Allen Craig, Dan Uggla and fWAR

I want to be accepted as a modern baseball writer. As such, I have made a conscious decision years ago to be as much of a student of modern baseball statistics as possible with an unfortunately limited brain. It is not in me to create calculations and amazing charts and do all those things possible to build a case. But, at least I have made an effort not to stick in the past and accept the old batting average and runs batted in way of valuing players. All that said, when it comes to valuations of players, I still struggle. Allen Craig of the Cardinals and Dan Uggla of the Braves are one crystallization of that dilemma.

According to Fangraphs.com, so far this season, Dan Uggla has been worth $6.4 million with his play considering all facets of his game. Allen Craig has been valued by that same site as worth $10.4 million with his. That means that Allen Craig has been valued over Dan Uggla by a factor of 1.625. Or to look at it another way, Uggla has been worth about 61.5 percent of what Allen Craig is worth.

On the short side of things, this seems correct as Craig is having a better year (obviously). But when thinking about it more deeply, it seems that Craig is worth three times what Uggla is worth. I see this reflected better at baseball-reference.com which has Craig at 1.8 rWAR and Uggla at only 0.1. That seems to be a much more accurate assessment.

Let's compare the two with some statistics:

• Uggla:  .193/.310/.409 for a .719 OPS, a .319 wOBA and a 2.4 UZR in the field and a minus 2.4 on the bases.
• Craig:  .321/.369/.472 for a .841 OPS, a .366 wOBA and a 0.0 UZR in the field and a minus 5.5 on the bases.

That does not seem close does it? Well, yes, Craig is a snail on the base paths (although Jeff Sullivan has some thoughts about this as well). We will not get into some of the ephemeral data such as Craig's average with men in scoring position, etc. But by just looking at the numbers above, you get the idea that Dan Uggla is pretty bad this season as a baseball player and Allen Craig is pretty darned good.

And here is where I begin to have a few problems with the entire thing. Dan Uggla "plays" second base. Craig plays first or left field or right field. Craig's positions are considered of little value in the grand scheme of valuations. In fact, first base is given a negative value as a positional adjustment. So Uggla's position has a lot to do with his positive valuation.

If you break down Fangraphs' valuation, they go like this for Uggla: 1.3 for his batting (Again, how when he is hitting so poorly? The answer, his walks and home runs), -2.4 for fielding, -2.4 for base running, a +12.4 replacement value and a +1.5 for the position he plays. The positives outweigh the negative and he has a fWAR in the positive numbers.

Craig, on the other hand, gets a +12.9 replacement value but a -6.7 positional value. Craig plays positions that are considered a negative in value. I do not get that. Some day, somebody is going to prove my theory that a good first baseman is worth much more to this team than a bad one. And yet they all get the same negative positional value. I do not know Allen Craig's scoop value, which is a new statistic. But I do know he has only made one error all season no matter where he has played. That's right. One.

Uggla is one ugly second baseman. I have maintained that for years and his fielding numbers bear that out. But he still gets a higher overall fielding score (fielding plus positional) than Craig and it is not even close. Uggla has a Fld + Pos of -0.9. Craig's same number for that stat is, -6.8. That is more than a half a win difference. I do not get it.

Uggla does hit more homers and he has much better plate discipline. I get that. But Uggla has been on base near 30 times less than Craig and Craig has 42 more total bases.

I want to be a hip writer. I really do. I want to be considered knowledgeable and credible. But these things baffle me. And the fact that Uggla is valued so close to Craig will defeat my street cred every time. To me, to the bedeviling of my writing credibility, Dan Uggla does not add anything of value to the Braves and Craig is a major cog in the Cardinals rolling machine.

