I shouldn’t even be wasting my time on this, but I’m bored

There is a Facebook group called “Endy Chavez is so much better than Melky Cabrera”. First of all, what is the point of this group? We’re making groups about how “our 4th outfielder is better than your 4th outfielder!” and not even being right about it? “Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter” or vice versa. “Mariano Rivera is so much better than Jonathan Papelbon” or vice versa. Those groups make sense. But comparing two 4th outfielders (although Melky has been playing everyday because Damon can’t play center but is too stubborn to go on the DL) is stupid. How about “Jose Molina is so much better than Ramon Castro!”?

Be that as it may, I tell you, my friends…no, Endy Chavez is not so much better than Melky Cabrera.

Endy Chavez (2006)
.276 eqA
44/24 K/BB
4.6 WARP3

Melky Cabrera (2006)
.273 eqA
56/60 K/BB
5.0 WARP3

And Endy Chavez is 29…Melky Cabrera is 22. And Melky almost walked more than he struck out last year, which is incredible for a 21 year old rookie. And let’s compare them this year. I know Chavez is hurt, but still, let’s do this shit:

Endy Chavez (2007)
.269 eqA
13/8 K/BB
2.3 WARP3

Melky Cabrera (2007)
.280 eqA
39/28 K/BB
7.1 WARP3 (3.9 WARP1)

Cabrera’s 3.9 WARP1 shows that he's already worth almost as many wins so far this season to the Yankees than Chavez was to the Mets all of last year. Cabrera's WARP3 shows he's projected to be worth 2.5 more wins this year than Chavez was last year. Also, last year was a career year for Chavez. His previous seasons were all terrible. Look them up. I don't feel like typing them all out because I don't want sonorous laughter to be heard coming from my desk. Now, I, like most people, don’t think Melky Cabrera’s ever going to be a monster offensively. But he’s a solid hitter who’s going to draw a good number of walks and I could see him, in his prime, being having a .280-.290 BA/.360-.370 OBA/.440-.450 SLG. That’s pretty good to get from a centerfielder, especially when he’s a very good one defensively. His zone rating (speaking of this stat, it was .915 in left field last year, leading the AL) is .899 with 21 plays made out of zone in just 589 innings and is at 14 FRAA overall. That’s pretty good. That’s only .006 behind Ichiro, and Ichiro’s played 270 more innings. I expect Melky to overtake him there. And among AL Centerfielders, he's first with 9 assists and has 11 overall (2 in LF).

Melky Cabrera << Endy Chavez? As Douggy Bombs once said about ARod, that’s something we can all say “HA!” to.

Oh, yeah, Smart Stat Guy picked up that bartender by the end of that night. I saw her, too. Fucking hot.