skyking162

Who were the best of best baseball players in 2007? Here’s the final position — catcher.

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.

Catcher defense is a strange beast. Instead of being responsible for turning balls in play into outs, the main responsibilities of a catcher are preventing passed balls and helping the pitcher control the running game. Therefore, fielding grades can’t be computed in the same way as for other positions. I don’t have a way of rating catchers, but Justin came up with a basic system a couple weeks ago. Do I think it’s more accurate than sliced bread? No. Do I think it’s better than assuming all catchers are league-average? Definitely. Of course, if you disagree, feel free to ignore the fielding ratings. (Blanks mean the player wasn’t listed on Justin’s chart due to lack of playing time.)

2007’s Top Ten Catchers

10 - Carlos Ruiz (6 RAR, 6 FAA, 19 TVAR, .298 wOBA)
19 total runs above replacement is probably a touch low, to be honest. I’m using a positional adjustment of 10 runs over the course of a full season, when it really should be more like 15. Either way, Carlos Ruiz is the most boring player to make the top ten players at any position.

9 - Yadier Molina (3 RAR, 11 FAA, 20 TVAR, .302 wOBA)
Here’s a Flying Molina Brother that lived up to his defensive reputation in 2007. Who needs hitting?

8 - Chris Snyder (10 RAR, 6 FAA, 21 TVAR, .317 wOBA)
Snyder’s another Diamondback secret weapon, producing at better than league average. He’s also the only guy other than Eric Byrnes I don’t expect to take a step forward next year.

7 - Brian McCann (15 RAR, -2 FAA, 22 TVAR, .318 wOBA)
Did the Braves trade the wrong young catcher? It’s tough not to love McCann’s 2006 performance, but 2008 will go a long ways towards showing whether it was a fluke or not.

6 - Kenji Johjima (10 RAR, 10 FAA, 28 TVAR, .326 wOBA)
We’re getting to the part of the catcher list bordering on All-Star level. Really. When you consider the unique skill set for catchers, there aren’t a lot of guys who can play the position. And when you consider that playing catcher likely causes a decrease in hitting, guys like Johjima are quite valuable relative to the alternatives.

5 - Jason Varitek (18 RAR, 7 FAA, 33 TVAR, .327 wOBA)
The Captain isn’t the stud he used to be, but he’s still earning his salary.

4 - Joe Mauer (28 RAR, 10 FAA, 45 TVAR, .344 wOBA)
You know, even if this is a typical Joe Mauer season going forward, it’s still huge. Other guys who are 45 runs above replacement: Ryan Howard, Brian Roberts, and Alex Rios.

3 - Russell Martin (34 RAR, 7 FAA, 50 TVAR, .366 wOBA)
Up until two hours ago I firmly believed Martin was over-hyped and over-rated. Not any more, although he’s no MVP candidate.

2 - Victor Martinez (48 RAR, 6 FAA, 64 TVAR, .364 wOBA)
He’s probably overrated by a few runs relative to other catchers thanks to playing first base one game per week. But he and Grady Sizemore were the two most valuable Cleveland position players in 2007.

1 - Jorge Posada (62 RAR, -2 FAA, 68 TVAR, .408 wOBA)
This guy IS an MVP candidate, if you define candidate as a player who belongs on the ballot, probably top five.

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

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Napoli,MikeALAA		15	-2	17	0.342
Bard,JoshSD		18	-8	16	0.336
Zaun,GreggTOR		13	-3	15	0.308
Schneider,BrianWAS	2	6	15	0.289
Buck,JohnRKC		9	-1	14	0.312
Molina,BengieSF		5	-1	13	0.306
Castro,RamonRNYN	11		13	0.377
Shoppach,KellyBCLE	7	3	12	0.332
Rodriguez,IvanDET	0	3	12	0.302
Hernandez,RamonBAL	5	0	11	0.311
Suzuki,KurtKOAK		7	0	10	0.321
Soto,GeovanyCHN		8		9	0.450
Paulino,RonnyLPIT	1	-1	8	0.306
Treanor,MattAFLA	6	-2	7	0.335
Pierzynski,A.J.CHA	0	-2	6	0.292

Ivan Rodriguez just might be one of the most overrated players in the game. Evidently Josh Bard isn’t just bad at catching Tim Wakefield’s knucklers. Geovany Soto deserves to be the Cubs starting catcher in 2008, unless the Rays can snag him as part of a Carl Crawford deal.

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

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Nieves,WilNYA		-7		-6	0.17
Bako,PaulBAL		-9		-6	0.241
Hall,TobyCHA		-9		-6	0.203
LaRue,JasonKC		-10	0	-7	0.225
Kendall,JasonOAK	-15	-2	-12	0.244

Jason Kendal was just horrible in 2007. How many more years will teams allow him to be their starting catcher? Can he rival Brad Ausmus for whatever dubious honors Ausmus has accumulated?

