The Front Row

Been loving the TRIBE since 1972, remember listening to Joe tait on the radio bonds player coach super manning boog barker Perry's etc loved them then and love them now just like my cavs, rams, and Buckeyes. NO WAGONS HERE, EVER.

I agree with ya Bret. It's this I don't know about.
Choo is #25, ahead of Arod, Mark Teixeira, Carl Crawford, and others.

Here’s a great follow to Crawford — the next two players are, in my view, the two most underrated every-day players in baseball, in fact. They are so underrated that, to be honest, I’m probably underrating both of them by ranking them this low.

Choo is a marvelous player. He hits .300 (exactly in each of the last two seasons), he walks a lot, he has power — 20-25 home runs and 40-or-so doubles power — he runs well enough to steal 43 of 52 bases the last two seasons, he plays hard and aggressively defensively and he has one of those throwing arms that make everyone in the stadium stop and gasp when he unleashes one.

Compare him to Crawford. He is not the defensive player that Crawford is, though he has his own defensive strengths and plays a corner outfield spot and has a much better arm. He doesn’t steal as many bases or hit as many triples — nobody does, really — but he’s a darned good base runner who steals bases at a high clip. Last year, they slugged about the same, slight advantage for Crawford — for their careers Choo slugs about 40 points higher.

But when it comes to getting on base — the most important of the specific offensive skills — Choo is just a lot better. His on-base percentage the last three years is .397 to Crawford’s .349. Choo is about a year younger, too.

Crawford might indeed lift his game again now that he’s in Boston with a fat contract and the nation watching. You can’t write off that possibility. Right now, though, I think Shin-Soo Choo is a slightly better player.
http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/03/31/the-32-best-players-in-baseball-for-2011/?eref=sihp