Those second half stats are much more in line with his career averages before he broke out with the Jays in 2010, and it doesn't help that his BABIP was 25 points higher than his career best. Ultimately I don't think that he'll regress to being very average like he was before the Jays, but he's not going to continue to overperform the way that he has.
Lawrie will be the most productive player on the Jays this year. That kid is a phenom.
Yeah, his second half wasn't great but he was battling injuries and baseball can be a streaky game. Unless you're Albert Pujols, players are gonna have ups and downs. Comparing to his career stats is definitely kind of misleading as he's a very different player than he was in the past. Regardless of what his splits were last season you still look at it as a whole, and he had a fantastic year. 2 years in a row. I haven't been keeping up with spring training too much this year so maybe someone can tell me if he's back to his mashing ways.
Yeah, his second half wasn't great but he was battling injuries and baseball can be a streaky game. Unless you're Albert Pujols, players are gonna have ups and downs. Comparing to his career stats is definitely kind of misleading as he's a very different player than he was in the past. Regardless of what his splits were last season you still look at it as a whole, and he had a fantastic year. 2 years in a row. I haven't been keeping up with spring training too much this year so maybe someone can tell me if he's back to his mashing ways.
Well his career is a much larger sample size than the year and a half where he turned into the league's best masher...and his second half statistics are a far cry from what he had been doing to that point. I guess we'll see this year if it was just injuries or if it was him coming back to earth.
As far as his spring training goes...he's had one good game against Houston, and he's been pretty average otherwise. Lawrie has been stealing the show in ST this year.
Well his career is a much larger sample size than the year and a half where he turned into the league's best masher...and his second half statistics are a far cry from what he had been doing to that point. I guess we'll see this year if it was just injuries or if it was him coming back to earth.
As far as his spring training goes...he's had one good game against Houston, and he's been pretty average otherwise. Lawrie has been stealing the show in ST this year.
I realize Bautista's career is the larger sample size, obviously, but he's a crazy anomaly. His career doesn't make sense. I'm not saying throw out his past, but yeah, you kinda have to. I guess we'll agree to wait and see on this one.
Jose Boawwwtista (as Michael Kay likes to call him)
Robinson Cano
Matt Kemp
Albert Pujols
Nellie Cruz
Justin Verlander
Roy Halladay
Tim Lincecum (off year, but still as good as anyone on his game)
Clayton Kershaw
Mariano Rivera
No order.
AS great as MO is, and he is great, I don't see how you can make a closer a top 5 player when there's so many other elit players out there. Cruz is a bit out there too I'd say. Not that he doesn't have the potential, but you have him over guys like Cabrera, Fielder, Hamilton...
Nelson Cruz pick boggles my mind. .950 career high OPS set 2 years ago while Cabrera is over 1.000 last 2 seasons and showing no signs of slowing down.
And yes no RP regardless how good they are should be in top-5.
AS great as MO is, and he is great, I don't see how you can make a closer a top 5 player when there's so many other elit players out there. Cruz is a bit out there too I'd say. Not that he doesn't have the potential, but you have him over guys like Cabrera, Fielder, Hamilton...
Quote:
Originally Posted by darko
Nelson Cruz pick boggles my mind. .950 career high OPS set 2 years ago while Cabrera is over 1.000 last 2 seasons and showing no signs of slowing down.
And yes no RP regardless how good they are should be in top-5.
I'm a big Cruz fan, I think he really breaks out this year and has an MVP caliber season.
And as far as Mariano sure he only pitches as inning, but what he can do for your team 3,4 nights in a row in a close series is imo of equal value. You only see a starter once in a series whereas a closer can affect every game. Therefore I look at closers as being of very underrated value. This guy wasn't one of the common denominators on 5 championship teams by accident.
If no relievers is your prerogative, then I'll take Jared Weaver as my 5th starter just ahead of Sabathia.
I'm a big Cruz fan, I think he really breaks out this year and has an MVP caliber season.
And as far as Mariano sure he only pitches as inning, but what he can do for your team 3,4 nights in a row in a close series is imo of equal value. You only see a starter once in a series whereas a closer can affect every game. Therefore I look at closers as being of very underrated value. This guy wasn't one of the common denominators on 5 championship teams by accident.
If no relievers is your prerogative, then I'll take Jared Weaver as my 5th starter just ahead of Sabathia.
Verlander
Kershaw
Lee
Sabathia
Johnson (Honorable Mention Halladay)
Being the most consistent pitched over the past 3 years only = honorable mention. Brilliant. Only Kershaw can have any claim to being superior, and even that's close and based off one year.
