In his first full season in the Majors, Kole Calhoun quickly cemented himself as a fixture atop the lineup. Does he still have room to grow into something more?
What happened in 2014?
Kole Calhoun’s 2014 season got off to a tentative start as he was not only a bit slow coming out the gate, but also still finding himself in something of a platoon situation early on. Then he went and ended up on the disabled list with an ankle injury just as he seemed to be heating up. However, after he got healthy, everything seemed to fall in place.
Scioscia quickly stopped sheltering Calhoun from most lefties and finally seemed to accept the idea of Calhoun as a full-time leadoff hitter, despite him not being the prototypical player for that role. Once that happened, Calhoun blossomed into a key part of the Angels lineup and something of a tone-setter with his all-out style of play. The numbers weren’t gaudy, but he clearly entrenched himself as a core part of the roster and a true fan favorite.
The only reason for pause with Calhoun is that he faded a bit in the second half, seeing his walk rate drop and his power production take a nose dive. Much of that can be attributed to an August slump, so there doesn’t appear to be any lasting concern that pitchers suddenly figured him out in the second half.
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*The MWAH projections are simply my best guess based off my own personal opinion and research (my wOBA calculation is approximate because my math skills are only “meh”)
What do the projections think he will do in 2015?
There isn’t a lot of differentiation in the projections. Heck, all three systems even project Calhoun to the exact same walk rate. They can’t even be original. The averages are within seven points of each other. The OBPs are with four. The only gap is in his power projection. It isn’t a big gap, but it is noticeable. Two of the systems see him falling off despite him having roughly a season and a half of a pretty consistent ISO number.
Does the Monkey agree or disagree?
I’m more bullish on Kole Calhoun than the projection systems, but not by very much. My suspicion is that the difference is that the systems ding him for his weakness against southpaw pitching. They aren’t wrong to do that. Kole did struggle a bit against lefties, especially in the power department. That’s sort of a new trend for him though. Kole never really had much of a platoon split at all in the minors. Then again, Scioscia did see fit to hide Kole against lefties a bit last year. I tend to think that was more just Scioscia not yet fulling trusting him than any substantive reason to shelter his PAs. I don’t expect him to be sheltered at all this year, not with the depth already stretched in the outfield, but I also don’t expect Kole to struggle facing lefties either.
THREE OPEN QUESTIONS FOR KOLE CALHOUN IN 2015
1) Is that second half slump cause for concern?
Probably not. Guys slump. It happens. It could just have been a rough few weeks in August where Calhoun got out of sync or maybe he was tired from playing pretty much every single day in the dog days of summer.
Of course, it is also possible that Calhoun finally hit his first calendar year in the league and the opposition finally cooked up a more educated plan of attack against him. Teams adjust their plans of attack against players all the time and this just may have been the first time that Calhoun encountered that at the big league level and it took him some time to recognize the changes and make adjustments of his own. The fact that he snapped out of his funk in September is encouraging that whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, for his slump won’t continue to plague him.
2) Should Kole Calhoun actually be batting leadoff?
He succeeded in the role last year so it almost seems like sacrilege to even pose that question, but there is valid reason to think he might be better off batting elsewhere. With a .178 ISO, Calhoun clearly has good power and the Angels could really use some more power in the middle of their lineup, especially with Hamilton either out or washed up. That power is a bit wasted in the leadoff spot and moving him down in the order wouldn’t waste his speed because he doesn’t have the speed of a normal leadoff type.
Frankly, he also didn’t exactly have the kind of OBP you look for from a high-end leadoff hitter. At .325 OBP last season, Calhoun’s OBP was actually pretty ordinary. He’s shown an ability to carry a higher OBP, so you don’t want to put too much credence into one year, but if his on-base and power numbers continue to hover where they did in 2014, then it really does become more of a question of fit.
To his credit, Calhoun has noted that there needs to be more of an emphasis on getting on-base in his role and has been looking at this game to see how he could put more of a focus on seeing pitches, working counts and getting on-base at a higher clip.
Of course, the other issue with this question is that the Halos don’t really have anything resembling a suitable replacement atop the order, so moving Calhoun into the heart of the order just isn’t an option at this point.
3) Has Kole Calhoun already reached his ceiling?
Calhoun only just finished his first full season in the bigs and is entering his age 27 season, but he also might have already peaked. He put up some great numbers in the minors, but he was always old for his level of play, so the hope for him to put up the same kind of numbers in the Majors is built on a track record that was already stacked in his favor. Still, he has all of 784 MLB plate appearances, so it just feels wrong to think that he can’t get much better.
The Final Word (and GIF)
“Dirty”
via @FlyByKnite
Kole Calhoun is just a dirty player. Not in the “cheap and unethical” sense of the word, but in the literal sense. He’s always dirty. His uniform is constantly covered in dirt and grass stains. For a team putting an emphasis on leadership in the last year or two, that’s important. Calhoun is the quintessential “hustle” player, something the Halos actually haven’t had a lot of in recent years, at least not in a player with a prominent role on the roster. His actual performance remains very important, obviously, but him continuing to achieve that performance by leading by example as the grittiest grinder that ever grinded is pretty important too.
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