Today, the same Fangraphs blogger, Matt Klaassen, is back on the subject of Jimmy Rollins. This time, it's debating whether J-Roll is overrated. To me, J-Roll has also been the type of player who gets over- and underrated, depending on whom is doing the rating. Klaassen comes to a pretty fair conclusion:
Over the last three seasons (including 2009), Rollins has accumulated 14.4 wins, making him "only" the 17th most valuable position player in that period according to FanGraphs' WAR. Whose company is he in? Ichiro Suzuki is at 15.0, only half-a-win away (practically nothing over three years). Derek Jeter is Mr. Overrated Guys Bloggers Love To Whine About, and he's the same as Ichiro. Ryan Zimmerman has been exactly as valuable. Grady Sizemore has been ever-so-slightly less valuable; is he a hack? How about Lance Berkman or Adrian Gonzalez?
Look, Rollins shouldn't have won the 2007 NL MVP, when he wasn't even the best player on his own team (ahem). Again, I don't know exactly who's been doing the "rating." But if you ask me (and you didn't), it's tough to imagine that a guy who's been about as good as Ichiro!, Jeter, Zimmerman, Grady Sizemore, Big Puma, and A-Gon over the last three years deserves the "overrated" label.
I agree with this assessment of Jimmy Rollins. I don't think he's the greatest player in the world, but I wouldn't have minded him stabilizing the Red Sox shortstop situation over the years.
News and lack thereof: It's so slow that the only story in the papers is that the Red Sox may pursue John Lackey. Yeah, that's about as likely to happen as the Phillies trading for Ryan Zimmerman to plug their third base hole.
No comments:
Post a Comment