Ranking The AL East Position By Position (Blog)

[Randle McMurphy]

2012 he slumped, and happened to have a concussion. Take that year out and he's better offensively than JPA. Not bad for a defensive catcher.

If you take every player's worst season out (or make injury excuses for them), it makes them look a lot better, yes. You could very easily make the same rationalization for Arencibia with his broken hand and finger over the last two seasons. In the end, you can only use the numbers that are available and they point to Arencibia being the better option.

Okay, your right. Concussions and bad seasons have no relation.

Just like broken hands/fingers and bad seasons. If you want to make the injury excuse for one, you have to be consistent and make it for the other.

[LittleOzzy]

Center Fielders

5. Colby Rasmus- Toronto Blue Jays: Rasmus was a very highly rated prospect with the Cardinals a few years ago, but his stock has fallen since a good sophomore season in 2010. The toolsy outfielder only managed to hit .223/.289/.400 with 23 home runs and 75 RBIs in 2012. The potential for greatness is still there, as Rasmus is only 26, but as he reaches what should be the prime of his career, the clock is ticking on him. Rasmus will likely get a chance to prove himself as the starting center fielder, but if he fails, he should quickly be replaced by Emilio Bonifacio and maybe not get another chance to start.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/25/ra ... -fielders/

[flatjacket1]

Okay, your right. Concussions and bad seasons have no relation.

Just like broken hands/fingers and bad seasons. If you want to make the injury excuse for one, you have to be consistent and make it for the other.[/quote]
How many games did JPA play with his broken hand?

[Randle McMurphy]

Arencibia played a month after returning from the DL following breaking his hand in 2012. In 2011, he broke his thumb at the end of May and played through that injury for the next four months. Despite those injuries to his hands (which can greatly affect a hitter's production), he outperformed Thole considerably offensively over the 2 seasons. In sum, a healthy Arencibia could be even better than what he's shown so far in his career (which is still better than what Thole has shown). He's in no danger of losing his job to a guy who posted a .234/.294/.290 line (60 wRC+) in 2012, nor should he be.

[Crowned]

This is generally the problem with blogs not written by "known" baseball writers. While their opinions are fine and a lot of them are written well enough... um, Arencibia and Encarnacion should be regarded as the starting C and 1B respectively. You "can" say that Thole is better suited (I don't like Arencibia, but I'd disagree) and that EE may play DH more than Lind, but at the moment, everything suggests that Arencibia and Encarnacion will be the starters at those positions, with Lind possibly being a platoon DH. Getting things like that wrong -- especially for positions that aren't exactly "up in the air" -- discounts the whole idea of this particular blog post which is comparing positions.

It was written by a 15 year old kid.

[DonYon]

It was written by a 15 year old kid.

Touche! Despite the JPA/Thole thing it's pretty impressive for a 15 year old

[LittleOzzy]

Right Field

1. Jose Bautista- Toronto Blue Jays: Bautista had an injury-filled down year in 2012, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s the best pure power hitter in baseball. He led the league in home runs in 2010 and 2011, and was on the track to do so again in 2012 if he hadn’t missed significant time due to injury, batting .241/.358/.527 with 27 home runs in 102 games. Should Bautista remain healthy in 2013, he should hit for significant power and get on base a ton even if he doesn’t hit for a stellar batting average.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/26/ra ... ght-field/

[Parataxis]

And whoever keeps saying "The GM is putting Thole in AAA so JPA must be better!", stop using fallacies such as appealing to authority. Just because that's how it is, doesn't mean its the best option.

Who is better (and who SHOULD be starter) is irrelevant to this discussion though.

It's a blog post comparing the starting position players of each team in the AL East. It doesn't matter who should be starting, only who would. If AA decided to sign me and play me as the RF starter, then they should be comparing me to the rest of the AL East (likely : 5th) and not Bautista (1st)

[sideshow]

And whoever keeps saying "The GM is putting Thole in AAA so JPA must be better!", stop using fallacies such as appealing to authority. Just because that's how it is, doesn't mean its the best option.

