The Value of Gomez

Carlos Gomez vs. Torii Hunter. $395,000 vs. $16,500,000. 22 years vs. 33 years.

Does this comparison also show the difference between 'young and promising' and 'good'?

Let's take a look at both Carlos Gomez and Torii Hunter and compare them:

Carlos Gomez Torii Hunter
.255/.291/.344 .277/.342/.471

Hunter certainly gets the advantage in this matchup. He is a much better batter than Gomez, and if you didn't know that you haven't been a Twins fan long enough to watch a single game, have you? Hunter is 33, and with age comes experience. He has faced most pitchers in baseball numerous times and is a very smart player. Gomez, on the other hand, is still getting used to the major league scene and is extremely impatient at the plate.

Carlos Gomez Torii Hunter
.635 OPS .812 OPS

Another statistic in favor of Hunter. No surprise here. When it comes to down to batting, one can safely assume that Hunter is lengths and strides ahead of Gomez - who is eleven years his junior.

Carlos Gomez Torii Hunter
120 SO/ 20 BB 90 SO/ 21 BB

Again, Hunter is a much better bat at the plate. Gomez has gotten better as the season has progressed, but still is very vulnerable to the strikeout. Gomez is the king of first-pitch swings. (Delmon Young is his prince.)

Carlos Gomez Torii Hunter
.943 RZR .889 RZR

RZR, or revised zone rating, is a statistic that measures the proportion of balls hit into a player's zone that he is able to turn into outs. Gomez gets 94% of batters who hit into his zone out, while Hunter only gets 89%. They both obviously play the same position, so one can look at the numbers without having to adjust anything. Gomez is also extremely faster than Hunter, which plays right into this next statistic:

Carlos Gomez Torii Hunter
87 OOZ 79 OOZ

OOZ, or out of zone, is a measure of how many outs a player makes out of his defined zone. Both play in center field so this statistic can basically be narrowed down to how many balls either one of these players can catch in left or right field. Generally, the more a center fielder has, the faster he is.

Gomez has been an offensive disappointment for the Twins this year, grounding into five double plays and sports a WPA of -2.62. Hunter has a WPA of 0.41.

On the defensive side of the ball, however, Gomez has thrived and has been better than Hunter was last year, and is this year with the Angels.

The bottom line is that Hunter is on the decline of his career, while Gomez is on the brink of a great one. Gomez may not have much offensive value this year, which in turn hurts the Twins, but he makes up for it on defense. And his bat can only improve.