State of CF
=== Franklin Gutierrez ===
M's broadcasts continue to show that Gutierrez has a marvelous zone rating. It's cool to see the M's sabermetric team linked up with the face of the franchise up there in the broadcast booth.
How does this happen? Typically, the saber employees sit in meetings with Tony Blengino, to whom they have full access on a day-to-day basis. If it's a typical white-collar enviornment, you as a saber employee can talk to Blengino just like you talk to the guy in the cubicle next to you, though when you do get Blengino, it's usually in a small, casual committee, or perhaps in his office for 15 minutes at a time on his agenda.
Blengino can talk to Zduriencik with full access. Zduriencik goes over and talks to the TV production guys about things he'd like to see. The result: you start seeing stuff like Zone Rating on TV, and you see it in sound-bite form, again and again and again until it's part of the common consciousness.
Or that's the way it would have happened in the places I worked, anyway. So, that's one more very cool thing about Capt Jack's administration. Sabermetrics gain traction in popular consciousness.
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By the way, center field in Safeco makes everybody look great. Randy Winn looked like an elite CENTER fielder when he played there, posting a 2.95 range factor compared to a league of around 2.6 per game. Hey, Winn catches 50 more balls a year than other quality ML center fielders! Great!
Jeremy Reed ran stats that were considerably better than other AL center fielders (a very high standard).
Mike Cameron admitted that the ball "floats" in center at Safeco and, in effect, Safeco gives each CF an extra three steps on the ball while it hangs. Give Torii Hunter, even now, a 3-step time warp in Safeco and see what the sabermetrics say about him. :- )
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I think that Gutierrez is an above-average center fielder, but I also think that there is about to develop a giant myth around his defense.
Angles and jumps-on-the-ball are fine, but most ML center fielders get a jump on the ball. Gutierrez isn't a speed burner; if anything his speed is routine. The developing myth that he's Richie Ashburn out there is out of contact with reality, in my view.
There isn't much point in going to try to count up where F-Gut is, using stats; Safeco doesn't allow it IMHO.
He's a plus with the glove, of course.
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I have a feeling that Gutierrez' current 93 OPS+, with a 1:2 eye ratio, is about what you're going to get from him in Safeco. He'll get older, but Safeco will wear on him more. Could be wrong.
Objectively speaking, he's part of the reason that our scoreboard is always 2-1 in the seventh. Both ways.
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Just the same, Gutierrez was the first step in Capt Jack's master plan -- play crisp defense ... do it with less-narcissistic personalites ... play crisp baseball .... and pay attention. I'm down with that 100%.
If the M's could get hitters in the corners, Franklin Gutierrez would be fine. He isn't anybody I'd keep Dustin Ackley out of CF for, but he's a good soldier in a worthy battle. The next wave of G.I. Joes will, hopefully, do even more.
Cheers,
Dr D