Dan Uggla and the WAR question

Every time you look at the statistics for Dan Uggla, they look bad. Except he has those eighty walks, which leads the National League. His homers are down and thus his slugging percentage. His batting average is sitting at .208. His OPS+ is 92. His OPS ranks him 121 among 150 qualifying batters and his wRC+ ranks 119 out of 150. For a guy making $13 million this season, he does not, on the face of things, seem like he is earning it. But a lot depends on which stat site you look at.

Fangraphs.com has his WAR computed to 2.3, which compares favorably to last year's 2.4 fWAR even though his wOBA was nineteen points higher last year. Baseball-reference.com, however, gives him an rWAR of 1.6 so far this season, the same as last season. 1.6 compared to 2.4 does not seem all that significant until you translate that to dollars. Each "win" in the WAR component is worth a little over $4.5 million. If Uggla's play has been worth 2.3 fWAR as Fangraphs calculates it, then, Uggla's play has been worth $10.4 million. Baseball-reference.com, however, would come to a valuation of $7.23 million.

That is a pretty significant difference. If you go by Fangraphs, then Uggla has been a disappointment, but not a huge one. If you go by B-R, Uggla is not going to come close to earning what he is being paid.

The other sticky part of the equation is the fielding component of those valuations. Uggla has had serious negative values placed on his fielding by both stat sites for the last three seasons. Both sites are fairly consistent here that Uggla cost his team about thirty runs in the the three seasons prior to this one. But suddenly, both sites have his fielding in the slightly positive territory this season. Such a turn of his fielding metrics evens out his valuation from last year to this year.

When it comes to Uggla's fielding, he has suddenly found some range. His range factor and range factor per nine innings have been below league average for several years before this one. Suddenly, his range and range per nine are above league average and the highest of his career. He must have done some nice off-season work to improve in that area. To his credit, Uggla has made the fewest errors in his career this season and has gotten a lot of chances with his ground ball inducing pitching staff.

The walks are impressive. They take a terrible batting average and move up his on-base percentage all the way up to .337. But what this observer will never understand is why any pitcher would walk a guy like Uggla? He is in the same category as Dunn of the White Sox and Pena of the Bay Rays. All three have very low batting averages, a ton of strikeouts and a ton of walks. Why walk a guy like that? With Uggla, you have a 28 percent chance of striking him out if you pitch to him. That is far greater than any chance he has to hit a homer. Dunn has three times as many homers as Uggla, but the feeling is the same. Dunn is four times more likely to strikeout than hit one out of the park. Why don't pitchers take those odds?

The WAR question raises a problem. Either Dan Uggla is having a season close to the value the Braves are paying him, or, he is having a bad season and won't come close to earning his salary. That is a large swing in realities. And it is just as improbable that his fielding has made such leaps and bounds that he has gone from well below standard to above league average.

From an objective look at Dan Uggla's season, he is not having a good one. At the age of 32, he is not playing nearly as well as he did just two seasons ago. Unfortunately, how poor a season he is having is a question that differs depending on who you ask.

Dan Uggla's Historic Season

Has anyone in the history of Major League Baseball ever had a stranger season than Dan Uggla of the Atlanta Braves? First he was hitting historically bad and rivaled Adam Dunn as the most disappointing acquisition of the last decade. Then he rattled off a hitting streak that lasted over thirty games. Despite it all, Uggla has managed to hit the ball over the wall/fence thirty times this season. With a month left in the season, Uggla has an outside chance to add one more strange feat to his season. If he can do it (or not do it in this case), then he will do something done only five times in MLB history.

