February 20, 2006
Ranking the East
Balls, Sticks and Stuff ranks the positions in the NL East and likes what he sees from the Phillies. He doesn't like the Marlins, however:
The first thing that jumps out at you when looking at these charts is just how bad the Marlins are going to be in 2006. While some of the players they have at the top of their depth charts look to have some good potential and upside, most are still developing. It could be a long summer in Miam-uh.
The problem with this analysis is that he simply ranks the players 1-4. However, there's a huge difference at first between Delgado and everyone else, while there's a much smaller difference amongh the shortstops, where Rollins is ranked #1 (I might have put Renteria there). Where the Phillies don't rank first in his analysis, they tend to rank far behind the leaders.
Also, Miguel Cabrera NOT the best third baseman? C'mon, that's like saying Pujols would not be a good first baseman without a good lineup around him, which is untrue. They're both that good at hitting that they can still rank at the top of their positions regardless of who is around them.
It definitely was a rough analysis, and you are right, David, in some categories, there is a big difference between 1 and 4, in other categories there isn't much difference at all.
Really, my point in the post was that the NL East is going to be tight, and I don't think that the division should automatically be handed to the Mets and/or Braves.
[by the way David, thanks for the link]
Oh, one other thing, I took a look at it again, and I probably should flip flop Cabrera and Wright, but I maintain that if I was building a team for just one year, I would take Larry. Long-term? Cabrera.
