As the season progresses, it becomes harder and harder to dissaggregate the previous month's data from the season-to-date data. One of these situations occurs with Baseball Prospectus' VORP.
We are fortunate to have it available in downloadable form, but it is a cumulative stat that includes both April and May. What I am interested in seeing are the May VORP leaders and laggards.
With some planning, I have the May VORP performances. Not surprisingly, Minnesota Twins' catcher Joe Mauers tops everyone after his 11 HR/.404 AVG May. What may surprise you is the appearance of Houston Astrso' shortstop Miguel Tejada at #10 and Oakland A's retread Adam Kennedy at #13 amongst the hitters.
For the laggards, there aren't any surprises as fantasy players kind of already know who has stunk. Ricky nolasco and Scott Kazmir? No kidding! Garret Atkins? Maybe I should look more closely at the Rockies' roster.
Top 15 VORPs for May:
| NAME | End of May | End of April | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Mauer | 32.4 | No April | 32.4 | N/A |
| Justin Morneau | 30.1 | 7.8 | 22.3 | 2.859 |
| Justin Upton | 22.4 | 0.5 | 21.9 | 43.8 |
| Zack Greinke | 43.8 | 22.6 | 21.2 | 0.9381 |
| Justin Verlander | 16.2 | -4.1 | 20.3 | 4.9512 |
| Jason Bartlett | 31.2 | 11.8 | 19.4 | 1.6441 |
| Hanley Ramirez | 24.4 | 5.2 | 19.2 | 3.6923 |
| Roy Halladay | 29.6 | 10.5 | 19.1 | 1.819 |
| Carl Crawford | 21.7 | 2.7 | 19 | 7.037 |
| Miguel Tejada | 23 | 4.8 | 18.2 | 3.7917 |
| Mark Teixeira | 16.9 | -0.9 | 17.8 | 19.7778 |
| Jered Weaver | 27.7 | 10.2 | 17.5 | 1.7157 |
| Adam Kennedy | 17.1 | No April | 17.1 | N/A |
| Albert Pujols | 33 | 15.9 | 17.1 | 1.0755 |
| David Wright | 20 | 3 | 17 | 5.6667 |
Bottom 15 VORPs for May:
| NAME | End of May | End of April | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Nolasco | -18.1 | -4.6 | -13.5 | -2.9348 |
| Felipe Paulino | -6.6 | 5.4 | -12 | -2.2222 |
| Jordan Schafer | -6.3 | 5.3 | -11.6 | -2.1887 |
| Scott Kazmir | -10.6 | 0.6 | -11.2 | -18.6667 |
| Garrett Atkins | -11.2 | -0.4 | -10.8 | -27 |
| Jorge Cantu | 2.8 | 13.5 | -10.7 | -0.7926 |
| Jo-Jo Reyes | -8.3 | 2 | -10.3 | -5.15 |
| Daniel Cabrera | -13.4 | -3.2 | -10.2 | -3.1875 |
| Brett Anderson | -7.5 | 2.3 | -9.8 | -4.2609 |
| Sidney Ponson | -7.5 | 1.7 | -9.2 | -5.4118 |
| Glen Perkins | 3.2 | 12.3 | -9.1 | -0.7398 |
| Adam Eaton | -10.5 | -1.4 | -9.1 | -6.5 |
| Jeff Francoeur | -7.9 | 0.8 | -8.7 | -10.875 |
| Carlos Silva | -8.3 | 0.1 | -8.4 | -84 |
| Armando Galarraga | 4.2 | 12.4 | -8.2 | -0.6613 |