Viva El Birdos doesn’t have much to say on the Albert Pujols phenomenon. Pujols’ selection was a foregone conclusion, and barring some sort of criminal act by the BBWAA against the slugger, he was always going to win.
No, DanUpBaby is rightfully more concerned with the rest of the list. More specifically: Just how on Earth is Ryan Howard supposed to be more valuable than Chase Utley?
Obviously the BBWAA checked SBN’s crib notes; Albert Pujols wins unanimously, Hanley places second, and—well, Ryan Howard somehow continues to be grossly overrated by people who watch him and Chase Utley every day.
I don’t know how to explain this phenomenon; Chase Utley is among the smoothest-looking, most complete players in baseball, able to do just about anything, from home run hitting to Inside Baseball-y grit work, better than everybody else at his position. Ryan Howard is great in “the second halves of seasons”, but as simple as it seems to me maybe this is worth repeating: this means he is not great in the first halves of seasons. His team’s games count the same either way. Ryan Howard was probably one of the ten best hitters in the NL this year; he’s a slow first baseman. This is a difficult combination to turn into the third best player in baseball.
1 comment
1
Comments
Utley vs. Howard
Obviously you mean “third best player in the NL”. But point taken that Utley is a more complete player than Howard, is very good (some say great) at a more difficult position, is a very good baserunner, and has not gotten the recognition he deserves (although this past postseason may start to change that).
However a couple of points about Howard as a hitter:
1) Career OPS
- Pre-allstar/post-allstar: Howard .879/1.041, Utley .934/.865
- So Howard’s 1st half OPS (.879) is higher than Utley’s 2nd half OPS (.865), for what it’s worth
- Overall, not really close: Howard .961, Utley .902
2) 2009 OPS
- Pre-allstar/post-allstar: Howard .870/1.003, Utley 1.004/.790
- Howard’s 1st half was much better than Utley’s 2nd. Utley had an uncharacteristically bad 2nd half, including a career-worst month in September.
- Overall, Howard .931 vs. Utley .905
3) Howard was 2nd in XBH, 3rd in TB, and drove in his usual ton of runs. The typical response to this is well he should, he has lots of opportunities. But what gets missed is that he is as good as anyone in capitalizing on those opportunities. Since 2006, of players with 1000+ PAs, he is 3rd out of 215 in the % of baserunners driven in (excluding himself). Baseball Prospectus has the data for “OBI%”
Is he the 3rd best player in the NL? No. Did he benefit from voters’ love affair with the RBI? Sure. But he is nevertheless one of the best hitters in the league, and a beast at producing runs.
by schmenkman on Dec 2, 2009 3:13 PM EST reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed