skyking162

Who were the best of best baseball players in 2007? Here are the third basemen.

1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA

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 Third Basemen

10 - Troy Glaus (25 RAR, 6 FAA, 30 TVAR, .354 wOBA)
Hmmm, another Blue Jay who can field. I smell a pattern.

9 - Adrian Beltre (31 RAR, 4 FAA, 33 TVAR, .347 wOBA)
Beltre’s a rare breed — someone who was overpaid based on one fabulous season, but for some reason isn’t held to an insanely high standard. His 2007 would be worth $15 million on the open market today. Maybe that’s why.

8 - Mike Lowell (37 RAR, -1 FAA, 35 TVAR, .363 wOBA)
Lowell also created 7 character runs above average.

7 - Chone Figgins (40 RAR, -1 FAA, 38 TVAR, .368 wOBA)
That’s right, Mr. Figgins was the second-best third baseman in the AL. How’s that for a trivia question? Evidently he isn’t just useful as a cheap source of steals in fantasy baseball.

6 - Aramis Ramirez (39 RAR, 1 FAA, 40 TVAR, .368 wOBA)
Congratulations to ARam, who’s now underrated for a change. Why? He learned to field.

5 - Ryan Zimmerman (24 RAR, 18 FAA, 41 TVAR, .340 wOBA)
When can we start making the Scott Rolen comparisons? Maybe when Zimmerman kicks the offense into a higher gear. If not for Pedro Feliz, he’d be the Troy Tulowitzki of the hot corner.

4 - Miguel Cabrera (67 RAR, -14 FAA, 51 TVAR, .390 wOBA)
Cabrera is definitely NOT the Tulo of the hot corner, but he sure can rake. When someone with his bat is only the fourth-best player at a position, you’ve got some talented guys.

3 - Chipper Jones (71 RAR, 10 FAA, 80 TVAR, .423 wOBA)
Most fans don’t realize how great Chipper was in 2007. The rest seem to be willing to tell you about it ad nauseam. He and Chase Utley should be third and fourth in the NL MVP balloting.

2 - David Wright (76 RAR, 15 FAA, 89 TVAR, .420 wOBA)
And this guy should be first. He was a stud with the bat and a decent choice for the Gold Glove. I’ll have more on DWright later in the week when I make a guest appearance on a popular Mets blog.

10 - Alex Rodriguez (100 RAR, -2 FAA, 97 TVAR, .438 wOBA)
Some MVP seasons fly under the radar. This one didn’t. What if ARod’s contract allowed him to opt out after the 2006 season? Would he have? What sort of contract could he have signed? Is it a stretch to say that his 2007 earned him $50 million? $100 million? Crazy.

Here are the guys who finished in spots 11 through 25:

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Feliz,PedroSF		2	28	28	.296
Kouzmanoff,KevinSD	26	-1	24	.347
Rolen,ScottSTL		9	15	23	.316
Braun,RyanJMIL		46	-23	22	.412
Inge,BrandonDET		9	14	21	.299
Izturis,MaicerELAA	18	3	21	.335
Reynolds,MarkAARI	19	-2	16	.341
Gordon,AlexJKC		14	3	15	.310
Blake,CaseyCLE		23	-6	15	.333
Mora,MelvinBAL		11	4	14	.321
Blalock,HankTEX		16	-2	14	.366
Iwamura,AkinoriTB	20	-6	14	.339
Encarnacion,EdwiCIN	24	-10	13	.342
Counsell,CraigMIL	-2	13	11	.273
Hannahan,JackOAK	6	4	10	.351

Pedro Feliz was not only the best fielder in the majors relative to his position, he’s right in there with the best fielders overall (Granderson and Tulowitzky). He’s worth considering signing as a shortstop this off-season, and could turn out to be the steal of the free agent class if his bat returns to anywhere near average.

Ryan Braun deserves all the credit in the world for a stellar two-thirds of a season with the bat. But his fielding truly does put a huge dent in his value. And it might not be a fair criticism yet, but he really should learn to take a walk.

Jack Hannahan rated one run better than Eric Chavez, in only 169 plate appearances. Melvin Mora’s career path is in sync with Miguel Tejada’s. Alex Gordon and Delmon Young need to get together and figure out the difference between potential and performance.

Finally how about the worst third basemen of 2007 — those that played poorly, yet enough to really hurt their teams? Here’s the bottom five:

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Castro,JuanCIN		-7	-2	-10	.188
Callaspo,AlbertoARI	-10	-1	-11	.224
Punto,NickMIN		-14	2	-11	.258
Castillo,JosePIT	-9	-4	-13	.252
Gonzalez,AndyCHA	-11	-9	-21	.229

In 47 games, Joe Crede was 7 runs above replacement. His replacements, Josh Fields and Andy Gonzalez, combined to be 26 runs worse than replacement level. Is there anyone who didn’t see Nick Punto’s offensive collapse coming?

The rest of the best baseball players by position:
1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA

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