Name P Age AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS
David Ortiz* dh 32 .297 .400 .593 153 573 111 170 38 0 44 138 97 121 1 0
Manny Ramirez lf 36 .278 .381 .493 123 442 75 123 26 0 23 98 71 98 0 1
AVERAGE 1B——————- 1b——.290 .367 .489—————————————————————
Kevin Youkilis 1b 29 .286 .388 .444 134 475 79 136 35 2 12 69 71 100 3 2
AVERAGE LF——————- lf——.289 .358 .469—————————————————————
AVERAGE RF——————- rf——.288 .355 .471—————————————————————
AVERAGE 3B——————- 3b——.285 .352 .462—————————————————————
Dustin Pedroia 2b 24 .292 .359 .431 150 548 75 160 44 1 10 62 51 43 3 1
Jacoby Ellsbury* cf 24 .297 .349 .392 134 549 87 163 34 3 4 58 37 72 43 6
AVERAGE CF——————- cf——.283 .345 .436—————————————————————
J.D. Drew* rf 32 .259 .362 .412 104 352 59 91 22 1 10 60 56 77 1 2
AVERAGE 2B——————- 2b——.287 .346 .427—————————————————————
Chris Carter* 1b 25 .278 .339 .438 143 553 56 154 33 2 17 78 50 71 4 2
Jason Varitek# c 36 .249 .350 .408 112 385 50 96 20 1 13 63 56 102 2 1
Eric Hinske* rf 30 .248 .335 .437 104 286 44 71 20 2 10 41 35 82 3 1
Mike Lowell 3b 34 .272 .333 .429 150 552 70 150 40 1 15 64 50 63 1 0
AVERAGE SS——————- ss——.285 .339 .418—————————————————————
Brandon Moss* rf 24 .264 .334 .424 152 550 58 145 51 2 11 72 56 147 4 4
Coco Crisp# cf 28 .271 .333 .410 138 527 82 143 33 5 10 65 48 79 22 5
Jon Van Every* cf 28 .253 .322 .448 118 384 37 97 27 3 14 53 36 147 6 6
Jeff Bailey 1b 29 .247 .334 .399 103 348 37 86 22 2 9 50 38 85 3 3
Jed Lowrie# ss 24 .253 .326 .406 136 522 54 132 47 6 7 58 55 96 3 3
Julio Lugo ss 32 .267 .335 .382 142 539 77 144 35 3 7 62 52 96 29 8
AVERAGE C———————- c——.270 .329 .414—————————————————————
Tony Granadillo# 2b 23 .259 .322 .389 132 506 72 131 38 2 8 54 37 84 2 1
Keith Ginter 3b 32 .235 .326 .381 90 315 32 74 20 1 8 48 36 59 2 0
Josh Reddick* rf 21 .266 .305 .433 112 448 43 119 20 2 17 60 24 68 6 7
George Kottaras* c 25 .243 .316 .389 112 375 35 91 34 0 7 43 39 101 1 1
Bobby Kielty# lf 31 .255 .325 .362 75 235 30 60 13 0 4 34 24 56 0 0
Bobby Scales# 2b 30 .248 .318 .381 126 423 45 105 26 3 8 49 40 107 9 3
Doug Mirabelli c 37 .246 .318 .355 88 276 35 68 15 0 5 36 29 65 1 0
John Barnes sp 32 .270 .310 .382 89 296 32 80 18 0 5 32 16 26 3 3
Junior Spivey 2b 33 .231 .327 .354 58 195 24 45 12 0 4 22 25 52 6 3
Joey Thurston* 2b 28 .264 .316 .377 124 435 51 115 28 3 5 48 27 57 10 10
Gil Velazquez ss 28 .256 .306 .334 101 293 39 75 16 2 1 27 19 57 3 1
Dusty Brown c 25 .235 .282 .371 96 345 33 81 24 1 7 39 21 87 1 0
Alex Cora* 2b 32 .241 .311 .330 80 203 27 49 8 2 2 21 13 23 4 2
Chad Spann 3b 24 .235 .289 .364 123 439 37 103 28 1 9 45 30 128 1 4
Andrew Pinckney# 3b 26 .230 .277 .375 122 456 46 105 32 2 10 52 26 111 3 5
Joe McEwing 2b 35 .245 .289 .338 89 302 28 74 17 1 3 31 15 59 5 4
John Otness c 26 .244 .281 .326 95 344 29 84 20 1 2 29 13 42 1 1
Royce Clayton ss 38 .236 .286 .311 94 305 32 72 20 0 1 28 20 70 5 2
Kevin Cash c 30 .188 .266 .307 73 218 19 41 11 0 5 22 21 69 0 1
Argenis Diaz ss 21 .225 .275 .299 113 479 50 108 28 2 1 34 29 121 5 8
* - Bats Left
# = Switch-Hitter
Name CThr 1b 2b 3b ss lf cf rf
Ortiz* Pr
Ramirez Pr
Youkilis Av Av
Pedroia Av Fr
Drew* Av Fr Av
