Offseason Homework Assignments - Brandon Moss

This week we look at Oakland's LH hitting portion of the first-base platoon/ extra outfielder - Brandon Moss.

By the numbers

All Moss did was follow-up his breakthrough 2012 with another mash-tastic season. Below are his numbers.

Moss' defensive metric really brings down his WAR because the bat is some-kinda nice.

Moss' season line is dragged down somewhat by a poor month of May (wOBA of .264). Considering he was helping with a newborn, it is understandable that his production slipped (something I can relate with).

While Moss isn't quite Adam Dunn, he is quite the three-outcomes player. He walks at a decent clip (10%), strikes-out a lot (over 25%) and over 25% of his hits are home runs. Moss hits a ton of fly-balls (46% and 52% the last two seasons) and a decent clip clear the fence (26% and 19%, respectively). For even more fun, when Moss pulls the ball he has a league leading wOBA of .582.

That about sums-up Brandon Moss.

Areas for improvement

Hit LHP

After posting a respectable .337 wOBA against southpaws in 2012, Moss regressed in 2013 to a tune of .284. A major factor in this was a whopping 43.2% strike-out rate. Nearly one out of two at-bats he struck-out. Now we know strikeouts count just like any other out, but jeez. Even when Moss made contact, he has trouble elevating the ball against LHP. In 2013, his FB% drops to 39.5% compared to 53.8%. In 2012 he showed a similar split (35% vs. 49%).

I think Moss' swing is going to limit him against LHP, especially against guys who can up and/or away.

Just pull everything!

Moss pulls over 40% of his balls in play, but that should be over 50% if you ask me. I would like to see a 60/30/10 spread over pull/center/opposite.

Swing Analysis

If you have read this, you know I am not high on Moss' swing. Well, at least not the rear arm function. But as we saw last week, Moss' swing comes in at 5 frames and that counts for a lot. We will see in my Part Two of my swing grading series that his rear arm function hurts his swing path, so I wouldn't have predicted him to become a 30 HR hitter. But as I have said before, a lot goes into hitting beyond swing mechanics and Moss is a perfect example. As I said in the referenced article, Moss does have a good stride and lower body function, which combined with his strength helps him offset the rear arm function. But I still believe he could be more of a complete hitter - especially against LHP - if he improved his one swing flaw.

Anyway. Enough of that. Let's just set back and watch Moss simply KILL one. This bomb is the longest home run any Oakland player hit in 2013 - good for 449 ft.

Prediction

The swing instructor in me says Moss' swing flaw will catch up with him, and it indeed might. But the A's fan in me says just keep doubling down on a hot streak. I am predicting a carbon copy of 2013, basically a .265/.342/.540 slash line with 31 HR.