Clean-Up Hitter
editClean-up hitter is a term used in baseball to characterize a player that bats fourth in the lineup. The role of a clean-up hitter is to be an essential part of the offense in regards to hitting homeruns, scoring RBIs, maintaining a high slugging percentage, and many other significant batting statistics.
In most cases managers strategically use the clean-up hitter as a particular player that is capable of scoring the 1st, 2nd and 3rd batters. This is otherwise referred to as “clearing and/or cleaning the bases”. Recent notable players include Evan Longoria, Prince Fielder, Chris Carter, Troy Tulowitzki, all of which were in The Bleacher Report’s “The Top Clean-up Hitters in Baseball” article in 2013. [1]
Statistics
editThe Clean-up hitter has grown to be a regularly used tactic among many Major League Baseball (MLB) teams throughout the years. In result, there has been a wide spread of very successful clean-up hitters who have led the MLB in many batting statistics. The tables below present the 2014 League Leaders in the MLB. The following batting categories including: Batting average, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, and Slugging Percentage.
(" * “ symbolizes a player that has participated in 100+ games as a clean-up hitter in 2014)
Batting Average [2]
| Rank | Player | Average |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jose Altuve | .341 |
| 2. | *Victor Martinez* | .335 |
| 3. | Michael Brantley | .327 |
| 4. | *Adrian Beltre* | .324 |
| 5. | Justin Morneau | .319 |
Homeruns [3]
| Rank | Player | Homeruns |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | *Nelson Cruz* | 40 |
| 2.(tie) | Giancarlo Stanton & Chris Carter | 37 |
| 3. (tie) | Mike Trout & Jose Abreu | 36 |
| 4. (tie) | Jose Bautista & David Ortiz | 35 |
| 5. | Edwin Encarnacion | 34 |
Runs Batted In (RBI) [4]
| Rank | Player | RBIs |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Adrian Gonzalez | 116 |
| 2. | Mike Trout | 111 |
| 3. | Miguel Cabrera | 109 |
| 4. | *Nelson Cruz* | 108 |
| 5. | Jose Abreu | 107 |
Slugging Percentage [5]
| Rank | Player | Slugging Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jose Abreu | 0.581 |
| 2. | *Victor Martinez* | 0.565 |
| 3. | Mike Trout | 0.561 |
| 4. | Giancarlo Stanton | 0.555 |
| 5. | Edwin Encarnacion | 0.547 |
The Value of the Clean-Up Hitter
editWith a sudden peak in batting statistics and the influential production provided from many offensively talented players in the MLB over the past decade the value amongst power hitters have increased in result. Based on the statistics conducted by ESPN, during the 2014 season at least one cleanup hitter placed Top 5 in each major batting category (homeruns, RBIs, hits etc.). [6]
Knocking Dollars Out of the Park
The table (below) contains "Baseball's Highest-Paid Players in 2014". [7] Amongst the ten players present in the table six include everyday positional players (not including pitchers) totaling a combined 1859 career homeruns. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
| Rank | Player | Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ryan Howard | $25.7 million |
| 2. | Cliff Lee | $25.2 million |
| 3. | Joe Mauer | $25 million |
| 4. | Albert Pujols | $24.8 million |
| 5. | Robinson Cano | $24.5 million |
| 6. | Prince Fielder | $24.4 million |
| 7. | Zack Greinke | $24.05 million |
| 8. | Miguel Cabrera | $24 million |
| 9. | Masahiro Tanaka | $23.5 million |
| 10. | CC Sabathia | $23.4 million |
Of these players on the table Ryan Howard (ranked #1), Prince Fielder (ranked #6), and Miguel Cabrera (ranked 8th) have all played a combined 1000+ games at the clean-up spot in the lineup, where they accomplished a majority of their success throughout their careers. Phillies slugger Ryan Howard recorded a OPS (On-base Plus Slugging) of .695 on the year ranking 316th among the 318 players since 1914 who had a season of at least 600 plate appearances at the number four spot. [14] In addition, Howard also topped the charts in the Bleacher Report's Top 30 clean-hitters ranking after his remarkable 48 homerun season in 2008. [15]
References
edit- ^ Wood, Robert. "Top 10 Clean-Up Hitters in Baseball". http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1612071-top-10-clean-up-hitters-in-baseball.
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); External link in|website=|url=(help) - ^ "Sortable Stats: Batting". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "Sortable Stats: Batting". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "Yahoo Sports". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "Sortable Stats: Batting". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
- ^ "MLB Player Batting Stats - 2014". espn.com. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ Badenhausen, Kurt. "Baseball's Highest-Paid Players 2014". forbes.com. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
- ^ "Ryan Howard Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Joe Mauer Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Albert Pujols Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Robinson Cano Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Prince Fielder Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Miguel Cabrera Stats". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ Gelb, Matt. "What's ahead in Phillies offseason". philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
- ^ Cappetta, Lou. "It's Clean-Up Time: Ranking Baseball's No. 4 Hitters". bleacherreport.com. Bleacher Report. Retrieved 8 October 2014.