Who’s the MLB’s best second baseman?
Posted on 17. Jun, 2010 at 4:43 am by Goodplaye in Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, MLB Baseball, Philadelphia Phillies
I’m starting to like these player comparison posts, here’s another good one for you. You get to pick one second baseman to start your team around, who you taking? There are actually more guys worth considering than I would have thought. I originally came up with this because we have Sox, Yanks, and Phils fans all over our site and those 3 second baseman are probably at the top of the list. Check this link out to see the complete list of stats for this years 2 baggers. If you were making the pick off this year alone there would be no contest at all because Robinson Cano is at the top of pretty much every category. I’m gonna go off of careers, salary, age, and production to see who I’d take playing for me up the middle. Like I said before there are lots of very good second baseman so I’m gonna list off (in no particular order) some key numbers from the guys I think are probably in the top 5, see what you think:
Robinson Cano: career .311 avg, .345 obp, .984 fld %, 27 years old with career earnigs of 18.8 million, 1 time all star (2nd will be this year), and 1 time world champ
Brandon Phillips: career .268 avg, .317 obp, .986 fld %, 28 years old with career earnings of 15.7 million, 1 time gold glove winner
Dustin Pedroia: career .302 avg, .367 obp, .991 fld %, 26 years old with career earnings of 6.3 million, 1 time MVP, 2 time all star, rookie of the year, 1 gold glove, and 1 time world champ
Chase Utley: career .293 avg, .379 obp, .982 fld %, 31 years old with career earnings of 40.2 million, 4 time all star, and 1 time world champ
Ian Kinsler: career .279 avg, .352 obp, .978 fld %, 27 years old with career earnings of 8.8 million, he is a 1 time all star
Honorable mention second baseman: Dan Uggla, Kelly Johnson, Chone Figgins (before getting to the M’s), Martin Prado (could be really good), Orlando Hudson, and Ryan Theriot
a WordPress rating system
bbryan
17. Jun, 2010
Utley has had the better career, but I would go with Cano right now as he seems as good as Utley, but 4 years younger.
/upside’d
Meerkat
17. Jun, 2010
Killing me goodplaye … the title says Who’s the MLB’s best second baseman? but in the post you say one second baseman to start your team around.
So I will do both.
The best: Chase Utley (call me homer if you like, but his numbers are awesome)
Build team around: Dustin Pedroia (better overall #s than Cano, like OBP,SBs, FLD)
El Rey
17. Jun, 2010
Perdroia, but mainly by default.
I’ve never heard Cano say a word. It’s one thing to be good, but great quotes and smack talk elevate players in my book.
Utley has greasy hair and looks like a carny most of the time. I was aboard the Utley train before he stopped bathing.
All of these other scrubs can TAS.
Laser Show.
Meerkat
17. Jun, 2010
Is there any greater quote than this?
Also, Chase shows upper deck power in the female department.
goodplaye
17. Jun, 2010
yeah i realized that same thing meerkat, but then i thought about it and probably should have the same answer for both.
mad props to Utley cause his wife is an absolute dime, but the answer is Cano, and its not even close.
goodplaye
17. Jun, 2010
and its obvious that i’m a homer just like meerkat and kinger. guess the tie breakers will be bryan, stake, and d’s answers
El Rey
17. Jun, 2010
Wouldn’t the tie breaker in this whole thing, be that pesky little MVP trophy that Pedroia has?
Just sayin’….
3D
17. Jun, 2010
Where’s the love for Jose Lopez!? Until this year…
King, since when have you ever given the MVP any validity? Are we agreeing that A Rod was better than Slop-O-Rama in ’05 and Mornay was better in ’06?
I want to say Cano b/c his swing looks soooo damn good and the whole Don Mattingly “he’s going to win multiple batting titles” argument sounds great, but a great hitter shouldn’t go through the annual two months of 0 production that Cano seems to.
Pedroia is a gamer and can mash. And he’s in my keeper league so I gotta give him love too.
I think I’d still take Utley over the other guys. From what I’ve watched over the last few years he can hit great pitching better than the other two. None of these 3 are game changing fielders, if they were they would all play SS. Since it’s primarily hitting based I’d take Utley since he’s the best hitter of them all. He is the 3 hitter in a top 3 lineup in baseball, normally where your best true hitter is slotted.
El Rey
17. Jun, 2010
Rod was definitely better than Morneau that year, but Papi had such mind boggling numbers that it is still a toss up.
My main point with that comment is that one out of those 3 guys has a gold glove and an MVP, and it’s Pedroia.
You can’t go wrong with any of them, but it’s kind of odd to take a guy like Cano (who has less MVPs, gold gloves and all star appearances) over Pedroia, even though he’s been in the majors 3 or 4 years longer.
3d
17. Jun, 2010
Nothing Pedroia does looks smooth or like the game comes easy to him – probably why it’s hard to pick him over a guy like Cano who looks like a natural.
I hate the Red Sox but Pedroia has my respect. He’s got good tools and as cliche as it sounds it’s hard to account for his toughness. I’d want him on my team and would hate to play against him.
Meerkat
17. Jun, 2010
MVP is not an award to show who is the better all around player.
