http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=4740695 first thing that jumps out to me is carlos beltran is not even close to being the sixth best player this decade, and this is coming from a met fan.
Can't argue with the top 2. JD Drew was a better player than Mariano? Whaaat? Once again, it's hard to take anything from ESPN seriously.
Depending on your criteria I can see it, Rivera is by far the best closer of the decade, but the question becomes how valuable is 65 IP per year vs a fulltime starting Position player? it's the reason you almost never see star positional players traded for closers. You could make the argument that Rivera's remarkable consistency increases his value, but on the whole the guy who plays over 1,000 innings per season well above the level of an avergae replacement is going to be more valuable than a guy who plays 65 innings at a much higher level than a replacement player.
I have some issues with that list. JD Drew at #22? No fucking chance. Corey Koskie and Brad Radke make the list? And he said Scott Rolen and Cooperstown in the same sentence.... Pass that joint over here Neyer.
Met fans aren't going to appreciate the type of player Beltran is and has been for us until he's not playing for us anymore. A bunch of names on that list are bullshit, but I hafta agree with this one. I'm not saying he should be Top 10, Top 5, etc etc etc, but the fact of the matter is, Beltran has been one of the game's best this past decade.
JD Drew doesn't affect his team the way Mariano does. Neyer putting Drew over Mariano is crazy. Yeah, Drew's probably played in more innings, but switch Mariano for Drew on the Yankee squad, and do the Yankees reach the places they've reached over the past 15 years?
Also here is one big problem, the list is not based on consistency, which is why it is ludacris that some of those guys are ranked where they are, looking back 5 or 6 (maybe even 7 or 8) years ago some of those guys were good, but look at them now. Example, yes Mo's usage may hurt his stock but he has been by far the most consistently dominating through out the entire decade. Can you say that for Rolen? Edmonds? Drew? Probably not Also I dont understand how David Wright is not ranked higher than Chase Utley, I know Wright had a down year, but more or less has better stats
I read Drew over Rivera, laughed and stopped reading. Neyer's always good for a laugh. I love how the whole decade he shat on Jeter and called him overrated. Look who's in his top 5.
The most impressive part of the list is that Neyer actually found 100 players he thought were better than Ryan Howard during the decade.
An unbelievably stupid argument, put rivera on a bad team and it's still a bad team, a good example of this is joakim soria, he has a career ERA of 2.09 career WHIP of 0.97 a k/bb ratio of nearly 4, a k/9 of nearly 10, an OPS against of .537. so he is in many ways like a mini rivera, actually better in ratios ( of course rivera has done it for many many more years, I'm not saying he is as good) but as a similar player he has played his entire career on a terrible team while rivera played on a good one. Guess what, even with one of the best closers in baseball the Royals still suck. Closers don't have a huge effect except in the playoffs, a 90 win team with a great closer wins maybe 82-87 with an average closer. a 45 win team with an average closer wins maybe 50-55 with a great one. The only reason Rivera should make the top 50 is his unbelievable post season success, which is where it matters most, but the fact is a closer cannot have a huge effect on a team overall and as such has to be downgraded significantly against regular players.
Ask every MLB GM who they would have rather had on their team during the decade, Mariano or JD Drew. The word "Landslide" would be an understatement.
the guy can never stay on the field and half the time hes playing he nicked up and cant preform at 100%.
the only time he's missed considerable time while playing on the mets was just this past year and when he almost broke his face in half colliding with cameron. other than that, he hasn't missed any significant amount of time. the truth is beltran actually plays THROUGH most of his injuries and is a gamer but his stats suffer because of this. but many met fans don't wanna acknowledge this.
