Joe Morgan hasn't changed
Hi there. Just a real quick thought. While Joe Morgan conducted this chat on July 13, it doesn't change the fact that he probably should be fired. This is what I'm talking about:
Tito (Brooklyn): Joe, who do you think is the best overall CF in the NL?
Joe Morgan: Well, I guess the question would be defensively or offensively? CF in the NL, you have Shane Victorino is a good defensive OF. Matt Kemp as well. That's an interesting question, because I don't think there are a lot of great CFs in the NL. Those are two that are exceptional. Drew Stubbs has a chance to be a good CF.
First, Joe gets off to a good start, and by good start I mean he doesn't really answer the question that well. Tito's question was: who is the best overall center fielder in the National League, to which Joe responds by asking if he means defensively or offensively. The answer to that is right in the question.
Second, he throws out two names, Victorino and Kemp, but doesn't even mention Chicago Cubs CF Marlon Byrd, who is (and I'm assuming we're talking about who is the best right now) probably the correct answer to the question.
Byrd: .320, .378, .487, .846, 122 OPS+
Victorino: .253, .317, .453, .770, 103 OPS+
Kemp: .258, .314, .460, .774, 110 OPS+
Byrd's 61 and 64 point OBP lead over Victorino and Kemp, respectively, is probably enough to give Byrd the edge. And while I don't really like batting average, Byrd is batting at a .320 clip, which is good enough for second in the NL and tenth in all of baseball.
Since we're talking about best overall, defense should be taken into account as well. Byrd has the lead in that as well...
UZR / UZR/150
Byrd: 8.6 / 15.8
Victorino: -2.2 / -4.1
Kemp: -16.0 / -29.9
Just for fun, here are their RC27 numbers too:
RC27
Byrd: 7.08
Victorino: 5.42
Kemp: 4.62
A team of nine Maron Byrds would outscore nine Shane Victorinos by nearly 1.7 runs per game and nine Matt Kemps by 2.5 runs per game.
Perhaps the craziest thing is that Joe doesn't even mention other NL center fielders like Colorado's Carlos Gonzalez (who you could make a case for instead of Byrd) and St. Louis' Colby Rasmus.
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