The Rise Of Center Field

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but there are a lot of really good center fielders in baseball right now. There is so much talent in center field that we could be seeing the dawning of the greatest group of talent to ever play the position at the same time. Seriously, just take a look at the current crop of players manning the position.

Established All-Stars: Grady Sizemore, Carlos Beltran, Torii Hunter, Curtis Granderson, Mike Cameron

Breakout Stars: Matt Kemp, Franklin Gutierrez, Denard Span, Shane Victorino

Potential Stars: Adam Jones, Colby Rasmus, BJ Upton, Josh Hamilton, Andrew McCutchen, Dexter Fowler

Flycatchers: Nyjer Morgan, Rajai Davis, Ryan Sweeney, Michael Bourn, Coco Crisp, Brett Gardner

Solid Players: Nate McLouth, Marlon Byrd, Jacoby Ellsbury, Kosuke Fukudome, Melky Cabrera

That’s 26 players with some real value to their teams. Twenty-Six, and I didn’t even include guys like Chris Dickerson or Chris Young. Usually, you expect to find 10-15 pretty good players at any given position, some others guys who fill a need for a while, and then a bunch of old guys at the end of their careers. But this crop of center field talent is just unbelievable in its depth and youth.

Sizemore, Beltran, and Granderson aren’t exactly old men, but they’re the elder statesmen of this group that is overflowing with young stars in the making. There’s so many good players roaming CF right now that you could state that a guy like Adam Jones is a below average player for the position this year. And Jones went to the all-star game, and his place as one of the game’s best young talents is not in question.

I’m not sure I have ever witnessed this kind of influx in talent at a single position before. This is the golden age of center field.