Ellsbury* Vg Av Vg
Carter* Fr
Varitek# Fr
Hinske* Av Pr Pr Pr
Lowell Vg
Moss* Av Pr Av
Crisp# Vg Vg
Van Every* Av Fr Av
Bailey Av Av
Lowrie# Av Av Av
Lugo Av Av Av
Granadillo# Av Fr Fr
Ginter Av Fr Av
Reddick* Fr Av
Kottaras* Av
Kielty# Fr Pr Vg
Scales# Fr Fr Pr Fr Fr
Mirabelli Pr
Barnes Av Fr
Spivey Fr Fr Pr
Thurston* Av Vg Fr
Velazquez Vg Fr Vg Fr Av
Brown Av
Cora* Vg Av
Spann Av Av
Pinckney# Av
McEwing Fr Fr Pr Av
Otness Fr Av
Clayton Av
Cash Vg
Diaz Vg
Player Spotlight - Dustin Pedroia
Name AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS OPS+ DR
Optimistic (15%) .314 .388 .481 156 570 92 179 49 2 14 90 61 37 7 0 122 7
Mean .292 .359 .431 150 548 76 160 44 1 10 62 51 43 3 1 102 3
Pessimistic (15%) .266 .324 .362 131 478 55 127 31 0 5 52 39 43 1 2 76 -1
Top Near-Age Offensive Comps: Ron Hunt, Billy Herman, Newt Hoenikker
Player Spotlight - Jacoby Ellsbury
Name AVG OBP SLG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS OPS+ DR
Optimistic (15%) .327 .386 .451 151 618 116 202 44 6 7 83 50 71 60 5 115 8
Mean .297 .349 .392 134 549 87 163 34 3 4 58 37 72 43 6 91 5
Pessimistic (15%) .276 .317 .348 115 471 63 130 26 1 2 46 25 72 30 6 71 1
Top Near-Age Offensive Comps: Richie Ashburn, Vada Pinson
Name Age ERA W L G GS INN H ER HR BB K
Jon Papelbon 27 1.57 5 0 61 0 63.0 41 11 4 15 87
Hideki Okajima* 32 3.09 4 1 63 0 64.0 56 22 7 18 65
Josh Beckett 28 3.77 16 9 30 30 191.0 181 80 21 54 172
Manny Delcarmen 26 3.77 4 2 63 0 74.0 69 31 5 36 68
Mike Timlin 42 3.78 4 3 68 0 69.0 72 29 6 19 40
Daisuke Matsuzaka 27 3.95 15 10 29 28 196.0 189 86 22 60 177
Lee Gronkiewicz 29 4.07 4 3 55 1 73.0 74 33 11 15 57
Javier Lopez* 30 4.19 3 2 72 0 58.0 60 27 3 27 36
Brendan Donnelly 36 4.20 3 3 48 0 45.0 45 21 5 16 36
Curt Schilling 41 4.25 11 10 28 28 178.0 191 84 24 26 146
Bryan Corey 34 4.32 6 4 60 0 73.0 75 35 8 26 55
LEAGUEA AVERAGE RELIEVER——- 4.42———————————————————————-
Craig Breslow* 27 4.44 4 3 55 0 77.0 79 38 8 33 58
Clay Buchholz 23 4.47 9 8 28 27 135.0 134 67 20 53 120
Kyle Snyder 30 4.50 3 3 57 0 66.0 70 33 7 23 48
Tim Wakefield 41 4.62 13 13 30 30 185.0 192 95 26 65 117
Justin Masterson 23 4.68 7 7 22 16 102.0 115 53 11 34 51
Julian Tavarez 35 4.71 6 6 53 12 109.0 121 57 11 41 64
LEAGUE AVERAGE STARTER———- 4.81———————————————————————-
Jon Lester* 24 4.93 8 8 30 29 148.0 158 81 18 75 100
Craig Hansen 24 5.03 5 3 49 2 68.0 72 38 5 42 45
Devern Hansack 30 5.31 7 9 27 20 127.0 143 75 23 45 84
Michael Bowden 21 5.50 7 9 27 27 131.0 151 80 22 52 80
Mike Burns 29 5.53 3 5 42 8 83.0 99 51 14 24 44
Michael Tejera* 31 5.65 5 7 33 14 110.0 129 69 17 45 52
Jon Switzer* 28 5.87 2 4 44 5 69.0 76 45 7 27 37
David Pauley 25 6.02 5 8 26 26 151.0 186 101 28 53 75
Abe Alvarez* 25 6.02 5 10 26 21 121.0 146 81 22 50 61
Edgar Martinez 26 6.05 2 5 47 0 64.0 74 43 14 30 43
Kyle Jackson 25 6.81 3 9 46 0 74.0 81 56 15 66 62
Daniel Haigwood* 24 7.29 2 7 22 21 100.0 117 81 23 84 73
John Barnes 32 8.14 3 9 19 16 84.0 100 76 17 105 47
* - Throws Left
Player Spotlight - Josh Beckett
ERA W L G GS INN H ER HR BB K ERA+
Optimistic (15%) 3.08 21 7 33 33 216 186 74 20 51 200 152
Mean 3.77 16 9 30 30 191 181 80 21 54 172 124
