Glancing At Gomez

Rather than focusing on what a miserable weekend it was (which we all can agree, it's the Twins' fault and not mine or yours...okay, maybe mine), let's focus on how much fun Carlos Gomez has been.

He runs into the wall, sprawls himself out, careens are the basepaths at break-neck speeds and generally just throws his body around with little regard for the consequences.  His speed, athletic ability, and willingness to just lay himself out in the field were some of the (very few) bright spots for the Twins over the weekend.  It got me to thinking about his defensive skills, and now I'm curious as to how he compares to some of the leagues best center fielders.

I compiled a list of 38 center fielders who have put together the most innings spent in the field and, again thanks to stats available from The Hardball Times, I'll be comparing him to the league-average Revised Zone Rating (based on those 38 players) as well as other notable center fielders.  The second list gives you the ten guys who have made the most outs outside of their zone, through Sunday.

Naturally, just like when we were discussing Delmon Young's defense last week, this won't give you the entire defensive picture but it will give you a pretty good idea of how solid Gomez has been on the big scale.  But even from these two sets of numbers, we can glean a couple of things that help us confirm what our eyes tell us about Carlos in the field.

1.  Carlos Gomez has incredible range which, on the whole, is superior to most center fielders in baseball.

2.  He's above average in turning balls into outs, but good marks in this category alone will not denote excellent range or excellent defensive skills.  There are a lot of big names underneath that "LEAGUE AVERAGE" mark.

It's a very cursory look, but intriguing still to see where our center fielder rates.  Enjoy your Tuesday.