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February 13, 2014 Skewed LeftFun with 2014 PECOTA Comparables
As a non-fantasy player going on eight years clean, and also as a non-baseball team employee, I might not be the precise target audience for our PECOTA projection system. Still, PECOTA Day continues to be one of my favorite days of the year, and I think the player comps are a huge part of the reason why. Comparisons are a dangerous thing in baseball. They can be too binding and too racial. They can set too high an expectation—the draft day comps on television are particularly laughable. They can cloud judgment. So I enjoy seeing if the data—the comparisons based on similarity and used to project how current players will perform going forward—might be more revealing. I look for the funniest ones, the scariest ones, and the ones where I’d never thought of the two players in the same sentence, but hey, maybe that makes some sense. Not as an exact match. There is the usual disclaimer with all of my favorite 2014 PECOTA comps, that these are not exact talent matches, just the closest pairings of statistical, biographical, and positional pasts. And they might just tell us something about their futures. Nelson Cruz, no. 1 comp: Juan Gonzalez Gonzalez, another defensively challenged, offensively overrated Rangers outfielder, hit free agency in advance of his 32-year-old season and immediately cratered. That was two years after Gonzalez rejected that famous $140 million extension offer from the Tigers, and the Rangers got him back for two years and $24 million. He would average 0.3 WARP in his remaining four seasons. Cruz hits free agency a year older and has less far to fall. This could get even uglier, and it’s no surprise that nobody’s been willing to meet the asking price yet. Justin Upton, No. 1 comp: Barry Bonds Nobody else is getting a Bonds comp this year. And while this means very different things at their ages than in their primes, the Griffey comps belong to Torii Hunter, Curtis Granderson, Matt Kemp and Vernon Wells. SMH racist, PECOTA. The players most frequently found in comps Position players Pitchers The Beckett binge is a little too much awareness from the computer. As a short-time Houston resident, it was laughable how easily the Beckett comps flowed, from Jameson Taillon on down to anyone who was over six feet tall, right-handed, and pitched in high school. Robinson Cano: Chase Utley, Aramis Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero This year, he just ran out of second baseman. Given his offense, which is so out of character for the position, Cano takes to Seattle a skill set more befitting a corner position. How long that lasts is obviously the important part of the contract, but this is a much more encouraging set.
Prince Fielder, no. 3 comp: Nick Johnson
Jean Segura, no. 1 comp: Josh Barfield Listen, Milwaukee, you have probably the best fanbase in the game that comes out win or lose. You have a wonderful ballpark (even if you can’t walk there). You have Bob Uecker. You have tailgating at a freakin’ baseball game. If that’s all you have for the next few years, you’ll probably be okay.
Starlin Castro: Jose Reyes, Wil Cordero, Tom Tresh
Juan Uribe, no. 1 comp: Eric Chavez
Jason Kipnis, no. 1 comp: Ian Kinsler
Players who are just destined to be together, all no. 1 comps.
Cliff Lee, no. 2 comp: Koji Uehara Starters’ K/BB the last five seasons (Source: Play Index)
Brandon Morrow: Felipe Paulino, Francisco Liriano, Shaun Marcum Edinson Volquez: Oliver Perez, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny Mike Leake, no. 1 comp: Dontrelle Willis
Zachary Levine is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @zacharylevine
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Pete Orr and Joe McEwing is my favorite. I would so watch that reality show.
It's definitely my favorite too.