Pessimistic (15%) 4.65 10 10 24 24 151 157 78 21 52 125 101
Top Near-Age Comps: Bill Monboquette, Jack McDowell
Player Spotlight - Daisuke Matsuzaka
ERA W L G GS INN H ER HR BB K ERA+
Optimistic (15%) 3.28 18 9 32 31 222 196 81 21 58 208 143
Mean 3.95 15 10 29 28 196 189 86 22 60 177 119
Pessimistic (15%) 4.91 10 11 24 23 154 164 84 22 57 129 96
Top Near-Age Comps: Andy Benes, Bill Singer
Disclaimer: ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of performance.
Performances have not been allocated to predicted playing time in the majors -
many of the players listed above are unlikely to play in the majors at all in 2008.
ZiPS is projecting equivalent production - a .240 ZiPS projection may end up
being .280 in AAA or .300 in AA, for example. Whether or not a player will play
is one of many non-statistical factors one has to take into account when predicting
the future.
Players are listed with their most recent teams unless Dan has made a mistake.
This is very possible as a lot of minor-league signings are generally unreported in
the offseason.
ZiPS is projecting based on the AL having a 4.49 ERA and the NL having a 4.40 ERA.
Reader Comments and Retorts
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giggle giggle
Jokes on you, Kevin.
You can't have an OBP more than 1.00 either goofball.
Dan, I do not think the value you have for Manny's fear factor is high enough; in fact, I think it is ridiculously low, and just goes to show your bias. Opposing managers thought of walking Manny in 94.6% of his plate appearances with the bases loaded. The only hitter who ever had a higher OMTOWWBL figure is Jim Rice, from 1975-1986. And that was a twelve-year period of unquestioned dominance.
And no, he won't be summoned to Olympus, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was summoned to the Wall of Tears to quell all the whining in this thread.
Way too low. With his new ability to hit singles, I expect Lowell to break Ichiro's hits record and quite possibly hit 400.
I mean, c'mon Dan, once she put on a Red Sox uniform, your aunt could hit 330 even without the penis.
With, she'd be ... Mike Lowell.
That didn't format right did it .... ragglesnaggleragglesnagglegrrr
Hmm first initial of "k". Your nickname wouldn't be "Stinky" or "Smelly" would it?
MTA: Dan, don't take any of our ranting too seriously. We all want to believe that our heroes will all have career years, guess it's just part of being a baseball fan, and Red Sox fan in particular, after all the genuine heroics of 2004 and 2007, and I'm no exception. Some of the numbers seem a bit underwhelming, but reasonable with some perspective.
His being Lowell's.
Park effects are masking some of Lowell's decline though. If we neutralize to a 750 run environment in a neutral park (the best choice B-R gives me for today's game), those numbers are 823/800/842/886/895/697/803/862. Now that does give him even more seasons over 800, but he's had 2 of his 3 worst seasons recently. And that 879 in 2007 goes from a near career-high to a more reasonable (but still good) level of performance. He was a stud in Fla (esp 02-04) ... he's a talented old fart in Boston.
Still, 762 is pessimistic -- Marcel puts a projection at about 811 and even with an age penalty that might be 780 before boosting for Fenway. Of course the question is whether that pessimism is warranted or not and for everyone except maybe Dan, we don't know yet.
Dan, can you give us a sense of how much weight is given to the comps and the degree to which incorporating comps seems to improve the projections? Probably a pain, but can you run a few pre-comps ZiPS and post-comps ZiPS on some players? I ask because, though I share ZiPS' pessimism on Lowell, the comps really seem to be dragging Lowell and Manny down (and I've seen this with some other players in that age range). Is this happening to pretty much all players of that age -- i.e. you think the comps give you a more accurate "general" age effect -- or is it highly dependent on the specific comps?
Don't expect you to answer those in any detail, just what's your sense of this.
Or point me to the FAQ.
The questions come down to -- were the singles lucky? and has there been/will there be a big power drop? The neutralized stats have squat to say about the first question, but the second is potentially interesting:
ISOs neutralized to 750 runs, neutral park:
206, 166, 200, 253, 218, 133, 190, 172
So the last 3 years have been 3 of his 4 worst. 2007 was worse than 2006, a 10% drop. That's not enough to establish a trend but if he loses another 10% that puts him at 155 (which would be boosted by Fenway but not hugely). ZiPS projects him to a 157 ISO. Pessimistic but in the ballpark -- another 10 points of ISO only gives him about 2 points of OPS+ and amounts to, what, 2 HR.
Sorry, folks get touchy about "lucky." Is that level of hitting singles likely to be repeated?
The power drop might just be unlucky of course!
Actually, pre-comp ZiPS had more severe aging curves for mid-30s players. Aging curves by player type has helped keep star mid-30s players from having ugly projections in general.
It's worth noting that some of the "disappointment" here, with the exception of Lowell, is park-factor related. Fenway had much higher park factors across the board than it had for years, so ZiPS is naturally projecting lower park factors than were visible to the observer in 2007.
If there is God, the Red Sox hitters will suck a dry bone next year and the team will finish 3rd in the AL East.
He projects to not suck because he has yet to suck, for any of his five seasons with the Sox.
Tell that to Mike Lowell! :-)
Actually, pre-comp ZiPS had more severe aging curves for mid-30s players. Aging curves by player type has helped keep star mid-30s players from having ugly projections in general.
Hmmm... but you are projecting a drop for Lowell of, I think, about 7% in OPS vs. a straight projection which would be pretty substantial for a "typical" drop suggesting that even really good players (850 OPS) go to kinda sucky (740 OPS) in 2 years to useless in one more year. Two points: you didn't say Lowell was typical and, of course, lots of players in this age group have gone from really good to useless in 2-3 years.
But ... pre-comps, the age adjustment presumably was estimated as the average across all players. You're saying with comps that the top players don't decline as fast as the old projections (depending on player type) ... which means that other groups have to be declining faster than the old projections. Granted, given the latter group is probably larger than the first (though not as much as we might intuitively think given you have to be pretty good to make it to 30), those comp-based declines for the "sucky" group probably aren't that much larger than pre-comps.
So now I'm asking if Lowell is projected to decline more than the typical 34 y.o? And is there anything particular about Manny that would have him decline more than we might think an elite hitter would? (who are Manny's comps anyway ... or is that answered above somewhere?)
So now I'm asking if Lowell is projected to decline more than the typical 34 y.o?
Yes. Remember the BABIP issues in there, too, which is in addition to the decline. ZiPS doesn't see Lowell's 2007 as a "real" 377/501 year, so it's declining Lowell from a lower point.
So now I'm asking if Lowell is projected to decline more than the typical 34 y.o? And is there anything particular about Manny that would have him decline more than we might think an elite hitter would? (who are Manny's comps anyway ... or is that answered above somewhere?)
Manny's 15 best comps (remember, these are recent year comps, not entire careers!):
Frank Howard
Sid Gordon
Gene Woodling
Indian Bob Johnson
Minnie Minoso
Ken Singleton
Lonnie Smith
Frank Robinson
Moises Alou
Sammmy Sosa
Al Kaline
Jeff Bagwell
Monte Irvin
Joe Adcock
Roy Sievers
A couple more questions/answers I'm adding.
Q: ZOMG! ZiPS are so pessimistic! Why do you hate America?
