Having difficulty thinking of something to write about, I decided to look to other bloggers for teams that suck for ideas. The first idea came from a Royals blog that was comparing all the starters at each position in the division.
Previous positions: Catcher
We'll go around the diamond so 1st base is next. The starters for the NL Central teams according to RotoChamp are Anthony Rizzo, Joey Votto, Corey Hart, Garrett Jones and Allen Craig. Here is how each have done over the previous 3 years.
| Name | PA | HR | ISO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | Fld | BsR | WAR |
| Joey Votto | 1842 | 80 | .243 | .321 | .434 | .564 | .425 | 167 | 15.4 | -8.2 | 20.1 |
| Corey Hart | 1787 | 87 | .235 | .279 | .343 | .514 | .369 | 131 | -10.5 | 0.3 | 10.6 |
| Allen Craig | 857 | 37 | .215 | .300 | .348 | .515 | .370 | 135 | -3.2 | -0.7 | 5.6 |
| Garrett Jones | 1647 | 64 | .197 | .254 | .313 | .452 | .331 | 108 | -15.2 | -8.2 | 3.2 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 521 | 16 | .157 | .245 | .324 | .402 | .320 | 99 | 7.6 | -4.4 | 1.4 |
No surprise that Votto is the best. I was a little surprised to see that Hart had more home runs in fewer plate appearances. For some reason I have never gotten used to Allen Craig being a good player, but he is a very good hitter. Rizzo's numbers are brought down by a very poor year in San Diego, but at the same time Craig and Jones each had poor 2010 seasons.
1st basemen generally aren't good baserunners and that's true of this group. Rizzo's sample is smaller than the others, but it's possible he's the worst baserunner in the group. He has been the worst to this point taking playing time into consideration, but he's also had the best fielding (Votto overall, but when you factor in playing time it's Rizzo). Small sample alert definitely applies to the fielding in Rizzo's case.
Over the last 3 years there's Votto and then a big drop until you get to Craig and Hart with Jones and Rizzo well behind.
The 2013 CAIRO projections are below.
| Name | PA | HR | BB | SO | avg | obp | slg | wOBA | oWAR | oWAR/550 |
| Joey Votto | 600 | 24 | 94 | 112 | .307 | .420 | .532 | .413 | 4.0 | 3.6 |
| Craig Allen | 432 | 16 | 33 | 79 | .286 | .343 | .476 | .353 | 2.0 | 2.6 |
| Corey Hart | 484 | 22 | 39 | 109 | .270 | .336 | .494 | .356 | 1.9 | 2.2 |
| Garrett Jones | 560 | 21 | 45 | 112 | .257 | .316 | .449 | .329 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 576 | 24 | 51 | 128 | .261 | .334 | .469 | .348 | 1.7 | 1.6 |
Jones was projected as a RF so if he's the 1st baseman then you can take about a win off his projected total. That's good news for Rizzo and Cubs fans. What's not so good is that Rizzo is well behind the other 3 1st basemen in the division.
If we add in fielding, Jones would improve to about 1.4 WAR (already factoring in his move to 1st), Votto 4.3 WAR, Craig 1.9 WAR, Hart 1.6 WAR and 1.8 WAR for Rizzo.
If we add in fielding we get the following:
Votto: 4.3 WAR
Craig: 1.9 WAR
Rizzo: 1.8 WAR
Hart: 1.6 WAR
Jones: 1.4 WAR
This isn't very encouraging considering Rizzo might be the best offensive player on the team.
I’m going to pretend that Rizzo exceeds projections because he’s still young and growing and learning #HopeMonster
Happy New Year, jabronis.
Google Chrome is choking on your blog today..lulz
@ mikeakaleroy:
Refresh the page or clear your cache. That just worked for me. Same thing worked on Safari (desktop and iphone) and same thing worked on Chrome iphone too.
I’ve been combining some of the css so it’s possible your browser cached old files.
Let me know if that works for you.
@ dmick89:
Good to go. Thank you, sir.
So who is the likely next HC for the Bears?
@ WaLi:
Well, since the Chicago media tends to think it can do a better job, hopefully one of them.
@ mikeakaleroy:
That’s a great idea. They should do it for the Cubs too. I’d love to see the lineups that some of these clowns would run out there. Not to mention the times they’d pinch hit for the best (lazy) hitter with the worst (scrappy) hitter. It would be awesome.
@ dmick89:
I’m sure Sullivan would put together a Cubs roster of only guys under 4 ft tall, so he could feel like a big man for once.
@ mikeakaleroy:
Chicago Oompa Loompas, unite!
@ dmick89:
This guy would start at all 9 positions
I’d sell tickets for each game for a fan to play 3B for the Cubs. Each game, some lucky (or unlucky) fan would get a chance to be the worst player in all of sports at their position. I call it The Josh Vitters Experiance.
@ Suburban kid:
Is that one of those 3D basball card photos? I keep moving my head around my computer screen, but nothing seems to change. What am I doing wrong?
@ Edwin:
), I think he just made an overlay of Reed and Darwin Barney for the ultimate in grit and hustle and heart.
While I’m guessing this post was made in sarcasm (
@ Rice Cube:
Reedwin’s chinbush is even more realistically vaginal than Reed’s.
New Shit
@ Suburban kid:
That’s a disturbing image.