MLB Best Tools
Posted by MJ Recanati on August 25th, 2009 · Comments (11)
To close the loop on Baseball America’s “Best Tools ’09″ feature, BA has released its list of MLB’s best in 21 separate categories, listing the top three for each. You’ll recall that Steve has already weighed in on the MiLB version of the same report. So without further ado, here’s how our faves ranked:
Best Power: Alex Rodriguez (2), Mark Teixeira (3)
Best Hit-and-Run Artist: Derek Jeter (3)
Best Curveball: A.J. Burnett (2)
Best Pickoff Move: Andy Pettitte (1)
Best Reliever: Mariano Rivera (1)
Best Defensive 1B: Mark Teixeira (1)
Best Defensive 2B: Robinson Cano (3)
Not too shabby, huh?
-Posted by MJ
pretty ironic that the third best hit and run artist in the league is a leadoff man eh? Out of curiosity, who’s ranked 1 on the best power? Pena?
Corey wrote:
Would you believe Justin Morneau? I thought that was kinda weird…
Morneau out of all of mlb? that’s surprising to me, and that’s not to take anything away from Morneau, I would just figure Pujols or Dunn would be ahead of Morneau. I guess he just gets lost in the shuffle out their in the twin cities.
@ Corey:
Oh, that’s my fault, I should’ve been clearer. The rankings were broken down into AL and NL. It was Morneau-Alex-Tex for the AL and Pujols-Fielder-Howard for the NL.
@ MJ:
ah. Even still, I’d probably rank it like this if it were me :
alex-pena-tex-cabrera-morneau. If this isn’t stat based, I might even have slipped Hamilton in there ahead of morneau as we’ve seen how strong that guy is.
@ Corey:
What I can’t fully figure out is if the managers who are voting on this are taking the current season into consideration or just going by previous experience.
A-Rod and Hamilton haven’t flashed enough power in 2009 to make my personal list but I agree that if the question is simply “best power”, those two guys would absolutely have to make the cut.
It’s cheesy to say but Hamilton’s HR Derby display last year was one of the coolest and most memorable things I’ve ever seen in my baseball-watching life.
MJ wrote:
ditto. I usually hate the home run derby as I find it rather trite, but I was on the edge of my seat for that entire round. it was, in a word, awesome.
Corey wrote:
I didn’t even watch this year’s because I knew I wouldn’t see anything like last year’s. Chris Berman’s vocal theatrics annoy the crap out of me anyway.
speaking of the second best power in mlb, anyone see what a-rod is doing since the flordia series back in june? everyone talks about cashman coming down there (and that may have been big), but giving rodriguez those two days off and the results that have followed have been huge, and it is widely underpublicized how much him starting to hit has helped this team. not just in terms of runs produced (i have no idea if they’ve scored more runs in the last two months than they did previously, but i bet they have), but giving the pitchers more confidence to pound the strikezone and give up a few runs because tex and a-rod can get them back in with one swing, etc. since the last day in atlanta, exactly two months ago today, rodriguez is .306/.418/.563/.981 with 13 homers and 39 rbi in 49 games. that’s 40+/120+ over a full season. guy has been a monster at the plate the last two months, well done.
I like seeing Cano get rated 3rd best second baseman. Not too shabby at all.
http://www.bronxbaseballdaily.com
Worst Bunter: Nick Swisher
What was Girardi thinking?