Hitting thirty homers in a season is not rare. We, as fans, tend to view the number with a bit of awe. But it's been done one thousand, one hundred and fifty seven times. That's a lot, right? So Uggla's thirty homers is awesome to those of us casually watching, but it's a rather pedestrian feat. But combine that number of homers with a batting average under .250 and an on base percentage under .310 and with less than 80 runs batted in? Well, only four other players in history have done that:

• Ron Kittle (White Sox - 1984) - 32, .215, .295, 74
• Jeremy Burnitz (Two teams - 2003) - 31, .239, .295, 77
• Jose Valentin (White Sox - 2004) - 30, .216, .287, 70
• Chris Young (Diamondbacks - 2007) - 32, .237, .295, 68

As you can see, there is no chance Uggla saves Chris Young from his fate at having the lowest number of RBIs in this list as Uggla stands at: 30, .230, .300, 66. Surely, Uggla will get three RBIs between now and the end of the season. Only three players have hit thirty homers and had less RBIs than Chris Young did in 2007. They were Hanley Ramirez (38, 66 in 2008), Rob Deer (32, 64 in 1992) and the immortal Felix Mantilla (30, 64 in 1964).

And it's the RBIs that might foul this list up before the season is over. Uggla needs only fifteen ribbies in the next month and a week to climb out of this historical list. Judging from his RBIs per games played, Uggla is on pace to reach 81 ribbies before the season is over. That would land him just outside this illustrious gang of four. But it's still possible for a couple of reasons. First, the Braves don't exactly excel in getting on base from the lead off and second positions in their batting order. Their lead off batters have a .313 OBP and their second place batters are even worse with an OBP of .293. Less runners on base leave fewer opportunities to drive runs in. But--and this is a big butt--the Braves did get Michael Bourn, who will get on base far more times than previous lead off batters for this team.

So yes, if anything fouls up Uggla's final inclusion on this list, it will the the RBIs. But say we get rid of RBIs and replace it with WAR. Uggla currently has compiled 1.2 of rWAR. If you look for seasons with more than 30 homers, less than a .250 average, less than a .310 on base average and a rWAR of less than 2.0 for a season, only fourteen players have ever done that. Dave Kingman did it four times! Others included: Steve Balboni, Mike Pagliarulo, Joe Carter, Mike Jacobs, Jeremy Burnitz, Chris Young, Ron Kittle, Tony Bautista, Cory Snider and Tony Armas. Uggla has a great chance at joining that exclusive group.

There's one other semi-exclusive group Uggla can join. Actually, he could rejoin it as he's already done it once already. Dan Uggla currently sports a .458 slugging percentage. Of all the players who have ever hit more than thirty homers in a season, only 43 of them finished with a slugging percentage under .470. Dan Uggla already did that in 2009. If his slugging percentage stays under .460 (which would be hard to fathom), only 29 players have done that with 30 or more homers. Ken Harrelson (.419) and Dave Kingman (.417) have the two lowest slugging percentages ever for players who hit more than 30 homers.

To say the least, Dan Uggla is having a season to remember. This writer isn't exactly sure he'll want to remember it though. But if he wants to feel better, he can just think about Adam Dunn.

When Is a Bust a Bust?

Several teams made big moves during the off season and signed talent they hoped would lead them to greater glory. Some, like Lance Berkman, have paid off. Others have mostly paid off, like Cliff Lee. But some have been downright scary in how poorly they turned out. We are now seventy-one days into the major league season. When is a bust a bust? Is it still too early to tell? Is the sample size still too small? If so, then perhaps this post can be about potential busts instead of outright busts. No matter how you call it, the following players have been drags to their new teams.

Dan Uggla. The Braves were soooo happy to get Dan Uggla in the off season. Here was a guy with noted and consistent pop playing a position that doesn't have many sluggers. The Braves were so happy that they rewarded Uggla with a fat five year contract. But Uggla has been disappointing on many levels, and yes, that is an understatement. His current slash line is from your worst nightmare: .170/.235/.304. Fangraphs has him pegged at -0.9 WAR. That's ugly. Uggla's walk rate is way down. After three years of 12.4, 13.8 and 11.6 percent respectively, Uggla's walk rate is down to 7.6 percent.

