Loving Ty Wigginton

After the Orioles signed Garrett Atkins and Miguel Tejada in the offseason, it looked like the writing was on the wall for Ty Wigginton. There was no way I though they would pay Wigginton to sit on the bench but the injury to Brian Roberts during Spring Training may have led The Warehouse to keep him around as insurance. (Wigginton is not a good fielder at second base but at least he would be an option.)

And it's lucky that Wigginton is still here because he has been carrying this moribund offense all season. The line on Wigginton:

           AVG  OBP  SLG OPS+ wOBA  WAR  HR 
Wigginton .327 .410 .712 199  .464  .80   6
 

Sick, sick numbers. Now let me throw a little cold water on Wigginton's performance...it can't last.

But there is a bright side. This performance is not altogether fluky based on the peripherals. Wigginton has a BABIP of .289 compared to a career mark of .297 so he's coming by these numbers honestly, it's not all a product of lucky breaks.

His HR/FB ratio is 35.3% compared to a career mark of 13.1%. That will come down...but maybe not as far as you might think. Career years happen. Look at the 2008 version of Aubrey Huff.

This is what ZIPS projects Wigginton to do for the rest of the year:

           AVG  OBP  SLG OPS+ wOBA HR 
Wigginton .283 .340 .480 199  .355 17
 

...which would leave him with a final line of:

           AVG  OBP  SLG wOBA HR 
Wigginton .289 .349 .508 .370 23
 

If I would have told you that Ty Wigginton had a good shot at OPSing .850+ before the season, would you have believed me?

If Dave Trembley is smart, he'll trot Ty out there nearly every single day for the rest of the season. This is going to be Wigginton's career year...so ride the wave.