Kuzul

Four starts into his major league career, Tampa Bay Rays’ righty Jeremy Hellickson has opened up eyes amongst fans and the opponents he has faced. In four starts, Hellickson is 3-0 with a sweet 2.05 ERA and an even sweeter 0.76 WHIP.

I had the opportunity last night to watch Hellickson pitch against the Oakland A’s and I came away really impressed. While he doesn’t possess the fastest fastball in the game (average around 90 mph), it’s the way in which he mixes it in with his changeup and curve and his consistent delivery on all his pitches that make him really effective.

What separates Hellickson from other young pitchers is that his delivery and release point is very consistent on all his pitches. That is what makes the 10 mph difference on his changeup and fastball all the more difficult to hit.

Take a look at Hellickson’s release point chart from last night courtesy of PitchFX. As you will see, it’s pretty consistent throughout last night’s game:

There is a very good chance Hellickson will move to the bullpen once Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann return to the rotation. Next year, Hellickson will be in the rotation full time and the future looks very bright for this 23-year-old.

Here are some other facts about Jeremy Hellickson…

Age: 23

Bats: Right

Throws: Right

College: None. Went to Herbert Hoover High School in Des Moines, Iowa.

Drafted: Fourth round in the 2005 Draft

Minor League Stats:

2005 Rookie: 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA, 11 K, and a 1.17 WHIP in 6 IP

2006 Low Single A: 4-3 with a 2.43 ERA, 96 K, and a 0.91 WHIP in 77.2 IP

2007 Single A: 13-3 with a 2.67 ERA, 106 K, and a 1.09 WHIP in 111.1 IP

2008 High Single A and Double A: 11-5 with a 2.96 ERA, 162 K, and a 1.10 WHIP in 152 IP

2009 Double A & Triple A: 9-2 with a 2.45 ERA, 132 K, and a 0.89 WHIP in 114 IP

2010 Triple A: 12-3 with a 2.45 ERA, 123 K, and a 1.17 WHIP in 117.2 IP

Keith Law Ranking and Analysis

Ranking: No. 17 out of 100 best prospects in baseball in 2010.

Analysis: “Hellickson’s a different animal from his future Tampa rotation-mate Wade Davis, but they’re quite close in overall quality. Hellickson has less pure power than Davis, but a better changeup and his own plus curveball to give him multiple weapons to get big league hitters out.

Hellickson’s fastball is solid-average at 90-94, and he’ll cut it to set it off from his four-seamer (which tends to be a little true). His changeup is a real plus pitch for him as he has improved his feel for it dramatically in the past two years, and he has great feel for his breaking ball—with the ability to elevate it or bounce it or throw it for strikes as needed.

Hellickson’s control has always been excellent and he has plus fastball command, but the combination of average velocity and lack of movement do limit his ceiling somewhat to that of a No. 2 starter—not that that is anything to be ashamed of, and it’s probably more than the Rays could have hoped for when they signed him away from LSU for $500,000.”

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The New York Yankees’ 2010 payroll is $206,333,389 with the average player making over $8.25 million this season. New York has more than double the payroll of 22 of the remaining 29 ballclubs and more than triple the payroll of seven other teams. Not one of the other seven clubs who has a salary of over $100 million currently sits atop their division.

The Minnesota Twins are the biggest spenders, besides the Yankees, that lead their division. How much are the Twins spending this season you ask? $97 million which ranks them eleventh in the majors. As a matter of fact, the only other division leader that can come close to the Twins payroll is the Braves and they have shelled out $84 million this season ranking them right in the middle of the pack at fifteenth in the bigs.

The NL Central leading Reds are next in line with a payroll of $72 million ranking them nineteenth. Following the Reds is the club that is tied with the Yanks atop the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are twenty-first in MLB with a payroll just under $72 million, more than $134 million less than their AL East counterpart New York.

