The franchise of the Mets, David Wright has become somewhat underrated in the baseball world. Ever since his less than dazzling 2009 campaign, Wright has not been held in the same high regard as he once was. Granted he has not been as good as 2007 and 2008, Wright is due a little more credit than he has gotten.
First of all, Wright is in the biggest pitchers ballpark in all of baseball. I can recall at least seven times this season in which Wright hit a ball that would have been an absolute bomb in other parks, but resulted in a fly out or a double at Citi Field. Also, without much protection with him in the lineup in 2010, Wright had the odds against him. Here are a few examples of why I see Wright as underrated.
Wright should have without a doubt won the 2010 NL 3rd baseman Silver Slugger Award. Zimmerman, who won the award, had just 60 at-bats less than Wright and had finished the season with a .307 average 25 homers and 85 RBIs. Wright had a .283 average 29 homers and 103 RBIs. Zimmerman had Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham to protect him in the lineup this past season, both respected names by pitchers in baseball. Wright did not have Beltran or Bay for most of the year so his only real protection was Ike Davis and Angel Pagan, not exactly bonafide threats at the time, isolating Wright as the only bat in the lineup that they should fear.
A few weeks ago, MLB network continued its series of naming MLB’s top 10 players by position. Wright was ranked an underwhelming 6th on the list, much lower than where he should be.
Here is the MLB ranking and my ranking:
MLB Network’s Ranking: My Ranking:
1. Evan Longoria 1. Evan Longoria
2. Ryan Zimmerman 2. Alex Rodriguez
3. Alex Rodriguez 3. David Wright
4. Kevin Youkilis 4. Kevin Youkilis
5. Adrian Beltre 5. Ryan Zimmerman
6. David Wright 6. Adrian Beltre
7. Mark Reynolds 7. Mark Reynolds
8. Scott Rolen 8. Casey McGehee
9. Placido Polanco 9. Scott Rolen
10. Casey McGehee 10. Placido Polanco
I rank the top 10 like so because I do not believe Zimmerman or Beltre should be considered as one of the best 3rd baseman in baseball. Beltre was in one of the best possible situations for a hitter, he was on the Boston Red Sox. On the Red sox, Beltre was hitters ballpark and in an extremely potent offense, the opposite of Wright.
Finally, the 2010 MVP voting had Wright 24th in the NL ballot. Zimmerman was 16th and Rolen was 14th in the balloting. In addition to these two, other less deserving players ranked above Wright included Carlos Ruiz, Martin Prado, Brian McCann, Jayson Werth and Jason Heyward. None of them had as many homers or RBIs as Wright. I would normally brush it off to the fact that most of the time the MVP award is given to a player from a team that contended or made the playoffs, but Zimmerman was ranked 16th.
Feel free to leave your two cents on this and your Top 10 MLB 3rd baseman rankings but I think ever since his underwhelming 2009 campaign, David Wright has been underrated and overlooked by much of the baseball world.
