The Pittsburgh Lumber Co has been doing a comparison of NLC teams on a position-by-position basis. Since I've been feeling contrary, I've been doing my own responses to these comparisons. This time we're talking about second base. You can also read what I had to say about the catcher and first base.

STL Kennedy	440 AB	.273/.332/.366	4 HR	49 RBI	15 SB
HOU Biggio	530 AB	.255/.311/.419	18 HR	52 RBI	5 SB
CIN Phillips	511 AB	.266/.320/.405	14 HR	56 RBI	17 SB
MIL Weeks	485 AB	.262/.343/.433	16 HR	59 RBI	20 SB
PIT Castillo	446 AB	.256/.304/.388	12 HR	52 RBI	4 SB
CHC DeRosa	404 AB	.265/.324/.403	8 HR	49 RBI	2 SB

This is where it gets tough, I think. I can’t say that any one of these guys is a better defender than the group (although Biggio and DeRosa are towards the bottom of the list). Castillo is more of a risk/reward type than the others; I think Phillips, Kennedy and Weeks are more dependable than Jose, but that the Pirate has the highest ceiling in the field. Still, I’m basically disregarding defense in this ranking, as there’s not a significant separation.

The question remains: How do I sort these players? It’s nearly impossible to glance at the statistics and weigh the importance of power against steals, batting average against slugging. They’re all built in different molds. Craig Biggio isn’t the best second baseman just because he’s projected to hit 18 bombs.

For catchers and first baseman, there was a somewhat clear order to the players. Here, though, I’ll rely on a definite metric for the rankings. On-base percentage plus slugging percentage is a stat that should cover everything I find to be pertinent on offense. Looking at OPS, I get Rickie Weeks at the top, then a group of Biggio, DeRosa and Phillips, then Kennedy and Castillo. The players are separated by only thousandths of a percentage point, so subjectivity is again forced into play.

Weeks is the top dog, he’ll get the 10. Out of the next triumvirate, I like Phillips the best–I think he has the most upside, and should play the best defense. He’ll run, too, providing a skill that the other two don’t. Mark Loretta’s presence in Houston knocks Biggio down a peg, as it’s unlikely that Craig will get more than his projected 440 at bats. Out of the last two, I’ll take Castillo over Kennedy. Jose has the potential to play Gold Glove-caliber defense and hit for power, while Adam’s ZiPS numbers are seemingly his ceiling.

The separation is minimal, so the subtractions from player to player are small.

MIL=10 | CIN=8 | CHC=7 | HOU=7 | PIT=6| STL=6

The sentence “he'll get the 10” tells me that again, I've misunderstood how this comparison is being done. I was under the impression that you'd be able to add up the scores for each team to project who would be the best in 2007, but if someone at every position will receive a 10, that's certainly not the case. Definitely Rickie Weeks wouldn't be contributing the same number of points to the Brewers' total as Albert Pujols is adding to that of the Cardinals.

You think a comparison like this is going to be easy, until you actually sit down and dig into the details.

In any event, it's hard to complain about Phillips coming in second with a score of 8, though personally I'd give him bonus points for an excellent attitude. Where is the Spunkiness category, anyway?