Last but not least we go to the 27th highest payroll and the 29th highest payroll. That would be the Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres. Yes, they too sit atop the AL and NL West respectively. These two clubs combine for a payroll of just under $94 million. That $94 million would make up just 46% of the Yankees payroll and couldn’t even pay the salaries of Rodriguez, Sabathia, Jeter, and Teixeira. Those four overpaid stars combine for a salary of over $100 million in 2010.

So why all the success? Why can’t the Cubs or the Mets have this kind of success with a combined payroll of $278 million? First of all, K-Rod isn’t helping things for the Mets and we saw what the Cubs did with Derek Lee trading him and his $13 million salary to Atlanta Wednesday.

The reason for the success is a farm system approach of grooming players and making the right moves when it was time to clean house.

Teams like the Cubs and Mets are littered with players such as three $19 million men in Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, and Carlos Beltran. That’s almost $60 million that has gone to waste this season between those two ballclubs with all three players in extreme decline.

The press has applauded the Twins for years now as they have been able to have much success mainly through their two minor league products, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. The new M&M Boys each have their own AL MVP award and just recently the Twins were able to sign Joe Mauer to an eight year extension for the hometown discount of $23 million a year. That may not sound like much of a discount but that’s $10 milliona year less than A-Rod for a 27-year-old catcher with triple crown potential.

Teams such as the Reds and Rays have built up their team through their farm system as well and have refused to overpay free agents.

The Rays are the best example of developing players through the farm system in order to obtain a smaller payroll. Arguably the three biggest stars on the team, (Evan Longoria, David Price, and B.J. Upton), all made their MLB debuts in Tampa Bay and in 2010 they will combine to make only $5.8 million.

The Padres and Rangers were fortunate enough to trade coveted, high-priced players in order to obtain the pieces that make up their success today.

At the trade deadline in 2007, the Rangers traded 1B Mark Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves for four prospects and C Jarrod Saltalamacchia . While Saltalamacchia’s stay in Texas wasn’t half as long as his name, the Rangers did acquire Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and Elvis Andrus in the deal. In 2010, Harrison and Feliz have anchored a great Texas bullpen and Elvis Andrus is so good that he’s moved Gold Glove winner Michael Young over to 3B and the 21-year-old is batting .276 doing it.

Arguably the Padres’ two most important players, P Clayton Richard and 1B Adrian Gonzalez, were acquired through the trades of P Adam Eaton to Texas in ’05 and the trade of Cy Young winner Jake Peavy to the White Sox at the trade deadline last season.

Clayton Richard, who was involved in the Peavy trade, is 11-5 this season for San Diego with a 3.69 ERA and a measley salary of $423,700. Peavy is currently 7-6 with a 4.63 ERA and a $15 million salary. Advantage: San Diego.

This small market success is not uncommon. The Yankees and the Red Sox are the only two teams of the past decade to win a World Series title with a payroll over $100 million.

In 2003, the Florida Marlins and their miniscule payroll of $48.7 million were able to defeat the New York Yankees and their payroll of $125.9 million. I am not saying that the Padres or the Reds can do the same thing as the Marlins, but stranger things have happened. Money sure doesn’t hurt, but it also doesn’t guarantee a thing in today’s game of baseball balance from top to bottom of the payroll rankings.

-scf

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The Cincinnati Reds are 17 games over the .500 mark for the first time since 1999 and to their credit they are making moves that make sense rather than making snap judgements that may blow up in their face.

Last week when the Reds traded for Jim Edmonds many of us, including myself, were miffed at why Cincy would send Travis Wood down to make room. Wood was on fire and making waves at becoming the second Reds rookie pitcher to make a splash this season. Though we now see what the Reds had in store, or at least, figured out what they can do.

Cincinnati has officially put Mike Leake into the bullpen in order to cut back on his innings and ease the work load on his outstanding, but young, arm. As a result, Travis Wood will be called up on Thursday and will enter the rotation as the fifth starter. A great move to keep both pitchers in the mix as they have made a world of difference for the Reds this year.