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

Popularity: 7% [?]

Who were the best of best baseball players in 2007? Here are the designate hitters, who continue to surprise me with their lack of depth.

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.

Because I don’t have data for defensive innings at designated hitter (does that even make sense?), players who were primarily DHs but played significant innings in the field are still treated as full-time DHs. That’s obviously not fair, but shouldn’t make a huge difference.

2007’s Top Ten Designated Hitters

10 - Jeff Clement (4 RAR, 0 FAA, 4 TVAR, .539 wOBA)
Yup, a late-season call-up with 16 hot at-bat was the tenth most productive “DH” in 2007. I understand not wanting to commit big bucks to a player who won’t contribute in the field, but there’s got to be a spot for Pat Burrell or Adam Dunn as a DH somewhere, no?

9 - Sammy Sosa (14 RAR, 2 FAA, 6 TVAR, .316 wOBA)
At $500,000, Sosa’s 2007 was a decent deal for the Rangers and made for a great comeback story. But here’s hoping your favorite team doesn’t think he’s anything more than a part-time, minimum-wage lefty-basher.

8 - Billy Butler (17 RAR, -1 FAA, 8 TVAR, .331 wOBA)
Butler can definitely swing a bat. If you want to help settle a bet among friends, do you think he’ll outperform Jack Cust next year?

7 - Jason Giambi (16 RAR, -1 FAA, 9 TVAR, .347 wOBA)
It seems that the Yankees are willing to play Giambi at first base until he breaks down. That’s not a bad plan given what they have, but there should have been a better plan earlier.

6 - Jose Vidro (30 RAR, -3 FAA, 13 TVAR, .341 wOBA)
By my count, the Mariners had four guys who should be DHs: Vidro, Richie Sexson, Raul Ibanez, and Jose Guillen. Somebody tell Bill Bavasi he can’t use a designated hitter for all of Jose Lopez, Rafael Betancourt, and the starting pitcher.

5 - Frank Thomas (37 RAR, 0 FAA, 24 TVAR, .361 wOBA)
No, 500 homeruns probably isn’t as impressive as it used to be. But when you hear people use that argument to discount The Big Hurt’s career, remind them he also walked, hit for a high average, and cranked his fair share of doubles.

4 - Travis Hafner (44 RAR, 1 FAA, 31 TVAR, .351 wOBA)
Hafner went from MVP candidate to a big question mark. What happened? I’m hoping we’ll look back in a few years and see it as a fluke season.

3 - Gary Sheffield (43 RAR, 3 FAA, 33 TVAR, .372 wOBA)
Sheffield was a forgotten man in Detroit. He missed 29 games, but still managed to rack up 589 plate appearances.

2 - Jim Thome (51 RAR, 0 FAA, 40 TVAR, .392 wOBA)
In 2001, Jim Thome got off to a slow start and I proclaimed his career was over. That was the last time I was wrong about anything.

1 - David Ortiz (81 RAR, -1 FAA, 67 TVAR, .427 wOBA)
Based purely on offense, Big Papi was the third most productive hitter in the majors, a step behind Magglio Ordonez. Sure, his homerun total was down, but he made up for that in many other ways.

How about the worst designated hitters of 2007 — those that played poorly, yet enough to really hurt their teams? Here’s the bottom five:

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Jones,GarrettTMIN	-3	0	-5	.258
Piazza,MikeOAK		3	0	-5	.317
Cantu,JorgeLTB		-4	-1	-7	.230
White,RondellMIN	-5	0	-8	.244
Hillenbrand,SheaLAA	-7	-1	-13	.258

That Mike Piazza makes this list really hurts me. I’m holding out hope that he never quite recovered from his early season injury and 2008 will silence his doubters. Remember when people were up in arms because the Red Sox gave away Shea Hillenbrand? Yeah, much ado about nothing.

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

Popularity: 9% [?]

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

Popularity: 7% [?]

Who were the best of the best in 2007? Here are your shortstops.

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 Shortstops

10 - Miguel Tejada (20 RAR, 6 FAA, 31 TVAR, .333 wOBA)
It’s strange to think Miguel Tejada was merely league-average on offense last season. At least he continued to be an asset in the field. Does he have another high-octane season left in him or have we lost another one to the aging curve?

9 - Jack Wilson 24 RAR, 4 FAA, 32 TVAR, .325 wOBA)
This is actually a typical Jack Wilson season. He overachieved a bit with the bat, but his glove was a little worse from what Pirate fans have come to expect. You don’t want your team to overpay for a guy like this, but he’s surprisingly useful.

