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POINT:  Ellsbury's fine, as far as he goes.  What's not fine, is taking an offense like the Mariners', and giving it a leadoff hitter.  You don't take a sputtering offense and call an Ichiro type "your big add."  Gimme a Stanton, or a Choo, at least.

COUNTERPOINT:  There are leadoff hitters, like Coco Crisp and Denard Span.  And then there are #1 hitters who are primary offensive weapons.

Denard Span and Coco Crisp, they're nice little players, but they get you 4-5 runs per 27 outs, and maybe 3 WAR.  A guy like Johnny Damon, though, he gets you 6+ runs per 27 outs, and 5+ WAR.

Jacoby Ellsbury has a career RC/27 of 6, meaning that a team full of Ellsburys gets you 6 runs per ballgame (and 120 wins).

Dr's R/X:  It's true that Ichiro didn't do much for a 513-run team (which the Mariners no longer are).  But I've got to come down on the side of Counterpoint here.  Ellsbury goes into the category of Primary Offensive Weapon, one that happens to hit in the #1 slot.

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POINT:  Ellsbury is the dreaded 5-WAR player who gets all of his WAR from position adjustments, defense, and entourage.

COUNTERPOINT:  Dr. D isn't into soft WAR.  SSI readers are hip to the fact that "five soft WAR" is a great way to Chone Figgins yourself.

But here you have a plus offensive weapon who plays in the middle of the diamond.  It's fair to compare Ellsbury to other CF's, SS's, and 2B's -- you're not relying on "soft WAR" when you simply compare his value to that of Dustin Pedroia and Ian Desmond.

Dr's R/X:  I've got to go with Counterpoint again.  Wow, 2-for-2 and Ellsbury is not even my kind of player.

Look, if there were a shortstop out there who hit .300 with gap power and 50 stolen bases, we'd be going, of course he gets $20 mills.  But as a fast CF, Ellsbury essentially is in that peer group.  The C-CF-SS-2B peer group.  He's a plus hitter who is an impact glove in the middle of the field.

There aren't many good hitters in the middle of the diamond today, have you noticed?  There are only 3 shortstops in all of baseball who are over 3.9 WAR.  There are only a handful (5) second basemen in that range.  And the center field leaderboard doesn't look too smooth, either.

Dr. D can promise you that Boras' argument will consist of precisely the above two basic ideas.  And he'll be right.  Well, his statements will be true ... but will they be accurate?

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