Add new comment

A few things..
-I think Franklin Gutierrez is unquestionably a better fielder than Endy Chavez. Chavez has more raw speed, but Gut's instints and routes to the ball are unreal. Hes Cameron/Andruw Jones good. You look up the numbers in the past by any defensive system out there and hes off the charts.
-Gutierrez won't suffer as much at Safeco since hes an extreme GB hitter unlike Cameron.
-Its true that Gut's hitting could fizzle off and maybe he reverts his past self, but what makes me encouraged about him at the plate is that his progress is CONTINUING from the strides he made at the plate at the end of last year.
I covered that when the trade went down...but you can check it here for yourself:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7644/splits;_ylt=Av6aRUsMNC0ZXWndGJj...
Notice his production in August and September (878 and 842 OPS respectively). His BB rate SPIKES in those two months, and his K% similarly goes DOWN.
Whats happenning so far THIS season? The BB are spiking, the O-Swing% is diminishing, the contact rates are increasing, the LD% is increasing, etc. These are VERY GOOD signs. Will it continue? We don't know for sure, but I'd encourage for his great ABs and tell him to keep it up.
If Gut continues this we may have just pulled the steal of the offseason.