My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I likes it!

If Felix pitched for the Dodgers, you’d be saying “Lincecum who?”

Unless we see a significant increase in his peripherals, 2010 will likely be a disappointment for Kershaw fans.

Of course, pitching in Dodger Stadium has something to do with that luck, so it might not change as much as it should.

The UZR data is tiny and he certainly has the speed to be a plus defender

I’ll take a wait-and-see approach on that… McCutchen’s got the talent to be an above average CF.

Offensively… McCutchen must have had a hot streak all year because he was the same guy in AAA (303/361/493) that he was in the majors (286/365/471). Scouts have always argued that the power was in there somewhere and it started to manifest itself last year. If you don’t believe in it, fine, but I wouldn’t bet against it continuing.

I’ll buy Adam Jones, although I have some reservations, but Rasmus wasn’t nearly the same player offensively in ’08 and ’09 that he was in ’07 and McCutchen badly outhit him last year. I need to see it to believe it at this point.

What you call “uncharacteristically high HR/FB rate in his career year”, most people would call development.

I wasn’t being rude at all, let alone incredibly rude. You asked someone else a question and since I can’t read that guys mind I made a guess as to what his argument would be. Seriously man, if you’re posting on the internet and you think that comment was rude you either need to grow some thicker skin or stop posting. I mean that in the least rude way possible. I tried answering your question, didn’t attack you, or really do anything at all and you’re going to get offended by it? Seriously?

Anyway, in response to your post, Zimmerman posted a 4.1 WAR in his first full season, and he was younger at the time then Upton was this past season (only about a month younger but still). We have no idea if his defense fluctuates or the numbers do because of simple variance, but its clear that Zimmerman is indeed an amazing fielder as his UZR/150 is 12.0 in almost 600 career games now and he’s never been any worse than 2 runs above average in any season (and he was hurt that year). Oh and what do you mean by saying he’s injury prone? Other than last year he’s never missed more than 5 games in a season.

Look, I never even said that I’d take Zimmerman over Upton. I was simply trying to explain why someone may like Zimmerman more. No one is disputing the potential or production Upton has. Some people may just feel that Zimmerman has produced far more so far (he has, including a 7+ WAR season this year at 24) and doesn’t lag that far behind in terms of potential because he doesn’t need to be nearly as good of a hitter as Upton to post a better WAR.

I’ve never seen a single serious scholar of the subject suggest that 3B and corner OF are equivalent. 3B is far more valuable. The plays involved are SO much more difficult to make.