wil Myers (2). The Rangers may need to adjust their game plan, as four of their players appear on this list (Moreland, Ian Desmond, Prince Fielder, and Delino DeShields).

It is still early in the season and it is way too early to crown the batting champ, but it is interesting to see who is on top and who is on bottom this early in the season.

Advanced Stat of the week

Every week, Behind the Plate will look at an advanced stat that is being used in baseball. These stats give a better idea on what value a player gives a team. This week’s stat is WAR.

WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement, and it is one of the key metrics used to compare players. It can be used to compare players in different positions, and even different eras. For instance, Babe Ruth had a WAR of 11.8 in 1920, which was just about the same as 11.7 that Pedro Martinez had in 2000.

What WAR tells us is how many more wins the team will get with a player than if that player were replaced with a readily available replacement player. This is the key. The replacement player is not an average MLB player. The best way to think of it is that the player is at the AAAA level. He is better than a AAA player, but is not an established MLB player. This kind of player can be picked up if a player gets injured or is released.

We are not going to get into the calculations involved in coming up with WAR because it is complicated and it varies depending on the source. The two most common sources are Baseball Reference and Fangraphs.

It is important to note that WAR is not meant as a precise measurement. A player with a WAR of 5.1 is very similar to one with a WAR of 5.7. In theory, both of these players will get five more wins for their team.

Here is a quick description from Baseball Reference:

Statistic Description: Wins Above Replacement for position players A single number that presents the number of wins the player added to the team above what a replacement player (think AAA or AAAA) would add. Scale: 8+ MVP Quality, 5+ All-Star Quality, 2+ Starter, 0-2 Reserve, < 0 Replacement Level Developed by Sean Smith of BaseballProjection.com

Plays of the Week

The Sun figured into a few plays this week. The Indians’ Rajai Davis had some trouble and the Coco Crisp of the A’s had a little more success.

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