Again, is this officially a bust or is it too early yet? Well, there is the matter of Uggla's BABIP, which is an ungodly low of .184. You would have to think that would even out over the long haul. But BABIP is such a tricky issue. Uggla's infield fly ball rate is double his career norms. That's not bad luck. His ground ball percentage is up from a career average of 38.1 percent to 45.9 percent this year. His line drive percentage is the lowest of his career. So it's hard to point to BABIP for this horrid start for Uggla. If Uggla were to hit a solid .300 from today until the end of the season, he would only raise his batting average to .241. Yes, we are getting pretty close to bust time and it's not like Uggla has a history of getting hot in the second half.

Adam Dunn. Dunn is another one without a history of slow starts and big finishes. His monthly average for hits, homers and the like are consistent over the months of his career seasons. That makes his recent start with the White Sox that much closer to bust status. His slash line is better than Uggla's but not by much: .178/.318/.325. His 15.5 percent walk rate helps, but he is such a bad base runner, that his walks lose some value with him on the bases. As a DH, his only job is to hit. He isn't hitting and he is only on pace to hit 18 homers. Since the guy has averaged 38 homers since forever, that's mighty troubling. Dunn's strikeout rate is the highest of his career, his ISO the lowest. His infield fly out rate is two and a half times what it was a year ago. The White Sox are simply snake bit in the DH position.

Dunn did hit a homer yesterday, so that's at least good news.

Aubrey Huff and Miguel Tejada: Re-signing Huff and signing Tejada were a couple of the few off-season moves by the Giants. Huff proves the Fan's old adage: When you find lightning in a bottle with a cheap off season signing, don't ever make the mistake of giving that cheap hurrah a good contract the following year. Of all regular players, that is players who currently qualify for the batting title, Huff is the second least valuable player in baseball and Tejada is fourth. That's not good. The pair have identical .223 batting averages and Tejada has a .246 on base percentage while Huff sits at .286. Huff at least has an OPS of .957 so far in June. So perhaps he can contribute the rest of the way. But he has a long way to go to come close to earning his $11 million in salary. Signing Tejada was simply dumb. He hasn't been a valuable player for years now.

Mark Reynolds: The Orioles hoped they could fix Mark Reynolds when they got him from the Diamondbacks. And indeed, his strikeout rate is markedly down. It's safe to say he won't break his own record this season. And he adds value with his patience at the plate and power. His ISO, wOBA and wRC+ are at acceptable levels despite his continuing batting average south of .200. What makes this acquisition close to being in the bust column is that his fielding has simply vanished. Miguel Tejada wasn't any great shakes as a third baseman for the Orioles, but Reynolds' glove thus far makes Tejada look like Brooks Robinson. Reynolds has a negative WAR of -0.2.

Other batting busts or heading in bust territory: Yuniesky Betancourt. But it's not like much was expected there. Vernon Wells. Good golly. What were the Angels thinking? Lyle Overbay. The Fan really thought Overbay was going to have a big season. Not yet anyway. And, of course, Chone Figgins is the bust that keeps on giving for two seasons now.

Uggla Was the Smart One

It's time to eat a little crow. A while back, this writer observed that Uggla was an idiot for turning the Marlins down for a guaranteed four year deal worth $48 million. With Uggla turning 31 in March, the Marlins offer seemed more than fair and was above dollar projections for Uggla over the next four years. This writer ridiculed Uggla for turning that down. The Fan assumed nobody else would go that high. Well, Uggla was right and this Fan is an idiot as the Braves have given Uggla $62 million over five years. So not only did Uggla get the extra year he wanted, he also got $400,000 more a year than the Marlins' deal would have paid him.

While the Fan is enjoying his roasted crow, let this writer at least say that the Braves are out of their freakin' minds. Again, Uggla will be 31 in 2010. He has no glove and all of his value has to come on offense. Baseball Prospectus doesn't believe he will be with 75% of that over the life of the contract. The Fan agrees.

Look, the Fan isn't ragging on Uggla as a player. Right now, he is worth the $12 to $15 million he will make a year. He's been a constant power source for five years now. That should continue another couple of years. But when he's 34? 35? No, he won't be anything near the type of player he is now.

