MLB 05' Batting Averages by Position

It's fun to watch the defensive spectrum at work. The defensive spectrum is yet another Bill James concoction. From the Bill James 1988 Abstract:

"[ - - 1B - LF - RF - 3B - CF - 2B - SS - C - - ]
with the basic premise being that positions at the right end of
the spectrum are more difficult than the positions at the left
end of the spectrum. Players can generally move from right
to left along the specturm successfully during their careers."

Let's look at averages at each position in 2005, ordering them by OPS:

POS  LG     AVG     OBP     SLG     ISO     OPS
1B   NL    0.280   0.361   0.482   0.202   0.843
     AL    0.271   0.343   0.457   0.187   0.800
     MLB   0.276   0.352   0.470   0.195   0.822


RF   NL    0.269   0.346   0.457   0.188   0.803
     AL    0.270   0.332   0.451   0.181   0.783
     MLB   0.270   0.339   0.454   0.185   0.793


LF   NL    0.272   0.348   0.457   0.185   0.805
     AL    0.278   0.333   0.437   0.158   0.770
     MLB   0.275   0.341   0.447   0.172   0.788


3B   NL    0.274   0.344   0.442   0.168   0.786
     AL    0.266   0.329   0.428   0.161   0.757
     MLB   0.270   0.337   0.435   0.165   0.772


CF   NL    0.275   0.340   0.437   0.162   0.777
     AL    0.268   0.322   0.407   0.139   0.729
     MLB   0.272   0.331   0.422   0.151   0.753


2B   NL    0.276   0.338   0.414   0.138   0.752
     AL    0.271   0.323   0.413   0.142   0.736
     MLB   0.274   0.331   0.414   0.140   0.744


SS   NL    0.265   0.313   0.379   0.114   0.692
     AL    0.276   0.331   0.412   0.136   0.743
     MLB   0.271   0.322   0.396   0.125   0.718


C    NL    0.250   0.313   0.388   0.138   0.701
     AL    0.257   0.313   0.393   0.136   0.706
     MLB   0.254   0.313   0.391   0.137   0.704

------------------------------------------------
DH   NL    0.249   0.331   0.383   0.134   0.714
     AL    0.259   0.337   0.440   0.182   0.777
     MLB   0.254   0.334   0.412   0.158   0.746

I put DH at the end, since they are the oddball group. Anyway, They line up almost exactly as teh defensive spectrum would put them , assuming the more difficult a position is to play, the worse the offensive stats from that position will be. Only LF and RF are in the wrong order, which isn't suprising since the defensive difference between the two is very small.

It's pretty interesting to notice the difference between AL and NL averages for DH's. That is quite the advantage in interleague play.