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Andrew McCutchen Ranked as Second Best Center Fielder in the Majors

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Buster Olney continued his rankings of the top ten players at each position on Friday, naming Andrew McCutchen the second best center fielder in baseball. Not surprisingly, Mike Trout is ranked first overall, followed by McCutchen, A.J. Pollock, Lorenzo Cain and Mookie Betts in the top five spots.

The part of McCutchen’s 2015 season that Olney focused the most on was his hitting with runners in scoring position. He hit .361/.494/.656 in 172 plate appearances with RISP. While he has been good in those situations in the past, this was by far his best season in that department. McCutchen finished fifth in the MVP voting this year, which was actually his lowest finish the last four years. He won his fourth straight Silver Slugger award and made his fifth straight All-Star team.

Yesterday, Olney had Starling Marte as the top left fielder in baseball. Last week, Gerrit Cole was the ninth best starting pitcher and no Pirates were among the top relievers in the game, with Mark Melancon getting the “just missed” category.

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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