I’m going to post a Top 50 of Right Now list eventually, but I need to rate about 150 players total to make sure I don’t accidentally leave somebody’s name off the list. But I thought I’d post a couple lists involving the players I’ve already rated for the Top 10 and Top 25 (go read them if you haven’t already — and there’s some great discussion in the comments.)
First, how about the best hitters? The rating represents wins above average and includes a half-win bonus for AL hitters. In no particular order within each tier…
5.5
Pujols and ARod
5.0
David Ortiz and Miguel Cabrera
4.5
Chipper Jones, although he might deserve to be lower thanks to his injury issues.
4.0
Manny Ramirez, Ryan Howard, Lance Berkman, Hanley Ramirez
3.5
Chase Utley, David Wright, Matt Holliday, Justin Morneau, Vlad Guerrero, Prince Fielder, and Jason Giambi
3.0
Grady Sizmore, Joe Mauer, Josh Hamilton, Mark Teixeira, Jason Bay, JD Drew, Milton Bradley, Nick Markakis, Ian Kinsler, Pat Burrell, Ryan Braun, Jermaine Dye, Magglio Ordonez, Adam Dunn, and Carlos Quentin.
2.5
Brian McCann, Brian Roberts, Evan Longoria, Kevin Youkilis, Carlos Guillen, Adrian Gonzalez, Derrek Lee, Derek Jeter, Ryan Ludwick, and Carlos Pena.
There’s a decent chance I’ve missed a few names that should be in one of those groups (probably someone with little defensive value that I didn’t bother rating yet). But is there anybody you feel I’ve drastically misplaced?
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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.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:40 am
While there are some places where one might quibble–is 92 games really enough to rate Longoria as a +2.5 wins on offense? Could be, but I am not sure–nothing seems drastically off, i.e. I can’t see rating anyone more than .5 wins off of where they are here.
Where do you think Barry Bonds as of the end of 2007 would rank? I would guess +4.5 as a hitter. He is -.5 position, and probably -1.0 on defense. That would put him around the 13-17 best players in the game, which looks about right. Of course, it is not clear that having taken all of this time off he is still a +4.5 hitter.
July 26th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I agree, I may not have mentally-regressed Longoria as much as I should. There are a few other hitters I might have done that with — Ankiel for one. Maybe.
+4.5 sounds about right, maybe 4.0 for his lack of playing time recently. And I agree with you defensively, although I’d count him as a DH (-1.5) and give no fielding rating. That way you can ignore injuries and assume he plays every day. Actually, you might want to give him the FULL DH penalty of -2.0. DHs tend to hit worse at DH than when they play the field by .5 wins. So if we’re using Bonds’ hitting line as a fielder, we should account for the decline moving to DH.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:13 am
I’m not sure how you can put Hanley and Wright on different levels as hitters, I have them extremely close. Just curious of your thought process on that one.
What would be you thoughts on Brian Roberts vs. BJ Upton, Aramis, Cust (probably the guys who just missed)?
Definitely think your missing Thome.
Me looking at this list makes me feel bad for Nick Johnson, who just can’t stay healthy and makes me think just what happened to Hafner.
Looks pretty good.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
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