Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Mets outfield
OK, so the Mets have one guy now who is a certified (deserved) Gold Glover. And they have another guy who's never won one, but if memory serves probably deserved one in 2002 and/or 2003. That's two great centerfielders in one outfield.
And before I go on, it is clear that the Mets will take significant value from Mike Cameron if they move him to a corner outfield position. By Win Shares, he derived about 1/3 of his value in 2004 from his fielding, and this was enough to (sadly) make him the team's MVP in the eyes of Win Shares. But they will probably keep Beltran in center, still leaving them with two great fielders in the outfield.
The set-up made me think of the 1970s Phillies, which my father has described to me, confirmed by a similar description by Bill James. Garry Maddox covered so much ground in center, that big slow Greg Luzinski basically played with his back turned to him, so that he only had to cover from where he stood to the foul line.
Couldn't the Mets basically search for a good-hitting, but relatively slow and poor fielding rightfielder, have him play about 1/5 of the outfield, with the other 80% covered by their two great fielders? So I set out looking for NL outfielders whose value from fielding is disproportionately low.
The best candidate is Adam Dunn, who got about 5% of his value from his "fielding" last year.
Ryan Klesko is a decent candidate as well.
Jason Bay is a good candidate, but he's obviously not acquirable.
Wily Mo Pena would rank 4th on this list, but what's the point.
So who makes the 5th best candidate? Cliff Floyd.
Hmm, maybe the Mets are already set up for this strategy. Cliffy doesn't seem too popular these days, so I wonder what it would take to get Adam Dunn? Meanwhile, the best hitting outfielder in the AL who has fielding stats down in the range of these guys, is one Bernie Williams, although when I set out to look, I was convinced that Manny Ramirez would make the perfect candidate.
A middle of the order of Beltran, Manny, and Piazza....sorry Mets fans, you had your chance, we'll keep him, thank you very much.
And before I go on, it is clear that the Mets will take significant value from Mike Cameron if they move him to a corner outfield position. By Win Shares, he derived about 1/3 of his value in 2004 from his fielding, and this was enough to (sadly) make him the team's MVP in the eyes of Win Shares. But they will probably keep Beltran in center, still leaving them with two great fielders in the outfield.
The set-up made me think of the 1970s Phillies, which my father has described to me, confirmed by a similar description by Bill James. Garry Maddox covered so much ground in center, that big slow Greg Luzinski basically played with his back turned to him, so that he only had to cover from where he stood to the foul line.
Couldn't the Mets basically search for a good-hitting, but relatively slow and poor fielding rightfielder, have him play about 1/5 of the outfield, with the other 80% covered by their two great fielders? So I set out looking for NL outfielders whose value from fielding is disproportionately low.
The best candidate is Adam Dunn, who got about 5% of his value from his "fielding" last year.
Ryan Klesko is a decent candidate as well.
Jason Bay is a good candidate, but he's obviously not acquirable.
Wily Mo Pena would rank 4th on this list, but what's the point.
So who makes the 5th best candidate? Cliff Floyd.
Hmm, maybe the Mets are already set up for this strategy. Cliffy doesn't seem too popular these days, so I wonder what it would take to get Adam Dunn? Meanwhile, the best hitting outfielder in the AL who has fielding stats down in the range of these guys, is one Bernie Williams, although when I set out to look, I was convinced that Manny Ramirez would make the perfect candidate.
A middle of the order of Beltran, Manny, and Piazza....sorry Mets fans, you had your chance, we'll keep him, thank you very much.
# posted by Darlucky @ 5:15 PM 
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many former red sox players fitting this description come to mind. jose canseco, troy o'leary, brian daubach, tom brunansky, rob deer, andre dawson. not all great hitters, but definitely poor fielders.
-O
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-O
# posted by 
: January 11, 2005 at 9:44 PM
: January 11, 2005 at 9:44 PM << Home
