Outside of fans of the Milwaukee Brewers, devoted fantasy baseball managers and his wife and child, very few people are familiar with Casey McGehee.
It’s to be expected.
McGehee plays in the smallest market in Major League Baseball and wasn’t a top prospect like say, Bryce Harper, Stephen Strasburg or Jason Heyward.
In fact, McGehee didn’t even break onto the scene until 2009 at 26 years old when, after a season-ending wrist injury to Rickie Weeks, he was thrust into the starting lineup.
Since then, Casey McGehee has gone on to become one of the more consistent contributors to the Brewers offense and a core player in their lineup.
Consistency is extremely valuable in a 162 game season, so much so, that McGehee was recognized on a national level this offseason.
As part of its offseason programming, the MLB Network has run a series of programs entitled Top 10 ____ Right Now for each position and low and behold, McGehee appeared in their third base rankings:
10. Casey McGehee
9. Placido Polanco
8. Scott Rolen
7. Mark Reynolds
6. David Wright
5. Adrian Beltre
4. Kevin Youkilis
2. Ryan Zimmerman
1. Evan Longoria
At first thought, some might be surprised to even see Casey McGehee on the list, what with having only played one full MLB season in his career. However, when you look closer and see some of the names ahead of him, you begin to wonder if McGehee isn’t in fact closer to the Top 5 rather than 10.
Placido Polanco? Mark Reynolds? Scott Rolen?
He has to be better than those guys.
Casey McGehee had the second most hits amongst third basemen behind only Adrian Beltre, and were it not for Beltre having one of the best seasons of his career, it is very possible McGehee would have topped the list.
In fact, McGehee hit more home runs than Longoria in 2010 and more doubles than Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright or Alex Rodriguez and had the fifth best AVG amongst third basemen in 2010.
While he didn’t score as many runs as some on the list due to batting fifth in the Brewers lineup, he did have the second most RBI behind only Alex Rodriguez.
If you watch many Milwaukee Brewers games, you know that Casey McGehee isn’t the best defensive third basemen in baseball and his 17 errors last season certainly indicated that.
However, he had the same amount as Ryan Zimmerman and less than Adrian Beltre, Mark Reynolds and David Wright, and his FPCT was better than both Reynolds’ and Zimmerman’s.
McGehee ranks in the middle or above in almost every offensive category when compared to his counterparts on the list. His main flaw is his speed and his one stolen base last season tied him for worst amongst the group with Scott Rolen.
His defense, while not stellar, is better than some on the list and suffers from playing with one of the worst, if not the worst, defensive first basemen in the league—Prince Fielder.
Casey McGehee can’t compete with Mark Reynolds in terms of home runs or David Wright in terms of stolen bases. His defense isn’t as good as Placido Polanco’s and he wasn’t playing for money last season like Adrian Beltre was.
Instead, he is right in the middle.
The middle of a Top 10 List—according to most—is somewhere right around five, last time I checked.
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