Joe Posnanskirecently had a blog post about the Royals' 60 tools. In summary, baseball scouts take each of a player's tools (for batters: hitting for average, hitting for power, speed/ base-running, defense, throwing arm) and grades them on a scale of 20-80. As Posnanski put it, 20 is "Barely knows which gloves goes on which hand." Eighty is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, like Ted Williams' hitting. Fifty is major league average, and 60 is All Star level.
The theory is that the more 60 tools you have on your team, the better the team will be. For example, he postulates that the Royals only have two 60 tools on the whole team, while the Red Sox have 11 just in their starting batting order.
Where do the Indians rank? Posnanski's commenters listed six 60 tools, and I'd agree right away:
1. Grady Sizemore' speed
2. Franklin Gutierrez' arm
3. Victor Martinez' hitting
4. Asdrubal Cabrera's defense (Which is a 60 at the very least, and may be the best tool on the team right now.)
5. Sizemore's defense
6. Gutierrez' defense
I've seen Ben Francisco's arm in person, and I'd give that a 60 as well. At the time, Francisco had been in the majors for less than a month, and already the Blue Jays knew not to run on him. That's a good sign that Toronto's scouts also give Francisco's arm a 60. Of course, Francisco has also hit well this season, but it's too early to give him a 60 there.
What else? The pre-slump Travis Hafner easily gets 60s for power and plate discipline. (I know plate discipline isn't one of the five traditional tools, but it's definitely something to take into account.) Casey Blake has a 60 arm in right field, but it looks pretty average from third base. Andy Marte is supposed to be a 60 defender with a 60 arm, but I haven't seen enough of him to pass judgment.
On the pitching side, I'd say this:
1. CC Sabathia's fastball
2. Sabathia's slider (Considered by some to be the best in the league.)
3. Fausto Carmona's sinker (Torii Hunter once said that it had so much movement, he felt like he was hung over.)
4. Cliff Lee's 2008 command ( Everyone has said that Cliff's command is the main reason for his turnaround this year.)
What do you think? Do the Indians have more 60 tools? Do they have less than what I mentioned? How many 60 tools does your favorite team have? Join the discussion on the KankaNation message board.
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4 months ago
The way they are playing, it's hard to step back and say who has 60 tools and who doesn't. As you said, Travis Hafner before slump is an easy power tool. Francisco has the potential to hit for a very high average, he's done it at every level, but you can't count that yet I don't think.
I'd say Kelly Shoppach, even though a backup is a 60 defender behind the plate.
As for Andy Marte. He has made errors, and that has been one of the things the Indians have asked him to work on in the past(I don't know why, he needs to worry about hitting first). So I don't know where the scouts thing he is a 60 defender. He has shown flashes of brilliance at times with the glove, but he has also made some very stupid errors. I'd love to see him get consistent playing time at third before I judged. If he lives up to his potential he supposedly has 60 power.
This is very interesting. Thank you for doing this. I do agree with all 6 of the ones you listed.
from 4 months ago
I also want to defend Travis Hafner's defense, who Mr. Posnanski ripped. Travis is a very solid first baseman. He isn't awesome, but he isn't some dumb oaf who doesn't know what hand his glove goes on. He's had elbow issues that simply don't let him play it, and he's become such a comfortable DH, why make him play it? He isn't David Ortiz for the love of moses. I've seen him make some very nice plays at first when he has played there.
from 4 months ago
Good call on Shoppach's defense. Those 6 tools were the first I thought of, and they just happened to be the 6 listed by Posnanski's commenters. I also thought of giving Gutierrez a 60 for baserunning/speed. But Posnanski only gave Joey Gathright a 60 for speed, and he's supposedly the fastest guy in the league. (Of course, he's still learning as a baserunner, so maybe that knocks the overall rating down a few notches.)
I was also surprised that Posnanski mentioned Hafner as a guy with 20 defense. David Segui playing right field with a leg injury is a 20 defender, maybe a 25 based on his experience. Pronk playing first base is not that low.
4 months ago
I'd possibly add in Raffy Perez' slider. It has nasty movement in on the hands of guys. Though this season he has not had as much command of it. When on, it is easily at least a 60. The rest I agree with, great topic. Very interesting.
from 4 months ago
Thanks. I know that as good as (most of) the pitching has been, there had to be more 60 pitches in there. I just couldn't think of any offhand.
4 months ago
This is the third article I've read with a link to Joe Posnanski's blog. He is a very good blogger, and he makes some great points.
Good article!
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