Adrian Gonzalez or Allen Craig?

[Yankees 1903]

I'd LOVE to see a thread in the comparisons forum, asking money aside, who would you rather have as a player going forwards Allen Craig or Adrian Gonzalez.

Thread was made due to this post. Forget about money and contracts and just pick who you think is the better player going forward.

[Yankees 1903]

Forgot to add a poll. If a mod wants to put one in that would be cool.

[Guppyfighter]

I'd take Allen Craig in a heartbeat right now and I would not look back.

[FraziersKnicks]

A-drain

[Yankees 1903]

I realize I spelled his name wrong. Mock me as necessary.

[xxplayerxx23]

No doubt about it Craig.

[Jeffy25]

I'm not voting yet, because I am not sure just yet. I think Allen Craig has a better argument than people might realize though.

Gonzalez is certainly better than Trumbo (other comparison thread). This is a better comparison to me.

[todu82]

Adrian Gonzalez.

[d79cheese]

Craig is seriously the most underrated hitter in all of baseball. Going forward in the near future, Votto is the only better offensive NL 1B IMO. Factoring in defense then I can see the edge going to Gonzalez.

[VRP723]

The reason Allen Craig is "seriously" underrated is because he's 28 with less than 600 MLB PA's. He's rightfully underrated.

Point being, he could potentially be better than Adrian Gonzalez, but as of now I think you're foolish to trust his SS over an established, elite player like A-Gon.

[Jeffy25]

How about we see who does better from the moment of the A-Gone to Dodgers trade?

And we'll see who ends up being better

AC had another nice game today, 3 for 5 with a homer and 3 rbi's.


Craig has a .406 wOBA, and a 161 wRC+ in 365 PA, he has the same PA as Votto this year and those are the 6th and 7th best offensive numbers thus far this year (with guys with that many PA's).




The reason Craig only has 600 career PA in the big leagues at the age of 28 is because he was a college player, and then he battled injuries a bit. And then when he did hit, he was blocked in the big leagues by Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, and the Cards didn't/wouldn't call him up. This is a guy that had a .921 OPS in a full season in Triple A in 2009. He clearly was ready to be called up a lot sooner than he was (late 2010).


He is a nice hidden gem in the game of baseball.

Also, it isn't just a short season, this is two years in a row where he has hit like this, he also did in the playoffs last year. And he did it throughout his minor league career. Never has he had a professional season below a .850 OPS.

07 High A and AA - .909
08 AA - .867
09 AAA - .921
10 AAA/MLB - .872
11 MLB - .917
12 MLB - .963

A-Gone was in the majors by the age that Craig was drafted and was in his third MLB season by the time he did get drafted. So obviously he is more established. But Craig shouldn't be written off just because he only has 600 big league PA (not saying anyone is).

[VRP723]

How about no, because that's a 35 game sample size?

And no **** he hit well in the minor leagues when he was 2 or 3 years older than everyone he played with. So does Scott Van Slyke.

And no one is writing him off. I'm saying it's 600 PA's. Regardless of how good a player is, 600 PA's over two seasons is never enough to make a definitive judgement call.

[Guppyfighter]

So currently Allen Craig is better, right? Yes. And he's younger than Adrian? Why would anyone in their right mind pick AD. Name value?

[VRP723]

Because he's done it in 1/10 of the sample size? Todd Fraizer is currently better than Albert Pujols. And he's younger. Why would anyone take Pujols? Name value?

[Guppyfighter]

Yes, I would take Todd Frazier over Pujols. Pujols is in his decline and Frazier is just entering his prime.