Sam Fuld Article

So here is the original article presented to ESPN before their edits.

Will ‘The Legend of Sam Fuld’ Live On?

Samuel Babson (Yes, Babson) Fuld has done an admirable job serving as the replacement for the departed Carl Crawford in left field for the Rays this year. A throw-in as part of the Matt Garza trade, Fuld has wowed fans and scouts alike with his spectacular diving plays and unrelenting hustle. The Legend of Sam Fuld has generated a rabid fan following, but can he hit enough to stay in the majors?

Can He Pick It? Yes He Can!

Sam Fuld has played very well defensively this year, small sample size notwithstanding. According to Baseball Info Solutions’ estimates, he has already saved nine runs with his defense in left, including one with his arm. To put that number in perspective, Fuld is first among left fielders and tied for first among all outfielders in Defensive Runs Saved.  The statistic evaluates eight components of defense, including range, outfield throwing arm, and home run robberies, to measure the impact of each player’s defensive performance.  In 348 career innings in left field (roughly a fourth of a full season), Fuld has 12 Runs Saved. 

By comparison, former Rays’ left fielder Carl Crawford, a three-time Fielding Bible Award winner, averaged 17 Runs Saved over his final three seasons in Tampa.  Fuld is on pace to surpass that mark and then some. 

Before Rays fans get too excited, remember it is still May, and defensive numbers can fluctuate as much as offensive numbers.  Fuld has had a great start in left field, but will he keep it up?

From a classic scouting perspective, Fuld has shown the ability to support his outstanding fielding production. Fuld covers a great deal of ground with top-tier speed that compensates for his short legs. He is listed at 5'10", but has excellent leaping ability and good body control while airborne.  While he comfortably tops the Web Gem scoreboard, Baseball Info Solutions data shows that Fuld also leads all outfielders with 17 Good Fielding Plays, Web-Gem level plays where he recorded an out or prevented a baserunner advancement.  The next-best outfielder has just 11 so far. 

Carl Crawford Lite? Not Quite

Sam Fuld’s bat does not pack a punch, but he plays a position which is traditionally associated with power hitters. Among left fielders, Fuld currently ranks 12th in slugging percentage (.374), right in the same vicinity of the career numbers of middle infielders such as Jack Wilson and Miguel Cario.

In order for Fuld to hold his left field job, he will need to at least match the offensive production of the worst offensive left fielders in baseball over the past few years, such as Juan Pierre, Randy Winn, and Scott Podsednik.  These players compensated for their low slugging percentage by stealing bases and posting passable on-base numbers. Fuld’s speed (11 stolen bases) and keen batting eye (17:12 K/BB) suggest that he has the tools to also meet these criteria.

Worst Offensive Left Fielder Each Season (2006-10)

Year	Player	AB	SB	OBP	SLG%
2010	Juan Pierre	651	68	0.341	0.316
2009	Randy Winn	538	16	0.318	0.353
2008	Delmon Young	575	14	0.336	0.405
2007	Shannon Stewart	576	11	0.345	0.394
2006	Scott Podsednik	524	40	0.330	0.353

Using the worst left fielder data, we see that their average batting line is similar to Fuld’s career major league performance.  Additionally, Fuld MLB performance is intuitively what you’d expect from his minor league track record.  

Player	AB	SB	OBP	SLG%
Avg. Worst SLG LF	573	30	.334	.364
Fuld (MLB career)	265	13	.341	.362
Fuld (minors)	2281	106	.372	.405

Considering Fuld’s defensive potential, his career batting line suggests he’s capable of holding down a left field job at the major league level.  Tampa Bay has shown patience and confidence in Fuld, keeping him at the leadoff spot and giving him consistent at-bats while he works through his hitting slump. However, stud prospect Desmond Jennings likely has more offensive potential than the 29-year-old Fuld and may force Tampa management to find a creative solution for the positional log jam. 

Mr. Samuel Babson Fuld has shown us that he has the ability to be a tremendous defensive player. His future in the league, however, is dependent on his ability to make adjustments to Major League pitching. We all know how the Legend of Sam Fuld began, but it is up to him to decide how the story ends.

Christian Karayannides covers baseball for ESPN Insider. He is currently a video scout at Baseball Info Solutions, after previously working at the MLB Commissioner’s Office.

Ogando-Nation

Alexi Ogando (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.54 WHIP) has been a pleasant surprise since being thrust into the starter role for the Texas Rangers. A dominant setup man a year ago (2010 AL ERA leader), Ogando has shown ace stuff, securing the back-end of the Rangers rotation. Ogando was originally signed as a right fielder out of the Dominican Republic by Oakland, but was picked up through the Rule 5 draft and converted into a pitcher by the Texas Rangers.

Ogando has challenged hitters with a 97 MPH fastball, a decent slider which he can throw for strikes, and an underrated change-up. He sports a simple, but deceptive delivery that keeps hitters off-balance.

Alexi hides the ball throughout the entire delivery; behind his leg, body and then completely with his head. This gives the impression of an even faster heater because the ball is difficult to pickup before he releases the pitch.

Ogando is a strike throwing machine, who pitches to contact and rarely walks hitters. In his first two starts he has proven very efficient, completing 13.0 innings with only 169 pitches (13 pitches/inning).  Ogando is the first pitcher in the live-ball era to throw 13.0 scoreless innings over his first two career starts.

Alexi's pitching style raises a number of red flags. He is a fly ball pitcher in a home-run ballpark, and has low strikeout totals for a pitcher with his velocity and stuff. Ogando has the potential to increase his strikeouts and lower his homeruns if he learns to expand the strike zone and coax hitters to chase.

Ogando's change-up has developed into a plus pitch, but he does not trust throwing it. This is common with younger players because the effectiveness of the change is dependent on the pitcher's ability to "sell" the pitch as a fastball.

Alexi's change is the the best secondary compliment to his fastball because it appears like the fastball, but has good movement out of the zone and 8-10 MPH velocity difference from his heater. His change-up is a "swing-and-miss" pitch, which he can also throw for strikes. Over his first two starts he has only thrown the change 5% of the time, as opposed to 24% for the slider.

Alexi faces a challenging assignment in his next start against the powerful Yankee lineup in homerun-friendly Yankee stadium. Homeruns might be an issue, but Ogando has shown that he has the velocity, deception, and control to be an innings-eater and a very successful starting pitcher. 

Great "Britton"

The Baltimore Orioles stand atop the American League East standings with a 6-3 record, thanks in part to rookie phenom Zach Britton (0.66 ERA). The southpaw has won his first two starts of the season, allowing only seven hits and one run over 13.2 innings.

Britton utilizes a 96 mph fastball with good sinking movement that led to a 2:1 groundball ratio in his first start. He leans heavily on his heater, throwing the pitch 80% of the time over his first two starts.

Buster Olney has dubbed Britton "the Strasburg of 2011", but their are concerns surrounding his immediate success. Britton pitches in the American League East, cluttered with strong lineups who take pitches and wear down opposing hurlers, physically and mentally.

Britton's 4:3 K/BB ratio is also discouraging. He will need to keep his homerun rate low and his strand rate high if he is going to continue to walk hitters and not strike them out.

Britton also recorded more outs in the air than on the ground  in his last start against Texas, which is not the plan for a sinkerball pitcher. Against the strong Texas lineup, Britton began to overthrow late in the game, failing to stay behind the ball. This led to him leaving the ball up in the zone and producing many more fly balls than intended.

In an interview with Baseball Tonight on April 10th, Britton admitted that some of his success is due to facing lineups who are unfamiliar with his stuff. He also credited Matt Wieters for his work behind the plate and his good understanding of opposing batters.

The Orioles have had a promising young team for years, but if Britton is an example of the young guns stocked in the minor league system, Baltimore should be relevant in the baseball world soon enough.  

Suprise Suprise

One week into the season is no time to start judging teams by their record or extrapolating their performance over the rest of the season. But what the heck!

Red Sox: 0 - 162

Carl Crawford:   .174 - 0 - 27
Dustin Pedroia:   .227 - 0 - 0
Kevin Youkilis:   .105 - 0 - 27
J.D. Drew:         .231 - 0 - 0
Jarrod Salt:         .071 - 0 - 27




Daniel Bard:     0-54   0 SVs  16.88 ERA
Jonathan Pap:   0-0     0 SVs   9.00 ERA
Clay Buch:        0-27   81 Ks   5.68 ERA
John Lackey:     0-27   81 Ks   22.09 ERA


Well that was unnecessary but fun. The Red Sox have their home opener today against the New York Yankees and enter the game with a 0-6 record to start the season. This year represents the worst start in Red Sox history since 1945 and the team is bottom of the league in almost every productive statistical category.

What Could Have Been

      April 16th, 1940, Bob Feller became the only Major League pitcher to throw a no-hitter on opening day. On April 1st, 2011, Josh Johnson (Not the WR) came within striking distance of this exclusive distinction. Johnson did not have the pin-point control often associated with perfection on the mound, but the ball was literally exploding out his hand at Sun Life Stadium..

         It was in the seventh inning that the country began to pay attention; in disbelief that the second "Year of the Pitcher" would possible begin so quickly. It was at that moment that Johnson's personal nemesis struck another blow.

    Willy Harris received the opening day start in left field for the Mets because of his past success against Johnson. This was truly a compliment to Johnson's dominance, as Harris is only a career .267 hitter versus the Florida flamethrower. Either driven by the confidence bestowed in him by skipper Terry Collins, or by the embarrassment of being no-hit on opening day, Harris served the third offering from Johnson into left-center for New Yorks first hit of the evening.

    What was most impressive about Johnson was not his "almost" no-hit stuff, but his reaction and demeanor after giving up the line drive single to Harris. Johnson displayed no remorse, but instead a driven resilience which was reminiscent of the great professionals of the mound such as Maddux or Mussina. Johnson quickly got back to work, inducing David Wright to fly out to center field on three pitches.

     It is Johnson's mental makeup and professional attitude which separates him from Florida's talented hurlers of the past. The 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins had a slew of young pitchers who dominated on the game's biggest stage. Josh Beckett, A.J. Burrnett, Carl Pavano, and Brad Penny have all had successful careers, but have faded from the spotlight as they have reached their early-to-mid 30s. They have not shown the ability to make adjustments to compensate for the erosion of natural talent with age.

    With each year that passes, Johnson proves that he has the capacity, the maturity, and the drive to excel late in his career. His no-hit bid on April 1st was only a preview of what he may accomplish in what hopes to be a Hall of Fame career. 

Premium's at a Premium

     I got thinking about ESPN Insider and the value of premium sports writing content on the world wide web. I was  truly disheartened by the introduction of ESPN insider which stole my favorite columnists and hid them behind a veil of fees and a bloated sense of self-worth. 

     It was right after the turn of the century and many teenage sports fanatics had been hooked by the in-depth stories of Peter Gammons and the detailed scouting reports of Buster Olney. ESPN chose to limit public access to their "premium content" thus driving penniless teens such as myself to free alternatives, and for this I am thankful. Through websites such as www.prosportsdaily.com I was able to quench my thirst for the baseball/basketball rumor mill while also gaining exposure to undervalued columnists working for local newspapers. 


    Before twitter.com, Peter Abraham put lohud.com/ on the sports writing map with the hugely successful Yankees blog, yankees.lhblogs.com/. Mr. Abraham is one of the reasons I wanted to work in sports and had any interest in sports writing whatsoever. Luckily his talent was recognized and he took a job with the Boston Globe in 2009. His yankees blog is still the top result on Google for yankees blogs and his departure to Boston was covered extensively in the blogosphere including here. 


    Now to get back to the point, there are many websites with excellent baseball content such as fangraphs.com. Fangraphs has excellent, thought provoking analysis, but without the star power that ESPN brings to the table. Fangraphs was able to develop their fan following by providing free content and generating revenue through advertising. 


    ESPN must have determined that the revenue generated through ESPN insider subscriptions was more valuable than the extra traffic generated through a website which was based completely on free content. What they did not take into consideration was the negative effect it might have on their fanbase/followers. In my opinion, ESPN insider portrayed ESPN as money-driven capitalists, a perception which drove followers to find alternatives, which they might not have know existed. 


    The worst aspect of ESPN.com insider is the expectations it created for itself as premium content. The ESPN rumor mill, once a gold mine of relevant sports info, has transformed into a diluted mess of phony nonsense, churned-out to satisfy the expectations of paying subscribers. 


    What is the next step for ESPN insider? Once a columnist has built a significant fanbase, is it time to move him to premium content? I fear my beloved Bill Simmons might be next. (Just realized that my 3 favorite columnists are all Red Sox loving freaks. Oh well, good writing is good writing.) 


    ESPN.com once inspired a child-like excitement for sports and set the benchmark for the value of good sports coverage. ESPN.com insider instead makes the public question the value of $2.50 a month, and how much garbage it can buy.