8 - Orlando Cabrera (29 RAR, -1 FAA, 34 TVAR, .332 wOBA)
Yup, he’s a Gold Glove winner. Actually, Cabrera’s the epitome of modern shortstops — a solid defender with a league-average bat. No more of that old-school all-field, no-hit crap.

7 - Edgar Renteria (35 RAR, -2 FAA, 36 TVAR, .379 wOBA)
Any real discussion of BABIP should include Edgar Renteria as a case study. Let’s see if he likes the AL any better this time around.

6 - Khalil Greene (26 RAR, 10 FAA, 41 TVAR, .329 wOBA)
Greene’s offensive contribution gets a seven run bump because of PETCO. He gets a five run bump for being a shortstop and a ten run bump for being a really good shortstop. Therefore, if you’re just looking at Greene’s raw offensive numbers, you’re underrating him by almost 2.5 wins. You shouldn’t do that.

5 - Carlos Guillen (43 RAR, -4 FAA, 41 TVAR, .355 wOBA)
Guillen’s defensive numbers actually weren’t as bad as I would have guessed. That being said, the Tigers needed somebody to outhit Sean Casey at first base and it’s believed Guillen’s knees could benefit from not playing shortstop full time. He’ll become a plus defender at first, but won’t be any more valuable overall unless his bat gets a boost from less daily stress in the field.

4 - Troy Tulowitzky (24 RAR, 22 FAA, 51 TVAR, .334 wOBA)
It’s true that Tulo’s bat is overrated by playing in Coors. It’s also true that he saved his team as many runs with his glove as Hanley added with the bat (at least relative to each other).

3 - Hanley Ramirez (67 RAR, -19 FAA, 53 TVAR, .413 wOBA)
Hanley’s offensive contribution was on par with Barry Bonds and Ryan Howard, and was half a win better than Matt Holliday. Even when your glove is bad, I’m ok with that.

2 - Jimmy Rollins (51 RAR, -3 FAA, 54 TVAR, .369 wOBA)
I’m sure to discuss how Rollins is a poor choice for MVP a few more times this off-season, so for now I’ll just point out how impressive it is to have four shortstops worth five wins above replacement in the same league. It’s strange to consider Rollins as the old guy of the bunch.

1 - Jose Reyes (39 RAR, 15 FAA, 60 TVAR, .345 wOBA)
That’s right, in a down year Reyes was still the best shortstop in the majors. His hitting skills tapered off from 2006, but his baserunning and fielding skills were perhaps the best they’ve ever been.

Here are the players who finished between 11th and 25th:

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Bartlett,JasonAMIN	14	7	25	.319
Jeter,DerekNYA		41	-24	22	.363
Escobar,YunelATL	21	-2	21	.365
Young,MichaelTEX	26	-11	20	.332
Hardy,J.J.MIL		16	-2	19	.329
Gonzalez,AlexCIN	11	4	18	.329
Keppinger,JeffSCIN	15	-1	15	.367
Vizquel,OmarSF		-8	19	15	.263
Furcal,RafaelLAN	6	4	15	.309
Eckstein,DavidSTL	16	-5	15	.331
Peralta,JhonnyCLE	23	-13	14	.335
Guzman,CristianWAS	14	-3	12	.377
McDonald,JohnTOR	-7	16	12	.258
Pena,TonyFKC		-8	13	10	.267
Theriot,RyanSCHN	2	4	9	.297

That’s a fun list of players. Jason Bartlett gave Ron Gardenhire one big “I told you so” performance. Yunel Escobar was Brian McCann-lite. Derek Jeter had an off year with the bat, bringing down his overall value to just about league average. Yup, 20 million bucks for league average. Tony Pena, Omar Vizquel, and John McDonald were truly awful hitters, yet helped their teams just as much as Jhonny Peralta and David Eckstein.

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

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Wilson,JoshWAS		-2	-3	-5	.216
Uribe,JuanCHA		-3	-7	-5	.275
Lopez,FelipeWAS		2	-14	-8	.298
Wilson,JoshTB		-3	-8	-10	.281
Zobrist,BenTTB		-9	-4	-12	.177

Both the Nationals and Rays have two players in the bottom five. At least the Rays eventually found someone (Brandon Harris) who’s competent, and it’s nice to hear they’re looking to upgrade again.

Links to entire series, as they’re published:
1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA

Popularity: 7% [?]

Who were the best of the best in 2007? Here are your right fielders, left fielders with good arms.
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 Right Fielders

10 - Jeremy Hermida (28 RAR, 5 FAA, 30 TVAR, .373 wOBA)
This is why I love these articles. Off the top of their head, who would ever name Jeremy Hermida as a top ten right fielder? He’s the epitome of the type of player small-market teams should have in their system. He doesn’t do anything spectacularly, but he’s good and cheap. In a few years, let some other team overpay via trade or free agency.

