By Ricky O’Donnell
If you watched the White Sox this past week, you noticed something familiar: Carlos Quentin was rather awesome. But his four homers in the last six games aren’t all that surprising. Quentin has been the best hitter in the American League all year long, and as the season starts to wind down, his numbers look even more eye-popping. At his current pace, Quentin will hit 43 home runs. You can expect him to finish with over 120 RBI as well, and post one of the highest OPS’ in White Sox history.
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And that got me thinking, how many players would you rather start a team with than Quentin? Age is certainly a factor in this equation, and at 25, Q! has time on his side. Sure, a lot of baseball superstars are more established, and Quentin has just started his career. But anyone who thinks he may be a one-year wonder hasn’t done their homework. Quentin was always supposed to be really good. After being a first-round draft pick in 2003, Quentin OPS’d over .900 in four minor-league seasons. His failures early in his career as a Diamondback were largely a mixture of bad luck, injuries, and adjusting to life in the majors at a very young age. I’m confident that this is just the start for him.
So say baseball had one massive draft where every player in the league was available. How high would Quentin go? I think we can immediately rule out any player 33 or older, which means Ichiro, Manny Ramirez, and Derek Jeter are out of the equation. There are a few other things to factor in here though, like defense. As a mediocre left fielder, Quentin is less valuable than a slick-fielding shortstop or centerfielder. The most important aspect of baseball will always be pitching, so those guys get top priority as well.
Still, a 25-year old corner outfielder OPS’ing around 1.000 is nearly as valuable as any player in baseball.
When I ran through the roster of every team, I found Quentin to be in higher demand than most of the best players on each team. I placed him around 30 in baseball’s best, behind guys like Ryan Braun, Tim Lincecum, and, of course, Alex Rodriguez, but ahead of people like Aramis Ramirez.
Any way you spin it, that’s not bad for a player who was traded for a 21-year old single-A first baseman.
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Week in Review: Was Contreras’ season ending injury the best thing or the worst thing to happen to the Sox this season? It depends how you feel about Horacio Ramirez.
Week in Preview: As the Sox enter Tuesday with only a half-game division lead, a four-game series against Kansas City becomes one of the most important the team has played all year.
Fields on the Farm: I have no idea what to make of Josh Fields’ White Sox future. One year, he’s smacking homers all over the place as a rookie, the next he finds himself starting in AAA then being called up only to find himself sitting in favor of Juan Uribe.
The Missile Tracker: Though Alexei only homered once this week, he still picked up a hit in six of his last seven games. As if that wasn’t enough, Yahoo mentioned Ramirez as having one of baseball’s best nicknames.
Over/Under: 4. The number of times Carlos Quentin has been hit by a pitch the last four games.
Beachwood Sabermetrics: A complex algorithm performed by The White Sox Report staff using all historical data made available by Major League Baseball has determined that Gavin Floyd immediately regrets his pre-season bet.
The White Sox Report: Read ’em all.
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Ricky O’Donnell is the proprietor of Tremendous Upside Potential , a contributor to the Sun-Times’s Full Court Press and a lot of other things.
Posted on August 11, 2008