Take Ryan Howard winning it in 2006 … can anyone honestly say Howard is a better 1B guy than Adrian Gonzalez? I’m a Phillies guy, that is well known, but if somebody offered me AG for RH, I’d make that deal. And Howard has a MVP and a ring.
3D is right.
Let’s look at the offensive #s that matter the most.
Chase … OBP 379… SLG 519… OPS 898
Pedroia … OBP 367… SLG 455… OPS 822
Cano … OBP 345… SLG 491… OPS 836
Chase “fuckin” Utley
El Rey
17. Jun, 2010
Forget defense, let’s just give it to the guy that hits the most bombs!
bbryan
17. Jun, 2010
Defense is really hard to judge. While PEDroia has a better fielding pct, his range factor is well below Cano’s. So he is better at making the play he’s supposed to, but he doesn’t get to as many tough balls, they just go through as hits instead.
And let’s be honest, that is the most fraudulent MVP in the history of evah. Youk, Quentin and Arod all had .100 higher OPS’s.
Meerkat
17. Jun, 2010
Does Pedrioa’s defensive skill trump Chase’s OBP, SLG OPS?
Nope.
Chicks dig the long ball.
TAS laser show!
SKI
17. Jun, 2010
Pedroier all day. But after this year I’ll take Prado. The dude flat out rakes and can pick it. I see some batting titles in his career.
El Rey
18. Jun, 2010
Carlos Quentin? Geez, nice name drop, Bry…
Forget the fact that he didn’t play the last month of the season, or that he had the worst fielding percentage amongst AL LFers in 08.
Literally, that was like the worst example in the history of evah.
Pedroia led the AL in hits, doubles and runs in 08 (first time since Ripken in 83). Also was second in average (.326) behind Mauer (.328). But yeah, what a shitty season he had, probably should have given it to a couple of guys that didn’t even make the playoffs.
Stake
18. Jun, 2010
+5 every comment so far(homer-ism or not), 2B’s broken down better than the Bird, Timmay, or Nut Buster Olney. I’m going with Cano hands down, for both best and to start a team around(although you never really build a team around a 2B).
Phillips- Cant remember many highlights/games of him, hints not as good as the others, and playing on a previously shitty team doesn’t help either.
Lopez- I second D.
Laser Show- Inefficient mobber. He’s an Eckstien X2-3. Mashes, makes most plays he gets to, but might miss some that others could get to. How long can he be productive?
Chutly- Like King, its hard for me to like him and his grease-ball look. He’s at the end of his prime and doesn’t have the aid of some dude in center stealing sings with binoculars. He is the only player though(besides Vlad) that can hit a 400ft bomb off a pitch that would have hit him.
Cano- Will win MVP and GG this year, matching DP’s hardware, who’s only been in the bigs one year less than RC. He, like DP, is at that start of his prime. However, Cano makes both parts of the game look easy. Bryan’s comment about defense, and Cano is spot on; this year he has 1 error out of 340 chances…He’s carrying the Yanks and would be a 3-4 hitter in any other lineup.
bbryan
18. Jun, 2010
You win King, I can’t compete with the likes of Fielding %, hits and making the playoffs.
/1920′d
3d
18. Jun, 2010
Wasn’t OPS created to replace OBP and SLG? I was starting to come around on OPS but if we start using it in the same sentence as the 2 numbers used to create itself then I’m back off the wagon. It’s like an application asking for your DOB & age – huge pet peeve of mine…
bbryan
18. Jun, 2010
OPS is opb + slg, so yes in effect it was created to replace those. It’s main function is replacing avg, runs and RBI, three very outdated ways of measuring ones production. OPS is a good measure of how many scoring opprotunities you are creating be either getting on base, or hitting big balls which drive people in without the influence of how good your teamates are, which runs and rbi are greately effected by.
El Rey
18. Jun, 2010
Stakes analysis of Pedroia sounds like everyones thoughts on Jeter, interesting.
3D
18. Jun, 2010
Exactly my point – if OPS was created to tell us how well someone is getting on base and slugging, why don’t we just look at OBP and SLG? The sum of the numbers means nothing to me because we already have the numbers we need in front of us.
I just like to make fun of a sabermetrically made up stat. Created by computer geeks who used a secret formula to add two numbers.
bbryan
18. Jun, 2010
That’s actually a solid analogy Kinger, Pedrioa and Jeter have a lot of similarities.
stake
18. Jun, 2010
I guess, maybe…except PED swings as hard as he can every AB trying to mash, while Jetes looks to drive it oppy. Not the Jeter swings any less harder, just that Pedroer seems to expend more energy both on D and at the plate. Ask Mike Sweeney how swinging as hard as possible every time, works out later in the career.
…forgot to knock Cano for being a mute as King did mentioned, don’t think i’ve ever heard him speak.
Laser Show
24. Jun, 2010
Hey guys, did you see me today?
Stake
25. Jun, 2010
You da man DP! get yourself some.
Robinson Nig
25. Jun, 2010
have you seen me for the last couple days? the answer is no but i still seem to leading the world in hitting. hmm guess i’ll start hitting again.