Leake was quoted in the Reds Team Report on Wednesday saying, “Obviously, I’d rather go every fifth day, but it will be fun to throw out of the ‘pen—as long as I can do something to help the team.”

The baseball maturity of Leake grows every minute. The 22-year-old righthander has already thrown 135 innings this season and has posted an 8-4 record with a 3.78 ERA in 22 starts.

Wood is 3-1 with a 2.65 ERA in eight starts. He has issued just 13 walks in 51 innings and has a WHIP under 1.00.

And another thing. I’m glad to see Micah Owings go somewhere other than taking up space on the Reds roster. He was decent as a a starter, but never really had the stuff to be full time in the rotation. Though he is a great a pinch hitter, maybe he can remake himself as a DH or an outfielder (I’m joking).

For those of you who say the Reds lost in the trade of Adam Dunn to Arizona for Owings and two others in 1998, give me a break. I am an Adam Dunn fan, but he only hit home runs when the bases were empty.

He was the king of the meaningless dinger and seemed to continually go in reverse in his efforts to just get a base hit. You can hit 40 homers, but when you struggled to get 100 RBI, something is obviously not right.

Don’t get me wrong. Deep down I hated to see him go, but the Reds benefited from getting rid of him to find players that were much more versatile in fielding and hitting. They may not have received that from the initial trade, but they created the room to make the team better.

And they have done just that, gotten better.

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In case you haven’t noticed, the Atlanta Braves are beating people senseless at Turner Field. The Braves’ 42-16 record at home is the best in the majors and Atlanta shows no signs of slowing down.

The main reasons for the Braves’ home success is their pitching. The Braves rank third in the National League in home ERA with a 2.99 mark. The one starter who has really stood out at home is Jair Jurrjens.

With his stellar performance on on Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jurrjens is now 5-0 with a 1.81 ERA at home. If you compare that to his 0-4 with a 6.39 ERA on the road, you can see that Jurrjens likes the home cooking in Atlanta.

However, if you look deeper into Jurrjens’ home and road splits, his peripherals are pretty equal. Here is how Jurrjens’ home and road splits shape up:

Home: 7 starts, 1.21 WHIP, 7.5 K/9, 3.22 BB/9, .233 avg

Away: 7 starts, 1.26 WHIP, 5.5 K/9, 2.84 BB/9, .251 avg

As you can see, not much separates Jurrjens from on the road from at home. So why has he given up just nine earned runs at home and 27 on the road? It has to do with Jurrjens remarkable strand rate home.

At home, Jurrjens is stranding a ridiculous 89 percent of the runners on base. On the road, Jurrjens is stranding only 46.9 percent runners on base. That is a huge split.

Essentially, Jurrjens is putting on the same amount of runners at home as on the road, but on the road he is not making the key pitches when it counts. The average pitcher strands around 73 percent of the runners on base, so one has to figure this will even out over the next month and a half.

While Jurrjens should continue to win games at home because he plays on a good team and he is a solid pitcher, expect his ERA to start rising at home. There is no way he can keep up this strand rate.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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The 2010 season has seen limited success in the minor leagues for the New York Mets. Many pitching prospects have underachieved. And narrow focus has been placed on top prospects like Ruben Tejada, Jenrry Mejia, and Fernando Martinez.

What about the significantly lesser-known names? Of the less-regarded prospects in the Mets organization, there have been several who have stood out. Second baseman Joshua Satin is one of them.

A California native, Satin was selected by the Mets in the sixth round of the 2008 MLB Amateur Draft. He’s logged some great hitting numbers in the Mets farm system, as he is a career .303 hitter and has shown good discipline.

The right-handed hitting Satin began the year at Class A St. Lucie, and has since earned a promotion to AA Binghamton, where he has spent half the year.

It is almost difficult to think of Satin as a prospect at this point. The 25-year-old is getting to the point where he is just another minor league player. But this burst of solid hitting should start getting him some attention.

To say that Satin has hit regularly doesn’t really sum his game up enough. He hit .316 with a .406 OBP in 58 games at St. Lucie. 