A: ZiPS is historically in the middle-of-the-pack on the positive/negative spectrum. In the most reason season, according to BP's Nate Silver, the group of projected hitters with 250 PA collectively had an OPS of .777 in real-life and ZiPS projected that group to have a .783. The group of projected pitchers with 50 IP combined had a 4.27 ERA in real-life and ZiPS projected that group to have a 4.33 ERA.
Q: Does this mean that the average ZiPS projection was off by only 6 points of OPS and .06 points of ERA?
A: No, it's just measuring if ZiPS has a tendency to be to pessimistic or optimistic. When you take into account the part of the discrepancy explained by the fact that overall offense was slightly higher than ZiPS projected, ZiPS overall was too optimistic on batters by 4 points of OPS and 0.04 runs per game too pessimistic on pitchers in 2007. If my standard error for pitcher projections was really 0.04 runs per game, I'd be wealthy enough to have mountains of blow that I could snort off Google shares of stock.
Q: What about the variances? Maybe ZiPS had wilder swings than other systems?
A: Again according to Nate, for 2007, ZiPS was 4th of the 8 projection systems in pitcher projection variance and tied for 4th of 8 in hitter projection variance, suggesting that ZiPS is smack-dab in the middle for the variance of the individual projections.
That's not really the primary purpose, but it's interesting. I don't run win/losses from ZiPS per se, but SG over at the replacement level runs 1000 seasons of DMB with each projection system before the start of the season, which I consider to be the "official" ZiPS win projections.
I can tell this is a awsome team but i can't really tell if it's better than the Yankees in general. in which at least projection wise clearly out hit the Red Sox by a mile.
The Yankees do have better projections for their starting lineup, but one has to remember that a pretty good chunk of a team's plate appearances will be taken by players that aren't considered one of the starting nine. For both hitting and pitching, the Red Sox are better equipped to handle unfortunate happenings than pretty much any team in baseball.
KWarren-
Actually, the logic is that Ortiz is a heavy guy that runs pretty hard on the base paths and (as you apparently don't follow baseball), struggled with knee problems last year and had surgery soon after the season ended. So it's a matter of when, not if, he starts to miss some time, and I just think this year might be the year. I hope not, though.
Never seen you post before, but way to bring the obnoxious! Keep up the good work.
Remember that Youkilis was older than most rookies. Imagine he'll probably peak between the ages of 32-35. The Red Sox had better lock him up long term before his price skyrockets!
(1) Calculate career BA, the average of the past three seasons, and the previous season line. Take the maximum of these three and use it as your baseline. Repeat for OBP and SLG.
(2) Subtract 0.010 from each result for players over the age of 40, since they've clearly peaked. Add 0.020 for anybody under the age of 30, since they are still improving.
(3) Add an extra 0.030 for players from major markets, since their fans are the biggest whiners.
Or you could just keep doing what you have been, trying to get the numbers RIGHT. I'm hoping that ZiPS is overly pessimistic on JD Drew, but I can see where it is coming from...
A: ZiPS is historically in the middle-of-the-pack on the positive/negative spectrum.
So you're saying all the projection systems hate America.
Or, simpler, just relabel the optimistic/mean/pessimistic lines to: "if you like this player"/"if you don't care about this player"/"if you hate this player"
Assuming you aren't trolling, I'll just copy what is stated *right below the projections themselves*
Disclaimer: ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of performance.
Performances have not been allocated to predicted playing time in the majors -
many of the players listed above are unlikely to play in the majors at all in 2008.
ZiPS is projecting equivalent production - a .240 ZiPS projection may end up
being .280 in AAA or .300 in AA, for example. Whether or not a player will play
is one of many non-statistical factors one has to take into account when predicting
the future.
Are you saying that the Red Sox will bring up Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish and Brandon Moss, watch each of them post OPS of .850 or higher in 400+ at bats per, then trade Manny in August for Johan Santana, Joe Nathan and Frankie Liriano--and still lose the AL East by 5 games? Don't you think that's really a very pessimistic view of the Red Sox future? Why don't you check your prejudices at the door?
I like the look of Lester and Buchholz. In fact, all the pitchers look pretty decent. Even that Papelbon guy and his straight fastball! :)
I hear his third pitch still needs some work. Does he have any options left? Maybe we can send him back to Pawtucket for some seasoning?
