Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Look who is No. 50!

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated ranked the top-100 players in baseball.

It's no surprise that Albert Pujols is No. 1. I'm glad to see Posnanski ranked Joe Mauer second.

Evan Longoria is 15th, and Carl Crawford is 35. "Hitting .314, getting on base more than ever before (.374 OBP), has league-leading 46 stolen bases and plays left field like a center fielder. What's not to like?" Posnanski wrote of CC.

What's not to like? Maybe the ranking. If CC is considered the best left fielder in the game, I don't see how he can't be in the top-20. I'll give Posnanski this: At least he ranked Crawford. A poll of the top-50 players in baseball by The Sporting News didn't include Crawford.

The biggest surprise is No. 50 - Zorilla.

"Remarkable first half -- .418 on-base percentage and leads the American League with a .597 slugging percentage. He played six defensive positions. Is it real? I think so. We'll see if he wears down in the second half," Pos wrote about Ben Zobrist.

Posnonski has Jason Bartlett at No. 52, and B.J. Upton at ... nowhere.

"I love B.J. Upton's potential. But the last year and a half ... I just don't think he's quite a Top 100 player," he wrote.

That's interesting. Zobrist makes the list and not B.J.

Who would have guessed that back in March?

But then who would have guessed that Jeff Niemann would lead the Rays in victories with nine and own the three best starts by a Tampa Bay pitcher this season?

Ah, that's a blog for another time.

Check out Posnanski's top-100 here ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/07/21/top.100/index.html

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