Since his promotion, the hits have kept coming. In 56 games with Binghamton, Satin has posted an even higher batting average of .325 and a .417 OBP.

Not a big power guy, Satin has hit three home runs in the last week. He’s hitting all forms of pitching, batting .324 against lefties and .325 and right-handers. 

With Binghamton, he has also hit .387 with runners in scoring position.

His game may strike some as being one-sided, but he made a seamless transition between levels this year. Any team would look favorable upon the kind of hitting he has put together.

If Satin can keep his bat hot, the Mets will have another name added to the minor league middle infield logjam. It will give the team more flexibility for talking trade in the offseason.

The Mets are hoping that Joshua Satin can develop further. He has to get some recognition soon at this rate.

See this article and other Mets minor league reports from Matt in the Mets Gazette

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For the first time this season since I have been tracking the MLB attendance at baseball-reference.com, the attendance has declined over 700,000. Not surprisingly, we haven’t heard any reports from baseball commissioner Bud Selig about how well the game of baseball is doing.

Only 12 teams have shown an increase in attendance during the 2010 baseball season. The numbers should continue to drop as teams drop further out of the races, school starts again, and college and pro football start in about a month.

Attendance would have fallen more if not for the new Target Field in Minnesota showing an increase of over 561,000 more fans than in 2009 for the Minnesota. The Colorado Rockies, with an increase of over 163,000, and the San Francisco Giants, with over 108,000 more fans this season, are the only three teams with an increase of over 100,000 more fans than in 2010.

Seven teams have drawn over 100,000 less fans in 2010 than in 2009 with the New York Mets topping the list with a loss of over 341,000 fans. The Toronto Blue Jays, with a loss of over 273,000 fans, the Indians, drawing over 271,000, and even the Milwaukee Brewers, who Selig used to own, have drawn over 217,000 fewer fans.

Twelve teams are drawing 1,000 fewer fans per game than in 2009 with the New York Mets losing over 6,200 fans per game while Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians losing over 4,000 fans per game while the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles are drawing over 3,000 less fans per game.

The Yankees are averaging over 46,000 fans per game while the Cleveland Indians are the worst drawing team with about an average of 17,000 fans per game.

The Florida Marlins could move to the positive side in attendance since they have lost only 38 fans per game and are only a minus 2,249 for the season.

Over 700,000 fewer fans represents a huge loss for the major league baseball. Those 700,000 fans, assuming they would have spent $20 at each game, means a loss of $14 million for baseball.

Baseball is averaging 408 fewer fans per game which, if using the $20 per fan benchmark, represents a loss at each game of $8,160, which multiplied 81 times for each home game comes to a loss of $660,960 for the season.

With 11 major league teams at least 10 games behind the division leaders and three teams at least nine games behind the division leaders, that could be 13 teams out of the division races very soon.

On a more positive note five division races are showing a separation of two-and-half games or less between the first and second place teams which should boost attendance. The AL West is the only race not hotly contested but not by no means over with the Angels seven-and-half behind the Rangers.

The Tampa Bay Rays have lost over 98,000 fans despite being the thick of the AL East race.

These are the attendance gain or loss numbers for all the division leaders:

Yankees: +38,839

Twins: +561,382

Rangers: +96,386

Braves: +43,264

Cardinals: -14,617

Padres: 88,012

The totals for all the last place teams in each division:

Orioles: -176,399

Royals: -149,108

Mariners: -68,584

Nationals: + 63,477 ( most of increase could be attributed to Stephen Strasburg pitching in home games)

Pirates: +71,064 (this is a surprise considering the Pirates have lost seven more games than at this point last season)

Diamondbacks: -27,879

In summation, these numbers mean that general managers will have to be even more careful to not sign free agents for exorbitant sums.

They will be careful to not take a risk on injury prone players like Ben Sheets who earned $10 million from the Athletics despite winning only four games in 20 starts and is now out for the season and is not likely to pitch at all in 2011. They also paid Coco Crisp $5 million to play in only 41 games so far and he will fall short of playing in 100 games.

