Who were the best of the best in 2007? Here are your left fielders, sluggers who could use a little more work with the glove.
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A quick review of the stats presented: RAR is offensive runs above replacement, FAA is fielding runs compared to positional average, TVAR is total value (the important one), and wOBA is a rate stat measuring offensive performance on the OBP scale. For more complete explanations, check out the original article.
2007’s Top Ten Left Fielders
10 - Pat Burrell (44 RAR, -15 FAA, 25 TVAR, .383 wOBA)
I’m constantly amused by Philadelphia fans who get frustrated with Burrell’s low average instead of his inability to track down flyballs. He’s a poor man’s Adam Dunn who really should be a DH when he signs his next contract.
9 - Ryan Church 26 RAR, 5 FAA, 30 TVAR, .353 wOBA)
If you had nine Ryan Church’s on your team and a middle-of-the-road pitching staff, you’d be a playoff contender.
8 - Matt Diaz (26 RAR, 10 FAA, 34 TVAR, .369 wOBA)
The Braves were full of surprising players in 2007: Diaz, Kelly Johnson, Chipper Jones’ MVP resurgence, and, unfortunately, Andruw Jones’ Mario Mendoza impersonation.
7 - Hideki Matsui (44 RAR, -5 FAA, 35 TVAR, .365 wOBA)
No, he’s not the star he was in Japan, but Godzilla is an important piece to the Yankees. There are 23 teams not getting this type of production from their left fielder.
6 - Adam Dunn (52 RAR, -11 FAA, 37 TVAR, .387 wOBA)
Only 11 runs below average in the field? I can live with that. Adam Dunn, you may once again wear the captain’s arm-band for my man-crush team.
5 - Carl Crawford (34 RAR, 8 FAA, 37 TVAR, .360 wOBA)
Have we seen Crawford’s best or does he have a .320/.400/.500 season in him?
4 - Alfonso Soriano (40 RAR, 2 FAA, 38 TVAR, .367 wOBA)
The center field experiment didn’t quite work, but maybe he can spell Jacque Jones there against lefties. No, Soriano’s not quite worth his contract, but sometimes you just have to get over that and root for the guys you like to watch play. (Feel free to remind me of that on a weekly basis.)
3 - Eric Byrnes (32 RAR, 16 FAA, 44 TVAR, .348 wOBA)
Get anywhere near Arizona and Byrnes is grossly overrated. But I think more of the rest of us need to be aware of how good this guy is. In Oakland he appeared to be a fluke at the plate and an injury waiting to happen in the field, but neither stereotype has turned out to be correct.
2 - Barry Bonds (67 RAR, -6 FAA, 59 TVAR, .384 wOBA)
Bonds was a win and a half better than every other non-Holliday left fielder in 2007, which is pretty impressive for a guy who only played in 126 games. While he probably shouldn’t be expected to outdo that next year, a contending team could do a lot worse than sign him for a season.
1 - Matt Holliday (61 RAR, 11 FAA, 67 TVAR, .394 wOBA)
MVP? No. One of the top 15 players in the majors? Definitely. While playing left field and hitting in Coors aren’t two of the more difficult things to do, Holliday does them both extremely well. He’s the perfect example of a player who’s both overrated and an excellent player. For a guy who was underrated a year ago, I’m sure he’ll take it.
Here are the players who finished between 11th and 25th:
Player/TM RAR FAA TVAR wOBA Bradley,MiltonSD 21 4 24 .436 Willits,ReggieGLAA 28 -2 24 .338 Ludwick,RyanSTL 18 8 23 .350 Anderson,GarretLAA 30 -5 22 .340 Alou,MoisesNYN 28 -4 22 .387 Ibanez,RaulSEA 40 -15 21 .358 Harris,WillieATL 11 10 19 .328 Jenkins,GeoffMIL 15 7 18 .317 Lee,CarlosHOU 41 -18 17 .356 Gonzalez,LuisLAN 21 -1 16 .344 Kubel,JasonJMIN 21 -2 16 .338 Gathright,JoeyRKC 6 10 15 .306 Willingham,JoshDFLA 31 -12 14 .368 Duncan,ChrisESTL 26 -8 14 .360 Hairston,ScottASD 11 3 13 .420
First of all, you might be wondering where Manny Ramirez is. I’ll answer that by wondering where his bat went in 2007. Sure, 34 runs above replacement is good, but it’s not what you’re looking for from a guy who’s 31 runs worse than average in left field. Now, the Green Monster plays games with fielding data and I wouldn’t be surprised if Manny was more like -20 runs. But that’s still not stud material.
If you want to get your fill of Raul Ibanez commentary, head on over to USSMariner.com — if you’re an Astros fan, just replace Ibanez’s name with Carlos Lee’s. Milton Bradley’s a free agent, but will be coming off of serious knee surgery. He didn’t hit with the A’s and then tore it up with the Padres. What kind of deal do you offer a guy with so many talents and question marks? With all the teams in need of a decent center fielder, it might be worth giving Joey Gathright a shot at the right price (not very much).
Finally, how about the worst left fielders of 2007 — those that played poorly, yet enough to really hurt their teams? Here’s the bottom five:
Player/TM RAR FAA TVAR wOBA Johnson,ReedTOR -6 1 -7 .272 Kata,MattTEX -2 -5 -8 .242 Monroe,CraigDET -9 4 -8 .268 Gibbons,JayBAL -6 -1 -10 .268 Casto,KoryCWAS -8 -2 -10 .141
Toronto was hoping Adam Lind would make Reed Johnson expendable, but no such luck. The Tigers rightly shipped out Craig Monroe and the Orioles should do the same with Gibbons if there are any takers. This might be the last time I ever type “Kory Casto”.
Links to entire series, as they’re published:
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.