If think he was hitting like crazy into May, until everybody kinda decided to just start hitting him with pitches, since he seems to be pretty easy to both dislike and nail with the ball, AFAICT.
glad i was wrong about that one.
Crackitty Jones, with the worst TV watching observation-based evaluation in the proud history of BTF. Breathtakingly wrong. Neville Chamberlain territory. Unmatched in horrible forecasting of a young pitcher.
Coming into 07 I had him pegged for something like 340/440. Given his great year in 07 and being a year older, I'd give him something around that for 08 as well, maybe a hair better.
Dan, if you're not sick people questioning your projections, I'm curious how you arrived at the poor rating for Ortiz at 1B (not that I'm disagreeing, there just seems to be very little data on it). Also, I'd like to know about the fair rating for Carter at 1B. Thanks.
Yeah might be fun year for us, if that moron Tito can handle these kids. :)
This issue is mostly related to the DMB disk. Looking at SG's historical LWZR data (I only started doing a spreadsheet of my own after Dial's big writeup-tweaking in 2004), Ortiz used to be -10/162 G at best.
I try to keep a general policy on rating players, mainly for use of the DMB disk. When a player doesn't play a harder position much, I'll generally ding him one fielding level each year starting the second year and increase the error rate slightly. If a player doesn't play a position at all, I'll generally ding him one fielding level a year immediately and also increase the error rate slightly. Now, if the position that the player isn't playing at all is an easier position, I won't ding it farther than his rating at the tougher position, though I still up the error total slightly.
A lot of this is practical and backed up with some amazingly dull research I did some time ago on fielder aging. Fielder aging is kinda boring - it's a simple slight uptick until the mid 20s and then a pretty steady, straight line down. Sort of like standing on the top of a sliding board and tossing a ball gently up so that it lands and goes down the slide.
Just a quick example. There are some things that need to be done for the sake of a disk that is used to play a game.
Crisp played 138 games in left in 2005. He hasn't played a single game in left since. At the time, I had him as EX in left for 2006. And had him as EX/AV for 2006, speculating he'd be average in center based on his play in left. My policy wasn't as fully formed last year, so I moved him to EX/PR for 2007. But what I would have done last year if I could do it again would be rate him VG/FR for LF/CF. And after an amazing 2007, I pushed his CF up to VG, which would keep the LF dropping, making the ratings VG/VG.
If I'm just doing a straight projection for defense, I don't have to bother with a leftfield projection for Crisp. But since I'm doing a game disk, I have to make extra decisions that A) enable real-life usage but B) avoid fantasy-life loopholes. It's realistic that if Manny had a horrible injury, Crisp would see some time in left. It would also be realistic, if, Mike Bordick had been injured terribly, the Orioles would have considered moving Ripken back to short temporarily.
However, I also need to avoid situations in which I do projections for, say, the 1999 Indians and someone decides to play the game and bench Fryman and move a much-bulkier Thome back to third and play Sexson at first. Or move Josh Phelps back to catcher. Same goes with pitching. I did that projection for Papelbon as a reliever. Theoretically, he could start. But I don't want to give people a disk where, without changing anything, people could throw Papelbon on the mound and watch him go 26-3, 1.57.
The DMB disk isn't just an afterthought - I really try to give people a player set that they can actually play games and play different scenarios with.
I see the logic behind your OF ratings, but I don't think I agree with some of it. Don't good CFers almost always make great LF? Why would Coco go from being an EX LF to being only VG at the same time he went from being a PR CF to being a VG one? Wouldn't it make more sense to leave him as EX in LF.
And that's not just for Coco either. It seems that for the vast majority of players, they tend to play all of the OF positions about equally after a brief adjustment. An EX LF usually becomes a VG CF; a VG RF usually becomes an AV CF (the change relating to the competition they're being judged against rather than a change in skills). Arm, of course, tips the scales in some cases, but not by all that much.
Have you found that there are guys who have shown over reasonable size samples to be able to say, be a better CF than LF? If so, is it prevalent?
I'm extremely stingy with EX ratings. I've given out 4 EX ratings in LF and I'm too conservative to give another EX rating to a guy who hasn't played the position for 2 seasons. I've only given out 15 *total* EX ratings and 20% of them are Endy Chavez.
I think you mean "Native American Bob Johnson," Dan. Tisk, tisk.
Please update your team ZIPS links within the team ZIPS page. Rockies, Indians, Reds and White Sox have no links.
Thanks. This is a big help.
vr, Xei
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