Either/Or: Brandon Allen vs. Lars Anderson

by John Sickels on Oct 28, 2025 9:01 AM EDT

We haven't done any obsessing over Lars Anderson lately. A Rotowire reader asked me a good question a few days ago, asking me if I'd rather have Lars or Diamondbacks first baseman Brandon Allen. I said that Allen was more likely to contribute in '11 but that, while Lars had seen his stock drop with me, I hadn't given up hope for him.

What do you guys think? If you could have Brandon Allen or Lars Anderson for the next six years, who would you pick?

Poll

Which one would you want over the next six years?

Brandon Allen

505 votes

Lars Anderson

357 votes

862 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 13 comments | 0 recs |

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Read More: Brandon Allen (1B - ARI), Lars Anderson (1B - BOS)

Comments

Lars

Anderson

PPPPPPUNTO 4 MVP 2010

by punto4mvp on Oct 28, 2025 11:59 AM EDT reply actions

Brandon Allen

Love the power and walks. I expect some big seasons in the desert.

Also, his athleticism provides defensive flexibility to play 1B & LF.

R.I.P. cwhitman412, Frederick0220, & Mets2k9

by Dewey Finn on Oct 28, 2025 12:58 PM EDT reply actions

+1

Buster Posey>
"I thought he was going to punch me and I was totally accepting of it. I was planning a reason to thank him if he did." Brian Wilson on Buster Posey

by Gobroks on Oct 28, 2025 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Definitely Allen

And I don’t think it’s all that close. Of course, I have no basis for projecting ceiling, but Allen has a significantly higher floor than Lars.

I see Gaby Sanchez type of 2011, just with more walks and ks

by Galt on Oct 28, 2025 5:30 PM EDT reply actions

Surprised

I’m somewhat surprised that there’s this much differential.

by hrv2010 on Oct 28, 2025 6:29 PM EDT reply actions

I'm not too surprised.

Allen kind of destroyed Triple-A in the final three months of his minor league season before getting called up to Arizona.

From June through August: 364 PA, .280/.426/.579 with 22 homers, 18.4% BB%, 20.0% K%

I’m sorry, but those are just some flat-out awesome numbers.

Baseball is my preferred sport. It should be yours, too.
I'm an editor for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.

by Satchel Price on Oct 28, 2025 9:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Suffice it to say

That as a D-backs fan, I’m greatly looking forward to us declining LaRoche’s $7.5MM ($6MM net) option and replacing him with better production from Allen for $400K. If an option on a player for significantly less than his market value (if FanGraphs WAR is to be trusted) were ever as much of a no-brainer to decline as LaRoche’s this off-season, I’d like to see it.

Allen isn’t going to keep his LD% (i.e. BABIP) quite that high, but he’ll hit for enough power and has already demonstrated that he can take an exorbitant amount of walks at the big-league level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_9zTD9B98&feature;=related
Apparently there's an epilepsy warning on this video. But it's so incredibly cool.

by IHateSouthBend on Oct 28, 2025 9:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew

by alexwithclass on Oct 28, 2025 6:34 PM EDT reply actions

mighty?

was Lars ever “mighty” as a prospect?

by JMonteroFanatico on Oct 30, 2025 4:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, I'd say he was

He was ranked No. 40 in the game by BA coming into 2008. That year, he managed to make his way to Double-A and hit .316/.436/.526 in 41 games as a 20-year-old. He was ranked No. 17 by BA coming into 2009. He was miserable in 2009, and yet he was still regarded as the No. 87 prospect in the game by BA following that season.

Sounds like a guy that people really, really liked to me.

Baseball is my preferred sport. It should be yours, too.
I'm an editor for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.

by Satchel Price on Nov 3, 2025 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions