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Starling Marte Named Second Best Left Fielder in Baseball

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On Sunday afternoon, Buster Olney continued his series of the best players in the majors at each position. Today’s postion is left field and he named Starling Marte the second best in the majors (subscription required). Last year, Olney named Marte the best left fielder in baseball. This past season, he hit .311/.362/.456 over 129 game and also won his second consecutive Gold Glove award. The .818 OPS he posted was the best of his career. The top spot this year went to Yoenis Cespedes.

Olney compliments Marte by saying he “provides the greatest range of skills of anyone who plays this spot in the big leagues”. Cespedes got the nod for the top spot due to his advantage in the power department, but Marte has the clear advantage in defense.

The Pittsburgh Pirates came up empty in the early rankings by Olney. Earlier this week, he covered starting pitchers, relievers and all four infield spots. No Pirates made the top ten in any of the six categories and only Josh Harrison was named in the “honorable mention” group, which adds another 5-7 names for each position. The Pirates should get some more mentions in the next couple days as Olney covers center field and right field next, followed by catchers. Those three spots will be followed by the best starting rotations, bullpens, lineups and defenses, with one rankings article per day over the next seven days.

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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