Is it possible that with all the negative talk surrounding Wells' contract and his terrible 07 and 09 seasons that we're under-rating him? And that with all the hype surrounding Crawford's free agency, that he's being overrated?
Who's better: Wells or Crawford?
2010 Stat |
Wells |
Crawford |
Comment |
Home runs |
31 |
19 |
Clearly, Wells has the advantage there |
Stolen bases |
6 |
47 |
Clearly, Crawford destroys Wells on this one. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wells swipe 20 bases under Scoscia’s regime. |
Average |
.273 |
.307 |
Crawford typically hits for higher average than Wells does |
On Base % |
.331 |
.356 |
Crawford has a higher OBP, but that is only due to his higher average. Crawford is no walking machine. In fact, he had 46BB in 657 PA, while Wells had 50BB in 646 PA – a better rate than Crawford. |
Slugging |
.515 |
.495 |
Wells has an advantage here. |
OPS |
.840 |
.851 |
Pretty close. Again, Crawford’s higher average (and likely his ability to stretch doubles into triples). If his speed declines over the next 7 years, I wonder how this will affect his average, and ultimately his OPS. |
OPS+ |
127 |
134 |
Crawford |
Defense |
|
|
I’m not going to use defensive metrics to compare because I don’t understand them that well, and they played different positions. Crawford was a LF gold glover. Wells played CF reasonably well. He’s apparently playing LF next season, so it’ll be interesting to compare him with Crawford at that point. |
Also consider: Wells career OPS .804 (despite his terrible injury-ridden seasons, which comprise of almost 20% of his at bats), and Crawford career OPS .788. Crawford also strikes out more.
Wells also goes over and above when it comes to community work, charity, etc. That counts for something.
Wells will be 36 at the end of his contract and Crawford will be 37.
They are, of course two very different players. The question is would you prefer Wells in the middle of your lineup for 4 years ($86M), or Crawford for 7 years ($142M). I don't want either of those contracts, but if I had no choice but to choose one, I don't know...