But you have to hand it to Dan Uggla. He held out for what he wanted. He played the market just right and got the figures and time he was looking for. Good on him. Dan Uggla was right. This writers was way wrong.

And now the Fan is getting ready for his second crow dinner as soon as Beltre's deal is announced...

Marlins Deal Uggla to the Braves - Buck Almost Signed?

The Florida Marlins acted very quickly once they could not secure a deal with Dan Uggla. As soon as negotiations broke down, apparently they were on the phone shopping him around. On Tuesday, the deal was completed with the Braves. Atlanta gets Uggla for a year at a decent salary and a shot at signing him for longer (if they so choose). The Marlins get flame thrower (and walk giver) Mike Dunn (25) and Omar Infante, the super sub who made the All Star team last year.

This writer applauds the deal for both sides. The Marlins lose some power but gain a slicker fielding second baseman with some flexibility. Infante is also a year younger than Uggla and is inexpensive (always a plus for the Marlins). The Marlins also get a big arm in Mike Dunn. Dunn, a former 33rd round draft pick by the Yankees, struck out 27 batters in 19 innings for the Braves and pitched well in the playoffs. Unfortunately, he also walked 14 batters. If the Marlins can cut down the latter and still get the former, Dunn could be a big arm for them in the pen.

The Braves get what they needed too. The Braves struggled several times in 2010 on offense and Uggla should greatly help them in that category. The scary thought though is Uggla and Chipper Jones (if he can make it back) in the same infield. Ugh. But Uggla is a solid producer and with McCann and Heyward, will make quite the middle of the line up for the Braves.

The Fan still thinks the Marlins offered Uggla a fair deal and they did the right thing in getting some value for him when they couldn't reach an agreement. The Marlins showed some forthrightness in moving on this so quickly. This appears to be a good deal for both teams.

The same sourced article linked above indicates that the Marlins are close to signing John Buck as their catcher. Buck had a very good year for the Blue Jays last year and can replace a little of the power the Marlins are losing with Uggla. But caution should be shown here. The Marlins ball park isn't like the SkyDome when it comes to homers flying out of there.

Dan Uggla Turns Down 4yrs at $48 Million

Dan Uggla just turned down a guaranteed contract valued at $48 million over four years. The deal would take him to his 34th birthday and would have made him a very rich man. Even for perennial cheapskates like the Marlins, the deal is a substantial offer and seems fair for Uggla's value. Why would he turn that down?

Uggla had probably his best year in 2010. According to baseball-reference.com, his season netted him a 3.7 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Since wins are valued at about $2.7 million, his season was worth about $9.9 million. But others argue that if you go by what the market has spent for free agents over the past few seasons, the market value for a win is around $4.5 million. Even if you go by that number, Uggla's best season was worth $16.65 million. If you split that difference, Uggla seems to be worth every penny of what the Marlins offered.

There are other considerations here. First, Uggla isn't young. At 30 years of age, you don't expect him to get much better than he already is. If most pundits are to be believed, he will regress from here on out. He's already a terrible second baseman who has always been in the negative stats in fielding. So he is out of position anyway. The .287 he hit last year was way above his career average of .263. The standard feeling here is that he has a better chance of being a .260 hitter than a .287 hitter. Plus he strikes out 150 times a year with about 75 walks (the walks are a nice thing). And his .287 was a bit of a fluke as his BABIP was .330 for the season, meaning he was fortunate a lot of his hits fell in.

On the plus side, his home/away splits are good. He fared well with runners on base and in high leverage situations. And he is consistent against any kind of pitcher (power, medium and junk). Those are all valuable stats. But geez, $48 million is a lot of peanuts to throw away and to hope that you have a good enough 2011 season to hit the market big in 2012. It's a gigantic risk on Uggla's part. Naturally, the Marlins were stunned by his decision. For them, this was an excellent offer.

So what exactly would possess a guy playing in South Florida to turn down guaranteed money to stay there with the knowledge that he will be playing in a new park next year in one of the best places on earth to live? Add to his location the fact that Florida does not have an income tax and his contract is worth even more money. It's really hard to fathom.

If this Fan ran the Marlins, the offer would forever be pulled off the table and Uggla would play out his 2011 season and be shown the door. The Marlins get a bargain for another year, can use him for trade bait if they don't contend (and this Fan expects them to contend) and let nature take its course. As for Uggla, this is an extremely shocking and dramatic refusal to take good money at the peak of his value. It seems highly unlikely he'll ever be offered more.

Edwin Rodriguez Retained by the Marlins

Ha! This Fan just loves being right. The Marlins decided to save on the budget (big surprise there, eh?) and retained manager Edwin Rodriguez for the year as their manager. A post here a while back predicted that the Marlins would wait out their current situation until they get in their new ballpark and would retain Rodriguez because he is cost effective. And make no mistake about it, this is a financial and business decision and not a baseball decision.

The thing is, it may work out anyway. This Fan has no disrespect for Rodriguez. He seems like a class act and his players like him. Of course, there was that little problem of leading off Hanley Ramirez for a month and playing Bonifacio far too often down the stretch, but still, he seems like a good guy. But that isn't why it may just work out.

It may work out because the Marlins have quietly been putting more and more talent on the field. Mike Stanton is going to be a monster. Logan Morrison could be a talented and consistent bat. Gaby Sanchez is competent in a Mark Grace kind of way. Coghlin should be back and don't be surprised if Hanley Ramirez doesn't come back and have a monster season.

Say all you want about Hanley Ramirez, but how many of us know how hampered he was in 2010 because of lingering leg issues? Sure, some of his issue is a lack of maturity, but he was immature when he had a monster season in 2009. This observer really feels that his sub par season in 2010 was more about injury than it was about anything else. It said a lot to this Fan that the first call Rodriguez got after the announcement was from Hanley Ramirez who told Rodriguez that both were going to have a great season. Book it.

The Fish will have to figure out their bullpen and will have to decide if Uggla is going to get some money (and hopefully where he should play). But despite Loria's going on the cheap with his manager, this all could work out nicely and this Fan wouldn't be a bit surprised if the Marlins were right in contention in the NL East in 2011

Dan Uggla - The New Soriano?

Tim Brown wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports concerning Dan Uggla's agent stating Dan Uggla wants to stay at second base. The agent is quoted as saying: "...he’s performed remarkably over these four years at second base and there should be no reason to consider a position change at this time.” In the words of modern philosophers: "What pipe has he been smoking from?"

All this sounds vaguely familiar. Not too long ago another second baseman, adept at hitting homers on a regular basis, but one who struggled in the field, insisted on staying at that position despite being asked to change. His name is Alphonso Soriano who now plays quite infrequently for the Cubs. Soriano eventually did become a left fielder and had a couple of good seasons there.

Well, we know agents are supposed to paint their clients in the best possible light. But shouldn't there be some truth or at least a hint of it in the babble that comes out of an agent's mouth? Dan Uggla has not been remarkable at second base. He was decent in 2008 and finished with a UZR slightly ahead of average with a score of 1.6. But in 2009, Uggla's UZR plummeted to new depths to -10.1. That low score tops his previous low of two years ago when he finished at -9.3. Plus, his range factor has dropped from his career marks around the 4.8 level to 4.4.

It's hard not to feel for Uggla's situation. Because of his bat, he's been worth $61 million in his four years with the Marlins while only making a fraction of that. The Marlins have had a steal for those four years. Now Uggla is reaching his arbitration years where he can finally cash in a bit and the Marlins won't be able to afford it and, since his career got a late start, he's going into 2010 at 30 years old and his abilities will only diminish from here.

And there is a economic advantage to being a good offensive player as a second baseman. The positional worth of a second baseman is higher than a first baseman or an outfielder. And as such, his WAR (Wins over replacement) value is higher as a second baseman. That all makes perfect economic sense for an agent and his player. But the reality is that he just isn't good enough to play that position. So any front office and fan of fielding stats can scoff at the "remarkably" comment as first degree hyperbole.

It's hard to know what kind of third baseman Uggla can be. But at least the value there is higher than an outfielder. Heck, he couldn't do any worse than Bonifacio did there last year. And his offensive worth is only marginal as a corner outfielder. That is the dilemma for Uggla.

Uggla is still a value at the plate. His 97 walks were a career high. He has hit over 30 homers for four straight years. He will get his dollars at arbitration this year. And there is no doubt he will be playing for somebody for the next couple of years. But any team that values defense will have to think twice about weakening their infield defense to play him at second. And if that's where he insists on playing, he will have a problem and be a problem.

An Uggla Incident in Florida

Perhaps you've heard about the ugly little incident in south Florida between Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla? If not, you can catch up here. The linked article is typical of the media reaction to the incident. The typical take is that Ramirez is blindly talented, but doesn't always focus and work hard. The typical take is that this was another example of his teammates goading him on the greatness. That's a bunch of malarkey, frankly. This is a case of petty jealousy and nothing more.

The incident apparently started when Ramirez pulled himself from a game because his hamstring hurt. Apparently, he told his manager he could play and when a member of the press asked him about it, Ramirez told the scribe that his teammates expected him to play. Uggla overhearing the exchange said he was one of them. Ramirez immediately pointed that out as showing him up in public. Which was the correct reaction. Uggla, who later claimed that he loved Ramirez and was just trying to help him, then made an ugly comment about the money that Ramirez makes. Read the linked article. It's all there.

First of all, if Uggla was trying to help his wayward teammate, he should have done it in private. Secondly, if he was so intent on helping, would he have used such a petty thing about Ramirez already having his money? It doesn't add up.

And why does the press buy into this stuff? Is it because Uggla and Wes Helms (we'll get to him in a minute) are white and Ramirez is a dark Hispanic? That must mean that Ramirez is on the lazy side, right? That must mean that he's immature, right? Oh please.

All the Fan knows is that Ramirez has been on base 224 times and Uggla 196. Ramirez has 267 total bases and Uggla has 210. Ramirez has eight errors and Uggla eleven. The only categories that Uggla has over Ramirez is games played (by five), homers and walks. Everything else is all Ramirez. Let's put it another way. Say they both worked for an ice cream stand. Ramirez is supposedly lazy and not as committed as Uggla. Even so, Ramirez makes 267 ice cream cones to Uggla's 210 even though Uggla TRIES so much harder. This Fan still thinks he'd give Ramirez the raise and not Uggla.

And what of Wes Helms? The article states that he got on Hanley's case a while back and that he works with Ramirez on his focus and such. Excuse the Fan for wondering, but Helms has a 90 OPS+ and a 93+ OPS for his career. Why, exactly is he the de facto leader and expert on stellar play and focus?

Call this for what it was. It was a moment of petty disgruntlement by Dan Uggla over Ramirez's talent and the money he is making. That's all this was. And please understand the back sweep of the press here. Helms and Uggla are white. There is a press bias that white players try harder and are more professional. That's bull. There are hard working white guys and lazy white guys just like there are hard working Hispanics and lazy Hispanics.

Ramirez has improved his defense tremendously. He's already the second best hitter in the National League. He'll be around long after Uggla and Helms are retired and coaching or managing in the minors somewhere. If Ramirez was a punk and a slacker, he wouldn't be better in the field than he was and consistently improving as a hitter. The guy's hammy hurt, what do his teammates want him to do, tear it completely? It's all bull and the press should know better.