Another example is Kevin Millwood earning $12 million this season with two wins in 23 starts. The Mariners have paid out big bucks to players like Milton Bradley (hitting .205 for $11 million in 2010) and Chone Figgins, who is hitting .253 for $8.5 million but is hitting .310 since the All-Star break.

The Mets are paying Carlos Beltran over $19 million and he only recently played in his first game of the season. Jason Bay is earning $8 million to hit six home runs.

Then there is the case of Carlos Zambrano, who has either pitched badly or been suspended this season for $18.8 million, despite winning only three games.

Kosuke Fukudome is earning $14 million in 2010 and hit .189 in June and .162 in July, but is hitting .421 in August.

Baseball is going to have to stop the insanity of these long-term contracts because the fanbase isn’t there to support such extravagant spending.

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If I had to sum up the Mets’ 2010 season so far in one word, it would be enigmatic. The season has been full of enigmas. How can the Mets play so well at home but so dreadful on the road? How can the Mets play so well in May and June, but so badly in July and August? How is it that Jason Bay a consistent 30-plus HR, 100 RBI player, can just be lost at the plate? Where did this Angel Pagan player come from? R.A. Dickey? These are all very puzzling events from the season, however, I think the one of the more intriguing enigmatic stories of 2010 is Mike Pelfrey. 

Pelfrey started the season looking like the 1A the Mets needed and expected him to be when they drafted Pelfrey with the ninth overall pick in the 2005 amateur draft out of Wichita State. Pelfrey started out the season 9-1 with a 2.39 ERA. Since Pelfrey won his 10th game (Note: All the following stats are excluding Pelfrey’s most recent start), he clearly hasn’t been the same. Since Pelfrey won that 10th game on June 25th, he is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA. In only one of those games, Pelfrey managed to get out of the fifth inning. After looking at some splits, I saw some eye opening stats. Pelfrey, in his first 14 appearances (13 starts and one save), had a BAA (Batting Average Against) of .246, a BAbip (Batting Average of balls in play) of .281, a Swinging Strike rate of 17 percent, and threw about 15 pitches per innings.

**Read the rest…**

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The last we heard of Jay Gibbons was in 2007 while a member of the Baltimore Orioles. Three years later, Gibbons has finally made it back to the Majors, and thus far, he is making it count.

Jay Jonathan Gibbons was born in 1977 in Rochester, Mich. However, he spent the majority of his childhood in California, graduating from Mayfair High School in Lakewood. Following high school, Gibbons was a standout at UCLA. 

The 6-foot, 205-pound outfielder was drafted in the 14th round of the 1998 amateur draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gibbons immediately began making an impact, becoming the Triple Crown champion of the Pioneer League, with 19 home runs and 98 RBI while carrying a .397 batting average.

Following the 2000 season, the Baltimore Orioles claimed him in the Rule 5 draft. He made his major league debut on April 6, 2001. Gibbons rookie season with the Orioles in 2001 was off to a great start.

The young slugger had 15 home runs and 36 RBIs in 73 games before becoming hampered by a hand injury.

The following season, 2002, was a career-best for Gibbons. That season he hit 28 home runs for the Orioles,

In 2003, he followed up that performance with career highs in batting average (.277) and RBI (100). He was voted team MVP and many considered 2003 his break out season.

However, in 2004, the injury bug once again bit Gibbons. He appeared in just 97 games, a great reduction compared to the 160 games the year before. Gibbons collected just 47 RBIs while striking out 64 times.

The Orioles were convinced his declining numbers weren’t due to just injuries. In his shortened playing time, he also struggled at the plate while not complaining of physical discomfort.

The lefty had LASIK eye surgery following the 2004 season, and his numbers improved immediately in 2005. 

Gibbons smashed 135 hits in 139 games, re-emerging on the scene as a legitimate force at the plate. But it was short-lived.

