Players · D · 1B · 2012 regular season
Matt Downs
- Age
- 28
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 6' 1"
- Weight
- 190 lb
- Number
- #16
- Born
- March 19, 1984 in Tuscaloosa, AL, United States
- MLB debut
- June 16, 2009
- dbWAR
- .8 Regular season, 4 season(s)
- PA
- 191
- AVG
- .202
- OBP
- .253
- SLG
- .371
- wRC+
- 71 100 = avg
Matt Downs was a first baseman for the Houston Astros. In 2012 he hit 8 home runs and knocked in 16 RBIs, notching 36 hits across 191 plate appearances in 89 games. His batting average was .202, 20.5% lower than the league average of .255. He reached base at a .253 clip and slugged .371, for an OPS of .623, 13.9% lower than the league mark of .724 — 12th of 17 on his team, and 369th of 459 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He made contact on 77.6% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 71 wRC+ puts his offence 29% below average. That comes to -0.5 dbWAR — -6.7 runs with the bat, +0.2 for the ballpark, -1.3 on the bases, -0.3 on double plays, -1.7 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2012 regular season.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2012. These terms sum to -4.6 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.
WAR by season
Batting Regular season
Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only.
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 104 | 98 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 24 | .184 | .231 | .398 | .272 | 23.1% |
| vs RHP | 87 | 80 | 18 | 2 | 3 | 14 | .225 | .279 | .338 | .277 | 16.1% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2012.
Loading 132 batted balls…
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2012.
Situational hitting
How Matt Downs hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 191 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .202 | .253 | .371 | .274 |
| Bases empty | 107 | 101 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 25 | .218 | .262 | .406 | .294 |
| Runner on first | 51 | 49 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 9 | .224 | .255 | .347 | .267 |
| Runners on | 84 | 77 | 14 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 13 | .182 | .241 | .325 | .248 |
| RISP | 33 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 4 | .107 | .219 | .286 | .217 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2012.
Not in the 2012 data: exit velocity and launch angle, first recorded in 2015. The play-by-play goes back to 2005, but the measurements on each pitch and batted ball arrived later, so the panels built from them are left off this season.
Compare Matt Downs with…
Side by side with up to three others.
Similar players
Nearest 2012 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.