Position by Position breakdown

[filosofy29]

Per Cal in the GDT last night. Here's what a lot of baseball writers in the East think: Phillies-Giants position-by-position | SFGiants.com: News .....and here's what I think (not that any of you hf's asked):

Catcher:

Posey vs. Ruiz. Ruiz has performed very well so far in the postseason, but you gotta give the edge here to Posey. Posey was no slouch either in his first postseason and heis regular season numbers are better than Ruiz.

EDGE: Giants.

First Base:

Howard vs. Huff. Both of these guys struggled mightily in their respective NLDS;s. However, Howard has a history of coming up big in the playoffs. Huff will have to step up and try to narrow the gap or equal Howards production.

EDGE: Phillies

Second Base:

Utley vs. Sanchez. Utley is another big game player who also can draw walks. He's got a lot more power than Sanchez and a better eye. Sanchez struggled pretty hard in the NLDS offensively. Like Huff, he'll have to narrow the gap offensively here. Both guys are very good defensively.

EDGE: Phillies

Third Base:

Sandoval/Fontenot vs. Polanco. Sandoval struggled both offensively and defensively and Fonty did ok in his two starts. Polanco would normally take this hands down, but he's been injured.

EDGE: Push/Slight nod to Phillies

Shortstop:

Uribe vs. Rollins. If we just go by name here, Rollins wins in a heartbeat. The problem is, ever since he stopped taking steroids, the only good things he possesses are speed and defense. He's got Uribe beat in spades there. It's just too bad the guy can't hit as well anymore despite what people say. Uribe has the edge in hitting because of his power numbers.

EDGE: Push

Left Field:

Burrell vs. Ibanez. Both aren't great defensively and both have good pop in their bats. They also both possess big game experience.

EDGE: Push/slight nod to Giants

Center Field:

Torres vs. Victorino. If it were just this year alone, then I'd usually say it was a push. However, Victorino has the longer history and more big game savvy. Both players are excellent defenders with a lot of speed and have some power.

EDGE: Phillies

Right Field:

Ross vs. Werth. Ross performed admirably in the NLDS picking up huge hit after huge Conrad error. He, just like Huff and Sanchez, will have a tall order in narrowing the gap between players. Werth has power, speed and above average defense.

EDGE: Phillies

BENCH:

Giants have the Phillies beat here. This may be the only chink in the armor for the Phils. Nobody on their bench scares me at all.

EDGE: Giants

I'll do pitching later. Gotta work sometime right?

 

[nateistheshi]

Good analysis Filosofy. I only have a couple of disagreements with this. For left field, I think there has to be more than a slight nod given to Pat the Bat, especially when you consider that his defense isn't a factor late in games. Between TB and SF Pat put up 2.5 WAR while Ibanez put up 1.8 WAR in nearly 130 more at-bats. Your centerfield analysis made me feel like a total homer, because I looked at Torres and Victorino and thought Torres had the edge. Of course this was me not taking into account Victorino now being healthy and Torres struggling as of late, so way to be objective and level-headed on this analysis Filo.

 

[filosofy29]

Good analysis Filosofy. I only have a couple of disagreements with this. For left field, I think there has to be more than a slight nod given to Pat the Bat, especially when you consider that his defense isn't a factor late in games. Between TB and SF Pat put up 2.5 WAR while Ibanez put up 1.8 WAR in nearly 130 more at-bats. Your centerfield analysis made me feel like a total homer, because I looked at Torres and Victorino and thought Torres had the edge. Of course this was me not taking into account Victorino now being healthy and Torres struggling as of late, so way to be objective and level-headed on this analysis Filo.

Thanks man. Yeah, I just looked at the stats for Ibanez this year and now that I take a second look at it.....well, I was just wrong, lol. I think I must have looked at last years stats by mistake....if you believe that . When you extrapolate Burrell's numbers on the Giants to a full season it's not even close. Edge to the Giants in LF for sure.

Yeah, I think strictly on paper, it's definitely a push as both had similar numbers. I'd give Torres the edge in defense, I just think that since Victorino has been here before that he gets the slight edge. I probably did a little bit of an injustice to Torres though.

I'm definitely no baseball expert though so I wouldn't be surprised to see some disagreements with my thoughts.

 

[nateistheshi]

Thanks man. Yeah, I just looked at the stats for Ibanez this year and now that I take a second look at it.....well, I was just wrong, lol. I think I must have looked at last years stats by mistake....if you believe that . When you extrapolate Burrell's numbers on the Giants to a full season it's not even close. Edge to the Giants in LF for sure.

Yeah, I think strictly on paper, it's definitely a push as both had similar numbers. I'd give Torres the edge in defense, I just think that since Victorino has been here before that he gets the slight edge. I probably did a little bit of an injustice to Torres though.

I'm definitely no baseball expert though so I wouldn't be surprised to see some disagreements with my thoughts.[/QUOTE]

That's ok though, because everybody is bound to have disagreements about something. I'd say you know more than the biased fuck that wrote the article at the top. Now that I look back on everything, track record is a good enough reason to keep from putting Torres ahead of Victorino, because the dreadful possibility that this season from Torres was an abberation remains possible until he can duplicate it. When you do the pitching breakdown are you going to do individual a comparison of individual pitchers or just starters in general and bullpen in general?

 

[filosofy29]

Thanks man. Yeah, I just looked at the stats for Ibanez this year and now that I take a second look at it.....well, I was just wrong, lol. I think I must have looked at last years stats by mistake....if you believe that . When you extrapolate Burrell's numbers on the Giants to a full season it's not even close. Edge to the Giants in LF for sure.

Yeah, I think strictly on paper, it's definitely a push as both had similar numbers. I'd give Torres the edge in defense, I just think that since Victorino has been here before that he gets the slight edge. I probably did a little bit of an injustice to Torres though.

I'm definitely no baseball expert though so I wouldn't be surprised to see some disagreements with my thoughts.[/QUOTE]

That's ok though, because everybody is bound to have disagreements about something. I'd say you know more than the biased fuck that wrote the article at the top. Now that I look back on everything, track record is a good enough reason to keep from putting Torres ahead of Victorino, because the dreadful possibility that this season from Torres was an abberation remains possible until he can duplicate it. When you do the pitching breakdown are you going to do individual a comparison of individual pitchers or just starters in general and bullpen in general?

Yup, hell even the experts never agree, lol. Good call.

It'll depend on how much time I have today, but I'll try to do an individual breakdown of the starters and then do a lhbp vs lhbp (left handed arms in the bully), rhbp vs rhbp (right handed arms in the bully) and a closer comparison. The reason why I kind of lump together the arms in the pen that aren't the closers is because roles can change, so I figure it's better to look at overall depth.