The 2006 and 2007 seasons were once again plagued with injuries. Gibbons didn’t play over 100 games in either season.

To add insult to injuries, Gibbons was named by pitcher Jason Grimsley as an anabolic steroid user in a September 2006 report by the Los Angeles Times.

He was also named in the infamous Mitchell Report  in late 2007 as a steroid user and was eventually released by Baltimore on March 29, 2008. 

Left without a team and on the outside of the fringe having been linked to steroids, Gibbons spent four months from late March to late July as a free agent, before being given another shot by the Milwaukee Brewers.

However, he never appeared in a major league game for the franchise, and was again released in November. 

Gibbons was signed in January 2009 by the Florida Marlins, but spent less time with them than he did with the Brewers, and was released in March of the same year.

The outfielder found himself signing a deal to play for the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League.

Finally, in 2010, Gibbons impressed the Dodgers enough to be given an invitation to Spring Training. Gibbons took the invitation to heart, determined to reach the majors again to prove he could still compete.

While with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, Gibbons batted .347 in 94 games while hitting 19 home runs.  

Injuries to Manny Ramirez and Reed Johnson, coupled with the consistent underachievement of veteran Garret Anderson, prompted the Dodgers to promote Gibbons to the 25-man major league roster.

Thus far, you’d never guess Gibbons hasn’t played in the majors since 2007, as he has found his way into two Dodger games, and it would be difficult for Gibbons to perform any better. He is 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBI (Gibbons’ RBI single).

His current performance leaves Dodger fans pondering two questions: What took so long for the team to promote him? What would the season look like had he been called up much earlier?

In any event, the hometown kid may be here to stay, and is certainly making his case to cement a roster spot for the remainder of the season, and possibly into the future.

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In the mile-high city, there is an outfielder having the best baseball season you haven’t heard about. 

His name is Carlos Gonzalez, and he has been a menace to National League pitching this season.

Gonzalez, 24, is a tall, lean lefty with a sweet swing. 

Originally from Venezuela, Gonzalez is in his second full year with the Colorado Rockies. He came to the Rockies in the Winter of 2008 when the Rockies dealt Matt Holliday to the Oakland A’s. 

Gonzalez has made A’s general manager Bill Beane regret this trade. 

In 2009, Gonzalez spent the first two months of the season dominating the Pacific Coast League for the Rockies Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs. 

On May 29, the Rockies fired manager Clint Hurdle and replaced him with Jim Tracy. A week later, Gonzalez got the call to the majors.

Gonzalez struggled at first, posting a .607 OPS in June. He quickly improved that to an .860 mark in July. Since August 1, 2009, he has been one of the best hitting outfielders in baseball. 

Gonzalez hit 11 home runs and batted .330 over the last two months of 2009. In the playoffs, he hit .588, homered, stole two bases and scored five runs as the Phillies defeated the Rockies in four games.   

This season, he has continued to hit at almost the same astounding level. 

Consider his numbers: 135 hits, six triples, 25 home runs, 77 RBI, 75 runs, 18 stolen bases, 239 total bases .327 BA, .355 OBP, .579 SLUG, 136 OPS+.

These numbers equate to him being second in hits, sixth in triples, fourth in home runs, third in RBI, fourth in runs, first in total bases, first in average, third in slugging, and sixth in OPS among National League hitters.

Among outfielders, his numbers demonstrate why he is now one of the finest hitters in baseball.

Gonzalez leads all NL outfielders in average, home runs and RBI—winning the outfielder batting triple crown. 

He is also first in slugging and OPS. Among all major league outfielders, he is second in home runs, tied for third in RBI, second in batting average, third in slugging, and third in OPS.

Among all outfielders, Gonzalez trails Josh Hamilton and Jose Bautista in most of those categories—two players whose fantastic seasons have drawn them plenty of notice. However, Gonzalez easily trumps Bautista in batting average (by 67 points) and speed (four more triples and fifteen more stolen bases). 

