Top Dback Batting 'Average'

The 2006 Diamondbacks weren't quite the worst hitting team in all of baseball, but their best hitter, Conor Jackson, was clearly the worst "best" hitter on any major league roster. At least as defined by park adjusted OPS(OPS+) with a 300AB minimum.

Jackson's team leading 101 OPS+, representing just 1% above league average production (regardless of defensive position), was lower than the top individual figure on any other MLB team, including marginal outfits like Tampa Bay (Rocco Baldelli 119 OPS+), Kansas City (Mark Teahan 117) and the Cubs (Aramis Ramirez 126).

Moreover, Arizona's second best hitter, Orlando Hudson(100 OPS+), also ranks dead last in OPS+ among MLB's 30 "second best" hitters. Rather than disparage the ebullient second baseman (who was, along with Johnny Estrada, the club's most valuable position player), fingers should instead point to the balance of Arizona's mediocre position players.

How 'bout one more go 'round, shall we?  Our third best hitter, by this measure, was Luis Gonzalez (97 OPS+). Could he conceivably rank...gulp...dead last among MLB's "thirds"?  Cue drumroll. The suspense is killing me...

No!!! Thanks to his late season, HOF-ish doubles surge, Gonzo comfortably outdistanced Buc's catcher Ronny Paulino (94), catapulting Luis all the way to..ta da...29th place among "third bests"!  Well, la di da.

Fanboys will inevitably point out that Stephen Drew(115) and Carlos Quentin(114) were excluded by our 300 AB minimum, but it's also worth pointing out that many others across MLB were similarly excluded - and even after extrapolating the local phenoms' figures across a full season and adding them in to an NL West comparison, Arizona's "top" hitters still sadly trail the relevant competition:

While it's true the Giants have little depth, bear in mind that the class of the division(LA & SD) boast numerous "replacements" for Piazza, JD Drew,etc.   Stick Gonzo(97) in for Drew, but dont forget about Furcal(107) and Martin(101) and all the talented LA backups.  Slick fielding Khalil Greene(96) and Marcus Giles (101 in 2005/06) hit well enough and catcher Josh Bard actually had a higher 2006 OPS than Piazza.  Simply put, these are much better offensive teams than Arizona, as is Colorado sans Barmes. Arizona cannot hit with these groups, and with San Francisco's addition of Dave Roberts(100), Aurilia(112) and the signing of Barry Bonds, the upstarts in Sedona Red may still have an uphill battle hitting with any of their divisional rivals.