Utley and Beyond

by sourstuff on Mar 20, 2006 7:01 PM EST

In today's preseason game between the Twins and the Phillies, Chase Utley hit a triple and a double off of Johan Santana. Despite the obviously miniscule sample size, I take this as an awesome sign. If Utley improves his .219 average against lefties to at least .240/.250, will that make him the number one second baseman in all of baseball (if you don't have him there already)? Or are people like Soriano, Kent, Figgins, and Mark Lemke (just kidding) still ahead of him.

In an effort to not be one of those guys who writes a really short post and fills it up with FILLERFILLER, I have one more question.

What do you suspect the road to the majors for Brandon Wood and Kendry Morales is gonna look like? Comeplete with promotions and cups of coffee.

i.e. Morales starts in Triple A in 2006. Gets small cup of coffee in September. Starts at first base in 2007 for the Angels.

Cheers,
chinmj

0 recs | Comment 24 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Soriano is soooooooooo over rated

Soriano hits homeruns, knocks in runs and steals some bases as long as he was in Yankee stadium or Texas stadium. His away stats are terrible - he had a .265 OBP away from Texas last year, .224 average and the only thing equal was stolen bases. What do you think his line will look like this year with 81 games in Washington, games in Shea and Florida - a line might look something like this - .252/.302/.400 with 20 hrs and 60 rbis and he will look like an average hitting 2B at best. If he moves to the OF - he will be as useful as Emil Brown.

by slickwdb on Mar 20, 2006 7:21 PM EST 0 recs

Citing road stats

is pointless.
There is a hangover effect for road games for guys in hitters parks.
Guys who are true 230/270/330 hitters cant do what Soriano did in Arlington.
Sure it inflates his offense but not that much

by nms on Mar 20, 2006 8:32 PM EST up 0 recs

Soriano

Considering that he's refusing to play unless he's at 2B, I'd say Emil Brown will be a heck of a lot more useful than Soriano...

by calig23 on Mar 20, 2006 9:19 PM EST up 0 recs

ya

i hate him.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.asp?sport=MLB&id=2727

by sourstuff on Mar 20, 2006 9:32 PM EST up 0 recs

soriano

sure he is not a very good ballplayer (IMHO) but you absolutely cannot blame him, does a LF with his numbers get $10M+ in arb, no way. If he get's moved his lifetime earnings prob go down like 40%.

It is a purely rational move, and I think it is his right.

by aclax2k on Mar 20, 2006 10:18 PM EST up 0 recs

well

he's going to find that few (if any) teams really wants to give him a multi-year deal for 10MM/per @ 2B IMHO.

"I may not be a class act, but I'm an American." Ron Artest on wanting to play for the Olympic team

by natsfan2005 on Mar 21, 2006 12:06 PM EST up 0 recs

At the same time

He's more likely to lose money by not playing a spot at all, or getting negative press for refusing to be a team player and causing problems.

by brandnew on Mar 20, 2006 11:21 PM EST 0 recs

Oh, and

Utley is already the best 2B in the game, and he doesn't have a lot of competition.

by brandnew on Mar 20, 2006 11:22 PM EST 0 recs

uh, wait a minute

Jorge Cantu is no slouch, and he's younger. ~ J

by blissedj on Mar 21, 2006 12:15 AM EST up 0 recs

Cantu

Cantu's got nice counting stats - 28 HR/117 RBI - but his other stats are barely average - .286/.311/.497/.808

Roberts? He's gotten consistent playing time and the few years before this year he was a sub-.800 OPS player. This past year was a very good one for him, but you have to wonder if his second half numbers - .274/.351/.419/.770 - compared to his first half - .345/.416/.591/1.007 - was because of injuries, or just coming back to earth after an extended hot streak. It's possible that Roberts repeats those numbers, or even improves upon them, but it's not likely considering his frame, and history.

Utley was a stud and has been highly regarded as having that kind of power for a while... granted he did hit in a great pitcher's park, but so did his main competition: Soriano.

by brandnew on Mar 21, 2006 1:29 AM EST up 0 recs

What?

"Cantu's got nice counting stats - 28 HR/117 RBI - but his other stats are barely average - .286/.311/.497/.808"

I'm a Rays' fan and don't think Cantu is as good as Utley, although I think when he's 26 he'll have better stats than Utley did at 26, but barely league average. Sure, I'd love for his OBP to be higher, but an 808 OPS for a 2B is not league average, in fact it puts him in the well above-average category.

"Chuck Lamar, you're fired"- Stuart Sternburg.

by Tyler on Mar 21, 2006 1:38 AM EST up 0 recs

Cantu

oh jeez, how could i forget that counting stats don't matter anymore. i'm sure the Rays would prefer Cantu draw walks than knock in runs. ~ J

by blissedj on Mar 21, 2006 12:34 PM EST up 0 recs

Actually...

