BSN Exclusive: The Rockies pitcher most worthy of an award

The name most Rockies fans hope to see in the lineup in the first game against the Houston Astros for game one of a two-game series is an obvious one.

Nolan Arenado, winner of the last three Silver Slugger Award for best offensive third baseman in the National League, has been missing from the lineup for the past two games due to shoulder soreness.

The name in which they should probably be checking will definitely be missing. Let me explain.

Two interleague games against Houston gives Colorado the opportunity to use a designated hitter and improve an offense that was unable to score more the five runs at home during their recent seven-game homestand.

The missing name in the lineup tonight is another talented hitter in the race for his first Silver Slugger: starting pitcher German Márquez.

According to FanGraphs, Márquez has generated 0.7 WAR as a hitter during his twenty-three games played this season. He trails only Max Scherzer with 0.8 WAR, whose one stolen base has helped inflate this metric.

Consider that Márquez has achieved this value in only 44 plate appearances. Over the course of 500 plate appearances, that would be roughly equivalent to 7.7 WAR, an offensive figure not even Arenado has achieved in his career.

Since WAR is calculated based upon other players at a given position, this doesn’t mean Márquez is as talented at the plate as Arenado.

It does mean that the margin of offensive production when compared with his peers has been better for Márquez as a pitcher than Arenado as a third baseman.

Márquez spoke to BSN Denver about his skills in the batter’s box this season and the pride in which he takes during his plate appearances.

“I love to compete. That’s part of my DNA and things are going my way when I make contact, which I’m making tons of contact lately and finding holes too.”

Many baseball fans may be surprised to learn the name of the pitcher with the most career home runs is not Babe Ruth.

Wes Ferrell, playing predominantly for Cleveland and Boston in the American League, hit 38 home runs during his fifteen seasons as a pitcher.

Though a talented pitcher in his own right, Ruth hit only fourteen home runs as a pitcher during his time with the Boston Red Sox before being used almost entirely an outfielder.

In recent memory, pitchers who have attempted to surpass Ferrell—whose record may never be broken—include Carlos Zambrano and Madison Bumgarner with twenty-four and seventeen home runs, respectively.

But the man remembered most in these parts for his ability to hit the long ball as a pitcher is former Rockies pitcher Mike Hampton, the only Colorado pitcher to have won the Silver Slugger Award.

Winner of five Silver Sluggers, the most for any pitcher since the inception of the award in 1980, Hampton put up a 1.0 and 0.9 WAR as a batter during his two seasons in Colorado.

In his first year with the Rockies in 2001, he hit seven home runs, the most for a Silver Slugger winner in a season. He had sixteen runs batted in and his slash line of .291/.309/.582 in 79 at-bats was good for an .891 OPS.

Keep in mind, this all happened during the pre-humidor era of Coors Field.

Though the 23-year-old from Venezuela has just one home run this season, he has been tops or near the top of numerous categories for pitchers in 2018.

His slash line of .357/.357/.429 leads all pitchers with at least 20 plate appearances and his .786 OPS is more than .100 points better than his nearest competition of Scherzer and Greinke.

Some of his talent belies in an ability to put the ball into play. He trails only Julio Teheran (13.5%) in strikeout percentage, going down on strikes in just 13.6% of the time, or roughly once every seven plate appearance.

This has translated to a .400 BABIP, tied for tops in the NL, but there are other statistics supporting his candidacy for the Silver Slugger Award.

While an ability to make contact might translate to more double plays than normal for a pitcher, Márquez has yet to hit into one this season, a feat most of the top hitting pitchers cannot claim.

A popular weighted statistics for evaluating offensive talents that considers park factors and league adjustments is wRC+. Márquez ranks first in this category as well with a value of 98.

With a wRC+ of 100 being league average for a hitter, Márquez could be considered a decent bat off the bench should the Rockies exhaust all available pinch hitters.   

Such success is why opposing pitchers have been approaching Márquez differently at the plate this season.

Of the thirty pitchers with at least forty plate appearance this year, only Zack Greinke has seen less percentage of fastballs and at a higher velocity.

Marquez has noticed this difference, but it hasn’t factored into his approach, ultimately.

“I don’t really know or care what they’re thinking. I’m seeing white and hitting white,” he says.

During the first half of the season, 70.8% of the pitches thrown to Márquez were fastballs.

As his bat has developed throughout the season, this number has dropped drastically; in the second half, he’s seen only 48.3% fastballs. The rest have all been offspeed pitches.

“Yeah, they throw breaking balls,” he says. “They throw fastballs, too, but I just hit.”

To put this in perspective again, it should be noted that Nolan Arenado has actually seen more fastballs (53.9%) during his at-bats in the second half than Márquez.

All of this is to suggest that should German Márquez continue his ways in the batter’s box throughout the final weeks of this season, he will need to clear some space on his mantle this offseason.