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Andrew McCutchen Rated as the Fifth Best Center Fielder

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On Monday morning, Buster Olney continued his rankings of the best players at each position in the majors. Yesterday he had Starling Marte as the second best left fielder in the big leagues, trailing only Yoenis Cespedes. Olney moved over to center field today and he ranked Andrew McCutchen as the fifth best center fielder in the game.

Olney notes that many scouts believe that McCutchen’s 2016 season at the plate was just an aberration and he should bounce back to have a solid season in 2017. He also thinks his extremely poor season on defense can be partially explained by the outfield positioning of the Pirates last year, though he also noted today and yesterday that the Pirates would be better off with Starling Marte in center field. McCutchen finished behind Mike Trout, Jackie Bradley Jr., Christian Yelich and A.J. Pollock (in that order) for the top spot center field spots. Last year, Olney had McCutchen ranked second behind only Trout.

As mentioned in the Marte article, the Pirates came up empty in the rankings for all four infield spots and also for starting pitchers and relievers. Over the next six days, Olney will have right fielders, catchers, starting rotations, bullpens, lineups and defenses, with one article each day.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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