Phils Fans Get to See the Best Shortstop in the NL
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by user Aprisco
Oh, I forgot, they get to see him play evey game, and not because they have the baseball package on DirecTV. While it may be hard for any New York Met fan to hear this, so please click off now if you are a Met fan, the best shorstop in the National League is Jimmy Rollins.
How can this be? Hasn't every news media outlet in New York, ESPN, and even Derek Jeter already declared Jose Reyes the most exciting player in baseball, the next Ricky Henderson, a future MVP, blah, blah....
Not to knock Reyes, he is young, exciting, and truly looks like he has fun playing the game, which cannot be said for everyone (he also seems to have ADD, or OCD, but that's for another day). In fact, Reyes is getting better. He's becoming more patient at the plate. Consider that in his first full season, he only had 27 walks. He doubled that to 53 last year and already has 42 walks in only 77 games this year to raise his BA to a career high .319 and his OBP to a career high .401. He is a career .290 hitter with a career OBP of .334. That's all great except that the bottom line for a player like Reyes is runs scored. While he is doing well in that department, 122 last year and 54 so far this year, he is not even leading the National League. Jimmy Rollins is (tied with another NL East shortstop who might also be better than Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, .325 BA, 11 home runs, 29 RBI, 65 runs scored, 24 stolen bases, 104 hits in 77 games).
Rollins, who has more power and drives in more runs than Reyes, also outscored Reyes last year with 127 runs scored and has outscored Reyes this year, with 65 runs scored in 80 games, Rollins is on pace to score over 130 runs, and Ryan Howard has had an off-year so far, can you imagine if he was really driving in runs? Rollins is also on pace to outdue his total of 25 home runs last year, he has 13 this year to go with 47 RBI and 100 hits. Reyes cannot compete here with 4 home runs and 34 RBI. Rollins is on pace for 25+ home runs, 100 RBI, over 130 runs scored and 200 hits. Those are MVP numbers. Reyes more than doubles Rollins in stolen bases (39 to 15), which is a nice statistic, but the bottom line is run production and Rollins with his RBI and runs scored is clearly having the better season, again.
So while Jose Reyes gets voted into the all star game and gets all the accolades, Rollins is the superior player. If only he played in New York.
