Word on the street from the Big Apple is that Brian Cashman, GM of the New York Yankees, thinks that Robinson Cano, second baseman for the New York Yankees, is better than Jose Reyes, shortstop for the New York Mets.
Fairly standard, right? Cashman went on to say that he would take Reyes second in an open draft of New York players, and bid against himself, apparently, to take Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez with the third pick.
Funny how he does that.
But ANYWAY, the aforementioned Alex is also on record as saying that he thinks that Jose Reyes is the best player on this filthy abomination that is a pool of Mets and Yankees players. So what we have here, folks, is a full-on showdown of two up-the-middle superstars. Let’s decide, once and for all, just who exactly is the better player here: Jose Reyes or Robinson Cano.
Batting
Reyes, career: .291/.340/.441, 77 HR, 361 SB (80% success rate), 6.8% BB, 11.4% K
Cano, career: .308/.346/.491, 130 HR, 28 SB (52% success rate), 5% BB, 12% K
Reyes, 2011: .354/.398/.529, 3 HR, 30 SB (83%), 7.1% BB, 7.4% K
Cano, 2011: .294/.342/.516, 14 HR, 6 SB (86%), 4.9% BB, 13.8% K
Depends on what you prefer, dunnit? Reyes doesn’t have Cano’s power, but Cano doesn’t have Reyes’ speed and basestealing ability — which, by the way, a 52% success rate is horrible. Consider that the baseline for someone to be a successful basestealer is 75%, and you start to appreciate just how bad that figure is.
If we were picking solely on 2011, the choice would be easy — and Cashman admitted as much in the interview where he annointed his keystone keeper as the premier player in New York — because Reyes has completely outplayed Cano. The only concern I have about Reyes’ performance so far is that it’s fueled by a BABIP near .400, but his career mark is .314 and his speed suggests that he’s not incapable of posting elevated BABIPs on a consistent basis. What Cano gains through that argument, though, he gives back in plate discipline. From 2005 through today — i.e. Cano’s entire career — here’s a list of the players in baseball with a lower walk rate:
Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez, A.J. Pierzynski, Miguel Tejada, Freddy Sanchez, Jeff Francoeur
That’s all.
Fielding
Reyes, career: 17.6 UZR; 2.9 UZR/150
Cano, career: -39.3 UZR; -6.0 UZR/150
So maybe you don’t believe in UZR as a valuable defensive stat. That’s fine, but I’m going to have to revert to grade school here and tell you ‘tough noogies.’ If you want to evaluate how Reyes (nine seasons in the league) and Cano (seven), then you’re not going to do better than looking at their UZRs. And the edge here is enormous: Reyes is clearly the better fielder, and is doing it at the harder position. People say there’s no such thing as a second base prospect, and not only did Reyes have the talent to stick at short, he’s played it better than Cano’s handled the easier spot on the diamond.
Miscellaneous
- Literally as I was writing this piece, Vin Scully commented on how he wished that Jose Reyes was playing in the Mets – Dodgers game I’m currently watching. That’s a huge plus in Reyes’ favor.
- The biggest argument in Cano’s favor, though, is the durability bit. Cano’s averaged 582 PA per season over his career, while Reyes clocks in at a relatively pedestrian 514. Plus, it’s not like Reyes has missed a lot of time to nagging injuries that have kept him from hitting 500 PA a season here and there; in his nine seasons, he’s had more than 700 PA four times, more than 600 another, and is on pace to top 600 againt his season. It’s just that when Reyes does get hurt, it tends to be serious, and he misses a lot of time (e.g. his various and sundry torn leg muscles).
- Age is not a factor here; both men are currently 28, though Cano will turn 29 in October and have to wait until next June to get Jose Reyes a birthday cake with those candles that never blow out no matter how hard you try. Hilarious! What a card, that Cano.
- I wouldn’t have believed this had I not looked it up myself, but ‘Robinson Cano most exciting player’ gets more Google results (462,000) than ‘Jose Reyes most exciting player’ (365,000).
- Also of note: ‘Jose Reyes murders puppies’ gets 267,000 results (which, wow), though that does appear to be mostly because of a few gentlemen like Jose Reyeses Alfaro and Ferriz who have been brought up on dogfighting charges. Robinson Cano’s puppy-murdering antics, however, call up only 163,000 results.
- Jose Reyes has 32.5 career WAR. Robinson Cano has 21.5. If you were to clone two seasons of Cano’s career to add to his WAR total to make up the difference in their career lengths, he’d have to twice duplicate his career-best season (6.6 WAR) to get it done.
- Yes, I did put that in the Miscellaneous section so that New York fans wouldn’t just jump straight to calling me a stat nerd.
- No, I don’t think that’s going to work.
- But, I also don’t care.
- Because, dear reader, the answer is quite plain:
Derek Jeter is the best player in the great state of New York.
(Just kidding. It’s Reyes. But I’m sure you got that from reading this.)
(Right?)
Post Author: Paddy McMahon.