9 - Shane Victorino 18 RAR, 15 FAA, 30 TVAR, .342 wOBA)
Speed doesn’t slump, even on defense. And defense wins championships. New cliche: don’t play the Rockies in September or October.

8 - Jayson Werth (22 RAR, 11 FAA, 31 TVAR, .378 wOBA)
How about that, a second Philadelphia right fielder in the top ten. Werth played about a quarter of his innings in left and only had slightly over 300 PAs on the season. But he hit the crap out of the ball and fielded like a mad man.

7 - Brad Hawpe (39 RAR, -3 FAA, 33 TVAR, .356 wOBA)
To be honest, I thought 2006 was a fluke. I was wrong. Hawpe is proof that skinny guys can hit for power, too.

6 - Austin Kearns (25 RAR, 14 FAA, 34 TVAR, .340 wOBA)
Walks and defense. Don’t forget about ‘em. Partnering with Ryan Church in left, Kearns gives the Nationals the best defensive corner outfield tandem.

5 - Jack Cust (43 RAR, -4 FAA, 36 TVAR, .397 wOBA)
This ranking isn’t quite fair to the rest of the right fielders. Yes, Cust played more games in the field than at designated hitter, but because I don’t have data on “defensive” innings played at DH, his positional adjustment thinks he’s purely a right fielder. We should probably chop five to seven runs off this rating.

4 - Corey Hart (39 RAR, 2 FAA, 39 TVAR, .371 wOBA)
Corey Hart is 6′6″ and weighs only 200 pounds. Just thought you’d like to know. There are thoughts of moving him to center field next year, but it doesn’t look like the defensive ability is quite there. Although, it would be fun to make Bill Hall change positions again.

3 - Alex Rios (43 RAR, 5 FAA, 44 TVAR, .359 wOBA)
Rios’ first half was awesome, culminating in a trip to the All-Star Homerun Derby. His second half? Pretty similar except for a drop in power. Offensively, 2007 was pretty similar to 2006 except that Rios played in 33 more games. Nothing wrong with being consistently good.

2 - Vlad Guerrero (75 RAR, -6 FAA, 64 TVAR, .376 wOBA)
Vlad’s homerun power continued to decline in 2007, although tying a career-high with 45 doubles kept his slugging percentage from dipping too much. We may have seen the last of Vlad the Impaler, however.

1 - Magglio Ordonez (86 RAR, 3 FAA, 84 TVAR, .430 wOBA)
In a dump trade at the end of 2006, I had the option of trading for either Rocco Baldelli or Ordonez in my big-time bragging rights fantasy league. I chose poorly. Nobody else broke the 80 RAR barrier in 2007 except Alex Rodriguez. A .363/.434/.595 line in 679 PAs? Yeah, that’ll work.

Here are the players who finished between 11th and 25th:

Player/TM		RAR	FAA	TVAR	wOBA
Winn,RandySF		29	  2	 28	.343
Francoeur,JeffBATL	26 	  7	 28	.335
Giles,BrianSD		27	  5	 28	.347
GriffeyJr.,KenCIN	41	-10	 26	.354
Buck,TravisOAK		20	  8	 26	.367
Abreu,BobbyNYA		41	-11	 25	.360
Ethier,AndreELAN	23	  5	 25	.325
Markakis,NickBAL	39	 -9	 24	.359
Scott,LukeBHOU		23	  0	 20	.357
Gutierrez,FrankRCLE	11	  9	 19	.332
Kemp,MattRLAN		21	 -2	 17	.383
Guillen,JoseSEA		36	-17	 15	.356
Ankiel,RickSTL		13	  1	 14	.363
Teahen,MarkTKC		19	 -2	 12	.319
Drew,J.D.BOS		22	 -7	 12	.330

Whenever I see Randy Winn’s name, I always think of Quinton McCracken. Other than being Devil Rays in the late nineties, they have nothing in common. Winn’s actually an underrated asset. Two young Dodgers make the list — Andre Either and Matt Kemp. Remind me again why they’re looking to add an outfielder? Rick Ankiel did more to help the Cardinals in 47 games than JD Drew did to help the Red Sox in 140 games. Which one will have the better 2008 season?

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
Rivera,JuanLAA		-1	 -2	 -4	.298
Eldred,BradPIT		-5	  1	 -5	.144
Mackowiak,RobSD		-3	 -1	 -5	.247
Young,DelmonDTB		 4	-10	-10	.310
Pena,WilyMoBOS		-4	 -9	-13	.283

I still can’t get over Delmon Young’s line. He didn’t hit and he didn’t field. He still has potential, but how long will he continue to play every day without showing improvement?

Links to entire series, as they’re published:
1B | 2B | SS | 3B | DH | LF | CF | RF | CA

Popularity: 10% [?]