Shaun Rogers, the Running Back?
October 30, 2008Getcha Gear Here!
October 30, 2008
After one heck of a preseason, we couldn’t help but be thrilled to see a full year of Franklin Gutierrez in right field. But once the season started, “Gut” got back to his old ways of swinging at balls in the dirt and striking out more than the “happy” Pedro Cerrano. And though he finally started to string together a few solid games once the Tribe was out of the race, there was no denying what this kid could do on the other side of the coin once placed into the field.
In what is relativeley surprising news, Franklin is the recipient of this season’s “Fielding Bible Award” given to the best-fielding right fielder in Major League Baseball.
Gutierrez was chosen by a panel of ten experts, including Bill James and John Dewan, author of the award-winning book The Fielding Bible, which revolutionized fielding analysis in the major leagues, and the forthcoming The Fielding Bible—Volume II.
In granting the award to Gutierrez, Dewan wrote: “Franklin Gutierrez led all right fielders in Plus/Minus last year with +20, although he did not win a Fielding Bible Award. To show that 2007 was no fluke, however, Gutierrez led them again this year with +29. Here’s the amazing part: He did it while playing in only 88 games in right field in 2007 and only 97 games this year.”
James is obviously known as one of the best fielding analysts out there. His work is well documented among the ranks and could be the sole reason why fielding percentage is a statistic that tends to be becoming less and less relavent. A well-renowned author, the choosing of Gutierrez for this award speaks volumes. Just think of the other solid right fielders out there: Vladamir Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki to name a few.
The other Fielding Bible winners of 2008 are Albert Pujols, Brandon Phillips, Jimmy Rollins, Adrian Beltre, Carl Crawford, Carlos Beltran, Yadier Molina, and Kenny Rogers. Needless to say, Gutierrez is in pretty good company. I just wish that he could start hitting like some of the guys on this list before we dump him off for someone like Mark Teahen. Because you just know that he’ll turn into a 20-HR guy the second that happens.
7 Comments
I’m afraid he’ll never be more than a late inning defensive replacement unless he can find some pop in that bat…
He truly was the handcuff to JoBo towards the end of his run here…
Maybe we can put this in the PR materials and get additional trade value out of him? 🙂
Absolutely Craig!!! I like the way you think
I wouldn’t be opposed to him being a late-inning defensive replacement. Now, if some other team wants to give us a bonafide prospect for him, I’d be willing to let him go, too!
We can use a player like him in the lineup… But that means we’d have to have other guys hitting better than they do. If you can have Gut in your lineup as the #9 hitter, that means the others are doing their job, and you really don’t need much from him. But until that happens, he better step up his hitting or he’ll be watching most of the games.
Vlad is a terrible outfielder. He just has a rocket arm. And Ichiro played mostly center field this year.