Laughable NL Central position rankings by ESPN

[toonsterwu]

You have to accept that Morgan/Gomez is a 2 win player without a bat in their hands to be a clear step ahead of Byrd. I don't think it's crazy to be a bit skeptical of the assumption that they're +17 or so with the glove.

 

Hanigan/Mesoraco over Soto is the one I really don't get. Also, how far has Mat Gamel fallen to be listed last on a list of first basemen that includes LaHair?

 

I don't know if it's as much Gamel falling as it is that there seems to be a growing belief that LaHair is legitimately a better offensive player than his Mariners days and has developed a power stroke without sacrificing too much of his contact ability. For the most part, I think people still think Gamel will hit a decent amount.

[sneakypower]

We should play Tony Campana every day. He should be an easy 4-5 WAR player over a full season.

you don't sound like you understand what you're talking about

 

If Gomez were to play a full season at last year's rate, he'd be a 5 win player, while being terrible at the plate and a below average baserunner. You have no problem with that evaluation?

i don't know, because that probably wouldn't ever happen

 

just treat Gomez's '11 defense like a three week stretch where a player hits .400; you're not going to expect him to keep it up, but he obviously helped the team immensely with his glove

 

and quit saying he was a below average base runner, as that definitely wasn't the case: success on steals lifted his wOBA 16 pts

[SouthSideRyan]

Fangraphs has Gomez listed as a -0.9 for baserunning. What am I missing?

[sneakypower]

that just involves things like taking the extra base, or getting thrown out trying to; stolen base prowess is rolled into wOBA* (Gomez netted something like 3.4 runs with steals, so even when discounting his mistakes while not stealing, roughly 1/8 of his value came from his performance on the basepaths)

 

here's the full primer for it

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/ultimate-base-running-primer/

 

 

*Tony Campana gained a full 30 points on his wOBA from steals, lol

[Post Count Padder]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/20589/nl-central-showdown-position-rankings

 

1. Hanigan/Mesoraco over Soto

2. Soriano the worst LF in the division

3. Jose Altuve ahead of Barney

4. Nyjer Morgan/Carlos Gomez ahead of Byrd

 

what the hell?

Two and three aren't far-fetched. One and four on the other hand...

[Northside Blues]

Altuve's minor league numbers are impressive. He's small, but he's got a little pop and he's very young.

[ELCABALLO45]

Fangraphs has Gomez listed as a -0.9 for baserunning. What am I missing?

 

That he's the best defensive CF in baseball?

[ELCABALLO45]

We should play Tony Campana every day. He should be an easy 4-5 WAR player over a full season.

you don't sound like you understand what you're talking about

 

If Gomez were to play a full season at last year's rate, he'd be a 5 win player, while being terrible at the plate and a below average baserunner. You have no problem with that evaluation?

i don't know, because that probably wouldn't ever happen

 

just treat Gomez's '11 defense like a three week stretch where a player hits .400; you're not going to expect him to keep it up, but he obviously helped the team immensely with his glove

 

and quit saying he was a below average base runner, as that definitely wasn't the case: success on steals lifted his wOBA 16 pts

 

Gomez played in 153 games in 2008 with the Twins and posted a 2.6 WAR.

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

Carlos Gomez over my dog would be egregious. And I don't even have a dog.

 

tsssss

 

Nice.

 

I wrote one out but I'll resist. Sucks toning down because I overload the awesome.

[UMFan83]

I was flipping though a fantasy baseball book today looking at position rankings and boy were the Cubs ugly. Granted fantasy rankings only have some relevancy to real rankings but it was brutal none the less.

 

Castro was the highest rated Cub at his position, ranking 3rd among SS. Soto was 15th among C. But after that we had Barney coming in something like 27th among 2B (recalling from memory), no Cub was mentioned among the top 50 at 3B. LaHair was 37th among 1B. Then in the outfield, they ranked the top 100 OFs and only 1 Cub was listed - DeJesus at 67. Same story with SP. they ranked 100 names and Garza was the only Cub in those 100 at 29th. I don't remember exactly what Marmol was for RP, but it was somewhere in the middle of the list of 30 names.

 

Don't expect a lot of people to have Cubs on their fantasy team to start the season at least.