Best of the Decade: Right Field

Mookie Betts leads the pack among right fielders in the 2010s. I gave him the nod over the gentlemen below because Betts has played at an extremely high level since his debut and has simply brought a lot of value to his teams in a short period of time. He has posted at least 6 rWAR in every full season he has played, and he has played between 250 and 400 fewer games than the other guys in this section. Betts is the owner of a .301/.374/.519 career triple-slash and brought the coveted power-speed combo to the Red Sox for the first six years of his career, launching 139 home runs and stealing 126 bags in that time frame. The one-time MVP will now suit up in Chavez Ravine for the Dodgers and look to get this next decade started right. Worth noting, of course, is that he’ll be there for the next 12 years on the heels of a $365 million extension.

Best of the Decade: Left Field

Fangraphs and Baseball Reference agree on the top four left fielders of the past decade though they don’t quite agree on the order. This brings us to a debate of elite quality versus very high quantity; WAR is a counting stat so if you play more games at a high level, you end up with a higher WAR. Still, though, playing fewer games at an elite level is incredibly valuable. I’ll settle the debate.

I Take Back What I Said About the Marlins

The Christian Yelich trade is an absolute travesty and the Marlins don’t care about winning. Whether Yelich liked it or not, he was going to suit up for the Marlins in 2018 and beyond had they kept him. But they didn’t because the new Marlins ownership group seems to care more about pinching pennies than Jeffrey Loria did.

Dan Le Batard, I’m Actually With Commissioner Manfred On This One

Throughout the interview, Le Batard kept asking Manfred whether he knew the new ownership would be cutting salary. Manfred said the commissioner’s office does not get involved in player personnel decisions. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen but the fact of the matter is that the Marlins are doing what they are doing in an effort to win baseball games. Perhaps not in the immediate future but it looks like the long-term plan is to shed salary so they can rebuild from the ground up.

2017 Recap: NL East

This is the first installment in a six-part series in which I will go division by division and recap the biggest storylines of each team’s season. To find the recaps for other divisions, follow the links below. AL East NL Central AL Central NL West AL West All WAR metrics are fWAR unless otherwise stated. […]

Musings of a Baseball Addict

The place to go for the mundane musings of a baseball addict.

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