Comments on: Top Major League Rookies, Part III

By: Matt Eddy

Matt Eddy — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:05:55 +0000

Where is Josh Fields? His numbers are better than Gordonâ€™s and he had had half the at-bats. Fields, if you extrapolate his numbers, would be on pace for a thirty homer season. Although his walks are low and strikeouts high, his power numbers should alone put him on this list . . .

I was surprised that Yunel Escobar did not make your top 20 rookies list. What am I missing?

Fields and Escobar were two of the last cuts. Fields has big league power and is a strong candidate to make our end-of-season list, but Gordon was the choice here because his accumulated body of work was more impressive. Keep in mind that despite the preseason fanfare, Gordon had not made either of our previous rookie rankings. His second-half improvement (from .358 slugging to .500) was enough to change that. Escobar actually made the preliminary draft of this rookies list, but was cut in favor of Butler, who is having similar success but is three and a half years younger. You can make the case for either.

Kyle â€œquality startâ€ Kendrick. Nobody in the world thought he would even be promoted to AAA, let alone the bigs, and he is 7 - 3, 3.89 . . . He deserves to be on the list for his performance, ahead of a couple other â€œnameâ€ prospects.

Matsuzaka, Bannister, Guthrie and Lincecum have all been more effective than Kendrick, and in more innings. So it really comes down to Kendrick vs. Gabbard. Gabbard, who didn't crack the top 20 either, has done it in the AL, in two extreme hitters' parks, and his peripherals are better. If you want to argue that Kendrick's impact for his club has been greater, I won't argue, but we ranked Gabbard ahead because we think he's a better pitcher.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:36:51 +0000

I made the Reed comp; statistically check Reed at baseball-reference.com and you’ll see the comparison is almost dead-on, statistically. Pedroia’s 15 pounds heavier and stronger (as befitting this time in history, really). But defensively, Reed played shortstop, which Pedro hasn’t done in the big leagues (not for a full year). It’s really not far-fetched that Pedroia will be a better version of Reed. That is good; I just don’t see the little-guy-who-swings-hard, like him and Ian Kinsler (his former teammate at Arizona State), having long careers where they are above-average hitters. Reed had a four-five year shelf life; I think Pedro will be better, but not a star. (Pat Murphy, please don’t hit me . . . )

By: Joanne Peterson

Joanne Peterson — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:25:35 +0000

A good point was made about Braun vs Tulowitski-more games won since Braun came on board with his bat, just the opposite with Tulowitski. POINT: Tulowitski’s impact has winning effect.

(I stole this from Buck Martinez on MLB-XM)

By: Louis Demarco

Louis Demarco — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:05:37 +0000

Pedrioa stats. are almost the same as Jeter.Check out ops.I think Pedrioa is a much better defender,not even close than Reed and a better hitter

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:17:22 +0000

Kyle “quality start” Kendrick. Nobody in the world thought he would even be promoted to AAA, let alone the bigs, and he is 7 – 3, 3.89. Granted he doesn’t have the peripherals, but neither does Wang, and he’s not so bad is he? That, and he has done at least as much a Braun, in terms of his importance to keeping his team alive in the standings. Oh, and he could easily have 3 more wins, if it were not for the Phillies pourous bullpen, blowing a 6 – 3 lead against the Rockies, and two games in a row he went 7 innings and gave up 2 runs in each game, and the Phillies vaunted offense forgot to show up each. He deserves to be on the list for his performance, ahead of a couple other “name” prospects.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:00:32 +0000

I disagree with the previous commenters sentiment that Josh Fields should be included. This is very deep list when you have a Billy Butler at #20. Fields has shown HR power but little else. He’s striking out over 1/3 of his atbats and his home/road splits show a player who is benefitting greatly from a big fly friendly park. He’s been very good vs LH but 180 degrees equally awful against RHP. All in all, he may be able to fill the modest shoes of Joe Crede but he needs to make alot of progress to compete with this crowd.

By: Jim Ten Eyck

Jim Ten Eyck — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:03:23 +0000

I was surprised that Yunel Escobar did not make your top 20 rookies list. What am I missing?

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:47:02 +0000

Where is Josh Fields? His numbers are better than Gordon’s and he had had half the at-bats. Fields, if you extrapolate his numbers, would be on pace for a thirty homer season. Although his walks are low and strikeouts high, his power numbers should alone put him on this list. And his average is not horrible for a rookie and a guy who has only recently been playing baseball full-time.