second base who's the best?
ok what do we got here we got transactions happening but let's continue with our player analysis and we can talk about teams once things settle.

i know it's not a popular method we wanna talk about everything *as* it happens we want to know everything immediately we want to have a smart opinion about everything. i didn't reed that i thought of it.

second base:

Player           aab   w   k hr 23  wal  con  pow  avg

young,michael    694  47  89 22 42 .063 .872 .106 .313

shortstop now these positions are a year old. but yeah very nice con pow combo and the playing time is a bonus. not a difference maker but a strong contributor. he plays in an easy park and he doesn't walk that much.

roberts,brian    647  72  95  4 52 .100 .853 .101 .273

don't put too much stock in that pow he only had four home runs which indicates the doubles are luck. but he's young: good bet to get stronger. i'm feeling generous; we'll call him a strong contributor.

second base probably has the highest con of any position. some sort of hand-eye coordination thing or something.

loretta,mark     636  67  45 16 49 .095 .929 .110 .334

by far the number one difference maker among second basemen. super con and high pow in the toughest park to hit (tied with la, seattle, san fransisco, oakland). shea is pretty tough too. actually petco is probably slightly tougher than all of them. anyway a .095 with a .929 con is unheard of. when you see a con that high and a pow that high you'll see an avg that high (cf beltre, pujols, etal.)

i think he's the only difference maker.

soriano,alfonso  615  43 121 28 36 .065 .803 .130 .280

went to an easier park and declined. those numbers are not good. turned out to be older than we thought he was. his 15 minutes are over. he's just a guy.

belliard,ronnie  601  62  98 12 49 .094 .837 .121 .282

that's quality production. we keep waiting for him to age off the map, but he keeps maintaining his skills. borderline strong contributor.

boone,bret       597  59 135 24 30 .090 .774 .117 .251

yes he plays in a tough park, but he's losing his power, and striking out more and more. just a guy.

castillo,luis    568  76  68  2 19 .118 .880 .042 .291

like juan pierre, he can get on base against anybody. strong contributor.

jimenez,d'angel  565  84  99 12 31 .129 .825 .092 .270

the white sox could've had a usable second baseman, but they don't like to be smart. he's a guy, but the reds win here because he's cheap.

womack,tony      559  39  60  5 25 .065 .893 .060 .307

popular target of sabermetricians because they don't understand the value of contact. they think he's a black hole, but he's a guy.

kent,jeff        551  55  96 27 42 .091 .826 .152 .289

used to be a difference maker, then he was a strong contributor, now he's a guy.

miles,aaron      528  31  53  6 18 .055 .900 .051 .293

barely usable.

bellhorn,mark    526  93 177 17 40 .150 .663 .163 .264

a guy, but the most interesting guy around. as the only second basemen who walks and has power, mark bellhorn has a definite niche. nice to see his playoff heroics after the way he's been jerked around the past few years.

polanco,placido  509  39  39 17 21 .071 .923 .081 .298

great contact. legitimate skills. guy.

infante,omar     508  41 112 16 36 .075 .780 .131 .264

yeah he's an outfielder now? or still a second baseman. omar infante is a little guy but he started swingin a big stick this year. up-and-comer.

hudson,orlando   493  55  98 12 39 .100 .801 .129 .270

guy with slight up-and-comer qualities.

durham,ray       475  63  60 17 36 .117 .874 .128 .282

ok ray durham is the other difference maker. if he can stay healthy.

kennedy,adam     470  54  92 10 25 .103 .804 .093 .278

guy.

scutaro,marco    455  17  57  7 33 .036 .875 .101 .273

guy. but cheap. lucky for the a's, they have a smart general manager. when mark ellis went down, marco scutaro stepped in.

vidro,jose       414  49  43 14 24 .106 .896 .102 .294

yeah, vidro is good. strong contributor. needs to stay healthy.

cora,alex        407  64  41 10 13 .136 .899 .063 .264

that's an impressive combination of wal and con. especially in dodger stadium. with his defense, i think we gotta say strong contributor.

ginter,keith     390  43 100 19 25 .099 .744 .152 .262

too many strikeouts.

giles,marcus     386  45  70  8 24 .104 .819 .101 .311

strong contributor, but a good chance to be the number one difference maker next year.

castillo,jose    385  24  92  8 17 .059 .761 .085 .256

he's young, but he's no good.

perez,neifi      385  24  41  4 18 .059 .894 .064 .255

i guess he's a shortstop. neifi perez, like womack, is disparaged by the ignorant, but he has definite skills. super defense, super contact.

the rest are guys.

relaford,desi    384  42  56  6 14 .099 .854 .061 .221

newhan,david     376  31  72  8 22 .076 .809 .099 .311

walker,todd      376  47  52 15 23 .111 .862 .117 .274

cabrera,jolbert  364  24  70  6 21 .062 .808 .092 .270

cairo,miguel     364  32  49  6 22 .081 .865 .089 .292

young,eric       347  49  28  1 27 .124 .919 .088 .288

nice late-career peak.

gomez,chris      344  30  41  3 12 .080 .881 .050 .282

blum,geoff       341  24  58  8 21 .066 .830 .102 .215

hairston,scott   340  22  88 13 21 .061 .741 .135 .248

rivas,luis       338  14  53 10 24 .040 .843 .119 .256

possible up-and-comer. yeah we been sayin that for years but he showed flashes of power this year. course he has never shown an inclination to wait on a pitch, so he'll probably never put it together.

sanchez,rey      288  14  28  2 17 .046 .903 .073 .246

it was fun to watch him play defense in 2001.

menechino,frank  269  41  52  9 17 .132 .807 .120 .275

utley,chase      269  17  40 13 13 .059 .851 .114 .266

up-and-comer.

green,nick       266  16  63  3 18 .057 .763 .103 .273

martinez,ramon   264  27  40  3 16 .093 .848 .085 .246

anderson,marlon  258  13  38  8 12 .048 .853 .091 .237

grudzielanek,ma  258  16  32  6 13 .058 .876 .084 .307

wilson,enrique   245  15  20  6  9 .058 .918 .067 .213

hill,bobby       234  32  39  2  9 .120 .833 .056 .266

spivey,junior    230  32  48  7 13 .122 .791 .110 .272

nunez,abraham_o  183  10  36  2  9 .052 .803 .075 .236

alomar,roberto   172  15  31  4  8 .080 .820 .085 .263

kata,matt        163  13  29  2 11 .074 .822 .097 .247

berg,dave        156   6  27  3  4 .037 .827 .054 .253

smith,jason      155   9  37  5 11 .055 .761 .136 .239

gotay,ruben      154  11  36  1 10 .067 .766 .093 .270

ruben gotay has potential, but he has a lot of work to do. he's young, though.

garcia,danny     139  31  34  3  8 .182 .755 .105 .232

mcewing,joe      139   9  32  1  4 .061 .770 .047 .254

delgado,wilson   130  15  29  2  5 .103 .777 .069 .292

keppinger,jeff   117   6   7  3  2 .049 .940 .045 .284

vina,fernando    116  14   9  0  5 .108 .922 .047 .226

garcia,jesse     115   2  16  1  5 .017 .861 .061 .252

gutierrez,ricky  103   9  14  0  3 .080 .864 .034 .214

well, there you have it. two difference makers, 5 1/2 strong contributors. michael cuddyer i think is listed among third basemen. i'm tryin to think who might be in the minors that's worth mentioning. that astros kid. chris burke. and rickie weeks of the brewers. and the dodgers just gave 3.5 million to jose valentin, which seems like a waste.
- posted by julien @ 2:51 PM