Who is better (and who SHOULD be starter) is irrelevant to this discussion though.

It's a blog post comparing the starting position players of each team in the AL East. It doesn't matter who should be starting, only who would. If AA decided to sign me and play me as the RF starter, then they should be comparing me to the rest of the AL East (likely : 5th) and not Bautista (1st)

I would rank you fourth. You bring intangibles to the team.

[LittleOzzy]

Designated Hitters

2. Edwin Encarnacion- Toronto Blue Jays: It’s unrealistic to expect Encarnacion to play like he did in 2012, but oh boy did he have a good year. Encarnacion batted .280/.384/.557 with 42 home runs and 110 RBIs, finishing second in the league in home runs and becoming one the league’s most feared hitters. Encarnacion also adds value in the fact that he can play first and third base as well, although he shouldn’t need to if all goes according to plan. It will be very interesting to see just how many home runs Encarnacion can hit in 2013, but he won’t be a surprise this time around.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/27/ra ... d-hitters/

[LittleOzzy]

Starting Pitching

1. Toronto Blue Jays: It’s impossible to tell how things will turn out in the season, but on paper, the Toronto Blue Jays have one hell of a pitching rotation. Their pitching struggled mightily in 2012, so what do they do? All they did was trade for 2012′s NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey (20-6, 2.73 in 2012), flame-throwing Josh Johnson (8-14, 3.81 in 2012), and the soft-tossing but consistently good Mark Buehrle (13-13, 3.74). Two of their starters from last year look to remain in the rotation– Brandon Morrow (10-7, 2.96) and Ricky Romero (9-14, 5.77), who is coming off a major down year. If this staff lives up to their potential, the Blue Jays will be near unstoppable in 2013.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/28/ra ... -pitching/

[LittleOzzy]

Bullpens

5. Toronto Blue Jays: The Blue Jays’ Achilles Heel looks to be the bullpen heading into 2013. Besides Casey Janssen (2.54, 22 saves), there are zero sure things in the Toronto ‘pen. If he can stay healthy, Sergio Santos (3.53 career ERA) could be an asset, but he certainly wasn’t in 2012. Brad Lincoln (5-2, 3.68), acquired from the Pirates last year, looks to be a setup man for the Jays in 2012. However, beyond a few pitchers, many of the bullpen spots look like they could be grabbed in Spring Training this year.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/29/ra ... -bullpens/

[LittleOzzy]

The Final Rankings

Well, I’ve compiled all of my rankings so far. However, it remains to be seen who is truly the best all around team in the AL East. To get there, I had to some plenty of math– calculating the average rankings of all position players, then twice calculating the rankings of starting pitching and bullpen once (assuming that the starters will pitch twice as many innings as the bullpen, which is reasonable). Once I got there, I combined them all to come up with what is likely to be the top team on paper in the AL East.

4. Toronto Blue Jays: According to my rankings, the Blue Jays won’t improve much in division standings despite a number of big moves this offseason. Their offense ranked first in the division, as did their starting pitching, but their fifth-ranked bullpen really hurt them in the end– moving them down to an average ranking of 3.14. At individual positions, they ranked at the top of the heap in left field (Melky Cabrera) and right field (Jose Bautista). If the Blue Jays pick up a reliever at the deadline, though, they could be a force to be reckoned with.

http://bosoxinjection.com/2013/01/30/ra ... -rankings/

[Ong_dynasty]

So best batting and pitching, but worse bullpen = 4th best team.
am i the only one who finds that quite strange, or is he overrating bullpen importance a tad

[overdose]

So best batting and pitching, but worse bullpen = 4th best team.
am i the only one who finds that quite strange, or is he overrating bullpen importance a tad

Well take into consideration it's from bosoxinjection and they have the redsox finishing second in the East