The title of, “Best Outfielder in Baseball” is a debate between Gonzalez and Hamilton.  

Since July 1, Gonzalez has staked his claim to the title by playing out of this world baseball. 

In the six weeks since that date, he has stroked 12 home runs, hit .388, posted a 1.170 OPS and swiped six bases. On July 31, Gonzalez hit for the cycle against the Chicago Cubs. He saved his best for last, smashing a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Gonzalez has also been one of the most versatile outfielders in baseball. He’s played 52 games in center field, 35 in left, and 24 in right. He’s made only one fielding error this year. 

The only thing Gonzalez doesn’t do well is take walks—he has 19 on the season.  

Despite all this success, Gonzalez has received little attention.

Gonzalez barely made a blip in the NL All-Star voting, and was not named as a reserve by the players or NL manager Charlie Manuel. He was chosen as one of the five players for the “Fans Final Vote,” but he finished third.

As previously demonstrated, Gonzalez has maybe the best all-around numbers of any outfielder this season, yet he doesn’t even get total recognition from fantasy baseball players. In Yahoo! fantasy leagues his ownership is 93 percent.   

However, ESPN’s Fantasy Player Rater ranks Gonzalez as the best player in all of baseball (for the standard fantasy categories). But, he still isn’t owned in all ESPN fantasy leagues.  

Carlos Gonzalez should be getting a lot more attention.

His statistics clearly demonstrate why he’s having one of the best offensive seasons in baseball. 

Joey Votto has had an MVP-type season for the NL Central-leading Reds, but Carlos Gonzalez should not be forgotten in the discussion about the National League’s Most Valuable Player. 

In fact, Gonzalez should be at the top of that list.

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It’s safe to say that Andruw Jones has been one of the most disappointing baseball players in recent memory.

Just five years ago, Jones was in the middle of a fantastic season wherein he hit 51 homers with a .922 OPS (despite a .240 BABIP) and was worth 8.3 WAR. As recently as 2007, he slammed 26 long balls while driving in 94 and accumulating 3.8 WAR.

Then disaster struck.

In 2008, after signing a two-year, $36 million with the Dodgers, Jones absolutely tanked, hitting just .158 with three homers and a .505 OPS; he struck out in more than a third of his at-bats and his once prodigious power disappeared, as evidenced by his Michael Bourn-esque .091 ISO.

In the 160 games Jones has played with the Rangers and White Sox in 2009-10, he’s regained some of his lost power, bashing 32 homers with a .244 ISO in just under 600 plate appearances. However, those numbers don’t seem particularly special for a guy who’s spent the majority of his time at first base and DH, especially when combined with a putrid .209 batting average. No one’s mistaking him for an All-Star.

And yet, there is no doubt that Andruw Jones belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Wait, what?

For starters, let’s not be too hasty and dismiss his earlier offensive accomplishments. In 12 years with the Braves, he averaged 33 homers and 98 RBI per 162 games with an .824 OPS. He hit the 20/20 club three times, including his 31/27 season in 1998.

His 403 career homers put him 46th all-time, ahead of current Cooperstown residents Al Kaline (399), Jim Rice (382), Ralph Kiner (369), and Albert Pujols (okay, so he’s not in the Hall of Fame yet, but I’m sure they’re already molding his bust). And while 31 was a tad on the young side for a complete collapse, don’t forget that he had established himself as a key part of the Braves outfield before he was old enough to drink.

But all of that is just icing on the cake.

Forget everything he did at the plate, on the base paths, or in the dugout; if for no other reason, Andruw Jones deserves to be enshrined because of what he did in center field.

Jones isn’t just one of the best defensive outfielders of his generation—he’s arguably the best-fielding outfielder of all time, and surely ranks among the top glovesmen in baseball history at any position.

Jones won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1998-2007. Even opening it up to players who were honored in multiple, nonconsecutive years, that beats Ichiro (nine), Torii Hunter (nine), Andre Dawson (eight), Jim Edmonds (eight), Larry Walker (seven), and Kenny Lofton (four).

