Baseball By Paul

I mentioned in the post with my centerfielder list that it would be a bit difficult because of the transition at the position. Should Mike Trout really qualify since he’s unlikely to play there much in 2013? How about Bryce Harper? I didn’t even really consider Shin-Soo Choo because he hasn’t yet played there for Cincinnati, but he was all over the MLBN lists. I love his bat, but his defense is a big fat TBD. For the record, I don’t think he’ll be abysmal or even bad. Probably just average.

Let’s take a look at how things shook out on the show.

Their primary list comes from The Shredder, which if you’ve watched Clubhouse Confidential at all (and you should be), you know is their device that churns out their projections and assessments of players based on the data. Sometimes not even Brian Kenny, their resident stats-guy, agrees with The Shredder and the former-ballplayer-turned-analyst never does. New twist this year is they get lists from Bill James, too!

Shredder (my rank):

10. Michael Bourn (3)

9. Adam Jones (7)

8. Jon Jay (NR)

7. Curtis Granderson (10)

6. Shin-Soo Choo (NR)

5. Jacoby Ellsbury (NR)

4. Austin Jackson (4)

3. Matt Kemp (5)

2. Andrew McCutchen (2)

1. Mike Trout (1)

Shredder matched seven of my selections including three perfect matches. It inexplicably had Bourn at 10 which led me to believe it isn’t counting defense all that much. I found that ranking patently absurd. Inclusions of Jay, Choo, and Ellsbury don’t bother one bit, but rating Bourn that low just doesn’t compute for me.

Jay is probably surprising to a lot of folks and it definitely raised my eyebrow when I saw him pop up about 6 minutes into the show, but upon further inspection, it’s not a bad selection at all. Just not over Bourn. Jay is 14^th in fWAR the last two years for CFs and his 110 wRC+ is 10^th ranked. He isn’t a power guy at all with just 14 homers the last two years, but his .301/.359/.412 is pretty strong, especially that .359 OBP.

Bill Ripken (my rank):

10. B.J. Upton (6)

9. Shin-Soo Choo (NR)

8. Curtis Granderson (10)

7. Michael Bourn (3)

6. Jacoby Ellsbury (NR)

5. Austin Jackson (4)

4. Matt Kemp (5)

3. Adam Jones (7)

2. Andrew McCutchen (2)

1. Mike Trout (1)

Maybe I’m overrating Bourn? Seven if better than 10, but I’m still surprised he’s rated out of the top five, especially from someone who is proud to ignore stats like Ripken. I figured he’d praise Bourn for “playing the game the right way”, moving the runner along, and his defense. He saved his praise for Jones who he feels will be an MVP candidate in 2013. At least Ripken got Upton in there. C’mon Shredder.

Bill James (my rank):

10. Angel Pagan (NR)

9. Michael Bourn (3)

8. Shin-Soo Choo (NR)

7. Austin Jackson (4)

6. Jacoby Ellsbury (NR)

5. Adam Jones (7)

4. Curtis Granderson (10)

3. Matt Kemp (5)

2. Mike Trout (1)

1. Andrew McCutchen (2)

OK fine, I’m overrating Bourn. Whatever! I don’t feel bad leaving out Ellsbury. I see an MVP-type season sandwiched around 92 terrible games the last three years. With the list being Top 10 RIGHT NOW, I can’t see how he has a very strong case, especially for the mid-list rankings he pulled on all three lists. Show me something, Jacoby.

Is it bad that Ripken and I had the most matches with eight? I matched seven apiece with The Shredder and James. Unique to my list were Harper at 9 and Denard Span at 8. Shredder went it alone with Jay, all 10 of Ripken’s appeared elsewhere, and James flew solo on Pagan.

I’ll do the 2B review soon and then SPs and RPs coming up later this week.

Posted on Monday: 01.14.2013 at 5:53 pm in Baseball, Centerfield, MLB Network, Off-Season, Rankings, Top 10   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL