Who Would You Rather Have: Alex Rodriguez or Chase Utley?

by Ray Guilfoyle on Oct 30, 2009 9:00 AM EDT in Baseball

Time for the World Series edition of Who Would You Rather Have? CBS Sportsline recently completed a 5x5 mixed league mock draft, and Chase Utley was selected 4th overall before Ryan Braun, Joe Mauer and Alex Rodriguez to name a few. After Utley went deep twice on Wednesday night do you select him before ARod? Or is ARod still a more valuable fantasy player?

Let's take a look at their 2009 stats:

Name	AB	H	HR	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Chase Utley	571	161	31	112	93	88	110	23	0.282	0.397	0.508	0.905
Alex Rodriguez	444	127	30	78	100	80	97	14	0.286	0.402	0.532	0.934

ARod had better overall numbers across the board in less ABs, but Utley is one of the few stud fantasy players at 2B, and there is more depth at 3B than at 2B, right? I am not so sure.

More after the jump:

Here are the third baseman who hit more than 20 HRs in 2009:

Name	HR
Mark Reynolds	44
Ryan Zimmerman	33
Evan Longoria	33
Alex Rodriguez	30
Kevin Youkilis	27
Brandon Inge	27
Pablo Sandoval	25
Mark DeRosa	23
Michael Young	22

And here the second baseman who hit more than 20 HRs in 2009:

Name	HR
Aaron Hill	36
Chase Utley	31
Ian Kinsler	31
Dan Uggla	31
Ben Zobrist	27
Robinson Cano	25
Jose Lopez	25
Clint Barmes	23
Brandon Phillips	20

One could make the case that third base is a scarce postion in 2010, especially if you think that Mark DeRosa is tailing off as a fantasy player and don't think Brandon Inge can hit 27 HRs again. Of course the Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez should hit 30+ HRs should he stay healthy in 2010, but can one count on Chipper Jones or Scott Rolen to hit 20+ HRs again?

Second base is not as scarce as it used to be with Aaron Hill having a breakout (career?) year in 2009, and Ben Zobrist coming out of nowhere to hit 27 HRs in 2009. I won't count on Clint Barmes hitting 20+ HRs again, especially with the AVG that comes with it. Could the Braves Martin Prado sneak into the 20+ HR range with regular playing time in 2010?

So, with all that said, who would you rather have?

Poll

Who would you rather have: Chase Utley or Alex Rodriguez?

ARod-he can hit 40+ in that ballpark

64 votes

Utley-he brings power and more speed.

92 votes

156 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 7 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

Arod

I’d take ARod over Utley, but to do have the choice, I’d have to have the 2nd-4th pick. 3B looks much more shallow. I think you can get a Robinson Cano in the 4th round while there may not be anything left at 3B by then

by faketeams on Oct 30, 2009 11:32 AM EDT reply actions

2B is as deep if not deeper than 3B

Look at the options you have for 2B: Kinsler, Utley, Uggla, J Lopez, Cano, Hill, Barmes, Phillips, and Zobrist were all over 20 Homers. in addition, Roberts, Chris Getz (in 375 ABs), and all had over 20 SBs, with Kinsler, Utley, and Phillips pulling the 20+/20+ trick. Then you have risky guys with bounce back potential in Kendrick, and weeks, not to mention solid starters with higher ceilings in Hudson, Prado, etc.

3B has the usual suspects, but not as much depth. Atkins fell off a cliff this year, and even with additions of Sandoval, Beckham and young switching over, it’s no better than what you can get at 2B. Sure, you’ll have your big dogs in A-rod, and Longoria, but would you consider taking Wright over any of the top 2Bs anymore? City field killed his stats. Then you need to ask if you believe in a Reynolds repeat, which I’m skeptical of. Sure Zimmerman is solid, but really, I don’t think I like my options here as much as I like the guys at 2B.

"That's not a weird stat. Rickie is a run-scorer," Yost said. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," Yost told reporters. "See, you guys have no concept. He's a run-scorer. So there's nothing weird about it. That's what he does."

by Hyatt on Oct 30, 2009 11:41 AM EDT reply actions

yikes!!!

I didn’t realize the hitters names did not appear. ughh.

raygu

by Ray Guilfoyle on Oct 30, 2009 9:07 PM EDT reply actions

ok

fixed now….my bad

raygu

by Ray Guilfoyle on Oct 30, 2009 9:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Those stats are not really a fair comparison...

considering that A-rod missed the first month of the season with and injury and then played with said injury for the first half of the season he actually played. When you look at A-rod’s stats from an average non-injury year (300+ba, 40hr, 130rbi, 25sb) it makes the difference much more significant. Also, how does Utley bring more speed? His high in sb’s was set this year with 23 when A-rod has had as many as 45 in a season and he averages 25 a year! They are both great players but I would take A-rods production over Utley’s if I had to choose one or the other.

by Datcon on Oct 30, 2009 10:40 PM EDT reply actions

hip injury

tells me Arod won’t be running alot in NY. The 25 SB average should come down, imo.

raygu

by Ray Guilfoyle on Oct 31, 2009 12:14 AM EDT reply actions

It is close

A-rod has Utley beat in Career OPS and wOBA (A-rods .965 OPS and .412 wOBA are >>>> to Utleys .902 OPS and .390 wOBA), the comparisons aren’t to far away from eachother offensivly but Utley is the far better defender. A-rod would probably be closer to Utley had he been able to stick to SS but it is what it is. I would go with Utley.

by cactus_cooler on Nov 1, 2009 1:05 AM EDT reply actions