For most Angels fans, the only acceptable question about Kole Calhoun‘s 2014 season is, “how much do you love, Kole?” While he might be the most beloved Angel, non-Trout division, we are still going to poke and prod at his performance a bit. Try not to take it as a personal affront.
Was Calhoun actually good as a leadoff hitter last year?
If you judge your leadoff hitter primarily on OBP, Calhoun was merely passable with a .325 OBP. Other old school measures of leadoff hitting like stolen bases, of which he had just five to go along with a 0.8 baserunning runs rating, then he really doesn’t look all that great in the role. When compared to the .347 OBP he posted in 58 games in 2013, it makes it seem like he fell off.
However, if you just look at it from the standpoint of if the leadoff hitter was one of the most productive hitters, then Kole was an unqualified success. His 125 wRC+ is well above average. More OBP would be nice, but he offset that by hitting for more power than they typical leadoff hitter. So, yes, he was good in that role, he just didn’t look the part.
But should he still be a leadoff hitter next season?
Despite him being good in the role, it is worth considering moving him down in the order. While that power that he has is nice, it is more useful when hitting in a role where there would be people on-base when he rips a homer or smacks a double.
Assuming the Angels have no faith in Josh Hamilton next season, they should give real consideration to slotting Calhoun in the clean-up role behind Pujols. That would give them a much-needed injection of left-handed power in the middle of the order. But that only works if the Halos can find a suitable leadoff man to take his spot. Since there likely won’t be much roster turnover this winter, it is fairly safe to expect Calhoun to be conscripted into the leadoff spot once again. That solution has a limited shelf life though. Once Calhoun starts slowing down physically, it is going to be harder and harder to justify his lack of speed clogging up the bases in front of trout, especially if his OBP doesn’t pick up.
What exactly happened to his OBP anyway?
The easy answer is that his walk rate fell from 9.5% in 2013 to 7.1% in 2014. This is a guy that walked at 11.7% or better at each of his minor league stops, so that drop is quite a surprise. None of that explains why he walked less though.
If anything, you’d think Calhoun would have made a more concerted effort to take pitches since he was batting leadoff, but that clearly wasn’t the case. You can’t even blame him being exposed to more left-handed pitching as his walk rate against righties was 6.9% versus 7.8% against lefties. He did swing a bit more, 46.6% in 2014, than he did the year before, but given the small sample size in 2013, that may not be conclusive of anything.
One thing that does standout as a possible contributing factor is that Calhoun was pitched differently this year. Kole saw sharp decrease in fastballs and had them replaced by curveballs and changeups. That suggests that the league finally got a report on him and started tailoring their plan of attack to exploit whatever they perceived his weaknesses to be. This is what happens when you go from being an under-the-radar producer to a well-known key component of an elite offense.
Final Answer
Even with his OBP leaving a little something to be desired, 2014 was still a true breakout year for Calhoun. A few weeks on the DL aside, he showed that he can be a high quality producer for a full season in the Majors. He also fulfilled his manifest destiny of becoming a cult favorite among Angels fans. His weekly highlight reel diving catch, permanently dirty uniform, palpable grittiness and general ginger-hood are just too endearing to ignore.
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