The 50 Best Players in Major League Baseball - 2010 Version

Not career value - not "going forward, who would I most like" - just flat right now, for 2010, who am I saying are the 50 best players in baseball.

6 notes:

1. Pitchers are harder to forecast than position players - at the end of the year, my MVP votes may well be both pitchers (I voted for Greinke last year, for ex. in the AL) but arms aren't as consistent year to year as bats.

2. There's only one closer.  It's not who you expect.

3. Russell Martin was on the list, but near the bottom, before his injury - that's enough to boot him, let's say he misses the first couple of weeks and takes another couple of weeks to find his bat - since he's coming off a bad year anyway, he's out.

4. #51 is Cole Hamels.

5. This is not a fantasy board.  My fantasy drafts are top of the month.  I've given it zero thought so far.  I've got the Counterfactual to write.

6. My pre-season picks, with thoughts on over/unders will come prior to Opening Day.  Right now, I'm leaning Red Sox. 

Here we go:

1. Albert Pujols 1B St Louis
2. Hanley Ramirez SS Florida
3. Prince Fielder 1B Milwaukee
4. Chase Utley 2B Philadelphia
5. Joe Mauer C Minnesota
6. David Wright 3B NYM
7. Adrian Gonzalez 1B SD
8. Ryan Braun OF Milwaukee
9. Grady Sizemore OF Cleveland
10. Tim Lincecum P SFG
11. Matt Kemp OF LAD
12. Troy Tulowitzki SS Colorado
13. Mark Teixeira 1B NYY
14. Zack Greinke P KC
15. Roy Halladay P Philiadelphia
16. Evan Longoria 3B Tampa
17. Dustin Pedroia 2B Boston
18. CC Sabathia P NYY
19. Miguel Cabrera 1B Detroit
20. Alex Rodriguez 3B NYY
21. Andre Ethier OF LAD
22. Ryan Zimmerman 3B Washington
23. Matt Holliday OF St Louis
24. Brian McCann C Atlanta
25. Cliff Lee P Seattle
26. Jimmy Rollins SS Philadelphia
27. Yunel Escobar SS Atl
28. Dan Haren P Arizona
29. Felix Hernandez P Seattle
30. Adam Wainright P St Louis
31. Jayson Werth OF Philadelphia
32. Matt Cain P SFG
33. Ian Kinsler 2B Texas
34. Pablo Sandoval 3B SFG
35. Lance Berkman 1B Houston
36. Chipper Jones 3B Atlanta
37. Nick Markakis OF Baltimore
38. Justin Verlander P Detroit
39. Joakim Soria RP Kansas City
40. John Lester P Boston
41. Johann Santana P NYM
42. Josh Beckett P Bosto
43. Chris Carpenter P St Louis
44. Aaron Hill 2B Toronto
45. Josh Johnson P Florida
46. Ben Zobrist 2B Tampa
47. Ubaldo Jimenez P Colorado
48. Carlos Beltran OF NYM
49. Hunter Pence OF Houston
50. Yadier Molina C St Louis

Edited notes - I wound up replacing Jurrjens and Gallardo with Carpenter and Johnson - the injury risks of the latter two kept me from their inclusion originally, but I've decided to cut a little bit the other way.  Javvy Vazquez was better than all of them last year.  And is Tommy Hanson better than all of them by year's end - is that an end of 2011 thing?  I still might swap out Pence for Victorino or Zobrist for Uggla.  Berkman's gonna miss a couple of weeks, I should knock him down the list a couple of spots - I've already dropped Martin and Reyes from the list entirely, I'll put Reyes back by opening day if he's active.  I like Joey Votto and would like it if he played for my team. Right now, I'm weighing Victor Martinez's bat against Molina's glove for that last spot.