The only outfielders who have ever done better are Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente (12 each), but I’m sure you’ll join me in condoning Jones for not quite living up to their lofty standard.

Of course, you could argue that Gold Gloves are a popularity contest, and aren’t necessarily the best way to determine the game’s best defenders (see Matt Kemp and Derek Jeter last year).

It’s true, they don’t accurately describe Jones’ accomplishments—they don’t do them justice.

According to TotalZone (used for seasons from 1954-2001) and Ultimate Zone Rating (2002-now), statistics that use batted-ball type and location data to quantify a fielder’s contribution to his team, contribution to his team, Jones has saved 274.3 runs in his career with his glove—that’s about 28 wins worth of value for his career without taking into account anything he’s done with his bat.

If that number isn’t terribly impressive to you, perhaps you should consider the context—it’s the best score of any outfielder in baseball history, and a look at the Top 10 shows that it’s not particularly close:

These statistics are far from perfect, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that the older numbers are particularly flawed. But even if we can’t use it to compare players of different eras (could the margin of error really be more than 70 runs?), we can see just how amazing Jones has been by comparing him to his contemporaries.

If you noticed that the only other names of those 10 who played at the same time as Jones were Bonds (whose days as a serviceable fielder were numbered by the time Jones made his debut) and the woefully unappreciated Jordan, you can probably see where this is going.

Then there’s Darin Erstad’s 146.6. There’s Ichiro’s 120.2, Carl Crawford’s 119.8, Kenny Lofton’s 114.5, Mike Cameron’s 110.7, Larry Walker’s 86.0, and Jim Edmonds’ 57.5.

None of them even come close. In fact, Jones’ score is better than any two of those names’ combined.

It’s not just outfielders, either. Jones’ TZR/UZR is the second best of all-time, trailing only Brooks Robinson. Compare his 274.3 runs saved with Cal Ripken Jr.’s 181.0, Ivan Rodriguez’ 156.0, Luis Aparicio’s 149.0, and Omar Vizquel’s 136.4.

He even beats true defensive legends like Joe Tinker (180.0), Honus Wagner (85.0), and the amazing Ozzie Smith (239.0). If you can go toe-to-toe with the “Wizard of Oz” in the field, you barely need a pulse offensively to deserve a place in Cooperstown.

Jones hasn’t had time to slowly build up his score by being a consistently solid fielder; instead, he grabbed the bull by the horns and has enjoyed some of the best individual defensive seasons in baseball history.

In 1998, at age 21, he was worth 35 runs in the field, which at the time was tied for the second-best defensive performance since tracking began in 1950. In 1999, he promptly went out and beat that, earning 36 TZR.

All told, he appears on the Top 80 list for single-season TZR five times. And that’s not including UZR, which has been kinder to him than TZR since 2003.

Will the Baseball Writers Association of America vote him in when his time comes? Probably not. Even assuming the voters have learned how to use the newfangled defensive metrics by then (far from a sure thing, given that a majority of NL Cy Young voters implicitly declared wins to be the most important pitching statistic last year), there are too many reasons for them to doubt his candidacy.

While TZR and UZR make sense and are great tools for getting a general idea of a player’s defensive prowess, they’re too inconsistent for fans to take as the word of God (though, in my opinion, a 70-run lead is more than enough to cancel out the margin of error).

Aside from that, you’ve got a free-swinging, power-hitting outfielder (a dime a dozen over the last 20 years) who fell off a cliff right before his 32nd birthday. He’d have to return to his younger form and maintain it for at least a few more years in order to have a realistic shot at Cooperstown.

But, as the Beatles song goes, “All you need is glove,” unless I heard that wrong.

And that’s what Ozzie Smith proved when he got more than 90 percent of the vote for the Hall of Fame in 2002. Combine phenomenal defense with a solid bat (remember those 403 homers?), and there’s no question Andruw Jones deserves a spot in Cooperstown.

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