... if they're smart, they would. OBP is SO much more important than RBIs. RBIs come about because OTHER guys hitting before Cantu are getting on base. Guys hitting behind Cantu will get fewer RBIs if he doesn't improve his OBP. RBIs are a side effect of OBP, which is the central matter.

by abbreviatedman on Mar 21, 2006 12:53 PM EST up 0 recs

different strokes

and all that.....

guess i'm not smart. hey, if you want to build a ball club with everybody walking and lead the league in runners LOB go for it.

for my team i'll take a guy that does damage. Cantu isn't batting leadoff. his PRIMARY JOB is to KNOCK IN the guys on base, not join them by walking. i don't want my 3-4-5 hitters standing around with a bat on their shoulder. Cantu can play on my team even with 0 walks every year as long as his K's stay around 80. he makes great contact for a young power hitter.

obviously i'm just dumb, but not a complete idiot. of course RBIs come from the guys in front of Cantu getting on base. those in front of him weren't exactly spectactular in that role.

driving in 117 runs as a 23 year old 2nd baseman is a phenomenal feat. and it's not like he had Ichiro and Derek Jeter in front of him either. so yea, he'd drive in even more with better OBP hitters in front of him. he made the most of his situation. anybody can talk all they want about OBP, Cantu drove in runs which lead to wins (even if Tampa wasn't very good). if nobody is going to drive 'em home, the walk is worthless. ~ J

by blissedj on Mar 21, 2006 5:14 PM EST up 0 recs

Not a bad point.

But I'd say that any hitter has two jobs, to knock them in and to get on himself. A decent hitter can do one of them. A good hitter can do both of them. Cantu can do one of them, and Utley does both. Chase Utley is hardly a one-dimensional walker who leaves men on base. He slugged slugged a bunch higher last year, and I'd bet you anything he has more RBIs than Cantu next year.

Which is not to say that Cantu is worthless by any means. I really like the guy, he's a good hitter for a 2B, and, not knowing the D-Rays, he seemed to come from nowhere last year, which was very exciting (except for when the Sox faced him).

by abbreviatedman on Mar 21, 2006 7:15 PM EST up 0 recs

i do agree

that it would be best to have all hitters able to get on base and knock in runs. but in reality it is difficult to build the entire lineup in that mold :-)

in no way have my previous messages been meant to knock Utley. he is fabulous!

after reading some of the earlier messages in this diary there was no mention of Cantu and i thought it was only fair to put him in the mix of top 2B. check back in a few years and see if Jorge has improved his BB rate along with quite possibly a 40HR season.

thanks abbreviatedman, good points. ~ J

by blissedj on Mar 21, 2006 10:21 PM EST up 0 recs

I agree that it's not close..,..

Brian Roberts has put up a higher EQA than Utley for each of his three seasons.

Last year, Roberts blew Utley out of the water.

by dkdc on Mar 21, 2006 12:39 AM EST up 0 recs

Only problem with Utley

He's already 27. But, he's the best offensive second baseman in the game right now. Roberts comes close, but his serious 2nd half decline casts some doubt...

Kent was about equal to Utley, strikign out less, walking slightly more, but he doesnt steal bases.

So Utley will be the best this year as well, and most likely next. Depending on how quickly Rickie Weeks blossoms into a superstar...

(After pitcher tells GM he will pitch half of the games, complete them and they will all be QS)The GM has an orgasm and a heart attack at the same time.-Shamus

by ohad on Mar 21, 2006 5:56 AM EST 0 recs

Utley rocks

Chase hits good pitching. The list of guys who have taken Pedro Martinez deep twice in one game is a short one. Utley is on it.

Yeah, that seems like a random criteria. But it adds context to his performance last year which was well above average.

I also agree with the poster who says Utley is an exceptional defensive player. IIRC he graded out nicely in the Fielding Bible.

I have Weeks in my league and I'd love to trade him + something for Utley on just a basis of total all around defensive and offensive performance. But I think he'll go thru the roof in our restricted FA system next winter.

"I may not be a class act, but I'm an American." Ron Artest on wanting to play for the Olympic team

by natsfan2005 on Mar 21, 2006 12:12 PM EST 0 recs

also

he rocked a homer off of zach duke (lefty) today too.

by sourstuff on Mar 21, 2006 9:20 PM EST up 0 recs

Stud

I'd like to take a minute to talk about David Wright. 2005 numbers:

.291/376/.540 28 hr 105 rbi 93 r 22 sb 39 2b

What a sick breakout season....

Some of you might have noticed an error, however, but I would imagine that most of you just read that line and thought they were good numbers. Those are actually Utley's 2005 numbers, only slightly below Wright in most categories, and above in others. What a stud.

by DougDascenzo on Mar 21, 2006 8:03 PM EST 0 recs

lol

What a delightfully underhanded Utley-boosting post.

by abbreviatedman on Mar 21, 2006 8:08 PM EST up 0 recs

great numbers

Too bad for the Phillies that Utley broke out at 26 and Wright broke out at 22.

Policeman: Sir, are you classified as human? Korben Dallas: Ah, negative. I am a meat popsicle.

by finman on Mar 22, 2006 11:12 AM EST up 0 recs

Utley

I traded for Utley at around June 1 last year in a fantasy league (I netted him and Brett Myers for Mulder and Oliver Perez), and he impressed me so much that I snagged him in the third round this year. He's one of my favorite fantasy players because he helps in all categories as a 2B.

by limozeen on Mar 22, 2006 12:44 AM EST 0 recs