Like any baseball blogger, I try to remain objective as possible in my analysis. Being upfront, though, there aren’t too many players I root for more than Ben Zobrist.

Zobrist is legitimately one of the nicest people around–especially for a professional athlete–and I’m really happy for his tremendous success thus far in 2009.

I first met Zobrist back at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Fan Fest during spring training in 2008. The franchise and Metro PCS hosted a phone-a-friend booth featuring players and baseball personalities. Essentially, fans waited in line for the opportunity to have a notable baseball figure call a friend, on a Metro PCS Mobile phone.

I went to the Fan Fest that day with my girlfriend, and we weren’t really into a lot of the promotions but loved having the chance to roam the turf of Tropicana Field. One of my personal highlights was the Baseball Prospectus booth, where I had the opportunity to chat with Will Carroll–accompanied by two local models–about Tampa Bay’s chances that spring and baseball stuff in general. I had just gotten into sabermetrics in the fall, so it was great meeting a BP writer, and the girls from the booth were also handing out free trial passwords to the website; for some reason, though, the card I got didn’t end up working, which was a bit disappointing.

After talking with Carroll, we ended up passing by the Metro PCS station. Harold Reynolds was up on the lines when we first walked by. I, for one, am not Reynolds’ biggest fan, by any means. But my friend from high school happens to love the guy, having grown up on seeing him on Baseball Tonight and during the Little League World Series. So for some reason I thought it would a great idea to have him call my buddy, giving us a good laugh about it down the road.

So, my girlfriend and I got in line. For Harold Reynolds; please, don’t hold it against me.

After around 20 minutes of waiting, it was finally close to being our turn. As we made our way up to the table, though, Reynolds waved goodbye to the remaining fans in line before being ushered out by a team employee.

Zobrist, the Rays’ opening day starter at shortstop the year before, took his place. At the time, I was kind of bummed. The whole point of waiting in line was to have Reynolds shoot the breeze with my buddy–who shall remain nameless, as it’s kind of embarrassing to legitimately be a fan of Harold Reynolds–but after waiting, it was too late to turn back.

I decided to use my dad now that the situation has changed. A Rays/Metro PCS employee had us fill out a sheet with the name and number of the person who was to receive the call. After doing so, we got to go up and chat with Zobrist before a bit, giving him some background info on who he was calling.

He then chatted with my dad–who actually picked up, which was surprising–for a few minutes. The two spent most of the conversation discussing the city of Louisville, where my dad lives and Zobrist played several games the previous season while with the Durham Bulls. It was quite a trip, and, though my dad didn’t know much about him as a player, he got a real kick out of it.

I remember thinking how nice of a guy Zobrist was.

And my opinion of him only grew stronger when I saw him again a few weeks later. I went to Midtown–a bar in downtown St. Petersburg near the Trop-to watch the NBA playoffs with a college buddy of mine from Ohio, one of the biggest Cavs fans around. The bar was fairly empty that night, being a weekday and pretty late–there were maybe all of 10 people at the bar or in the restaurant area. But we were still pumped up for some basketball, drinks and Zingers, the bar’s delicious boneless-style chicken tenders.

The night ended up exceeding my expectations by a lot, though.

As I was sitting at the bar watching the game, one of the few people sitting at a table walked by the bar area. I recognized the face. It was Ben Zobrist. He then came by again after going outside, going back to his table where he was working on his laptop.

I remember telling my friend that Ben Zobrist, of the Rays, was sitting right near us. He thought it was cool but didn’t really believe me; in the pre-Zorilla days, not everyone knew who Zobrist was.

I wanted to prove it was actually him to my friend but was kind of weary of going over to Zobrist at first. I didn’t want to be that guy, the one who bothers a professional athlete when he’s out in public trying to enjoy some privacy.

Perhaps emboldened by a few of Midtown’s money Pumpkin shots, I finally mustered up enough courage to walk over to Zobrist. I used the Metro PCS experience as a conversation starter, and surprisingly, he genuinely seemed to remember the conversation with my dad about Louisville.

We then had a pretty in-depth conversation for about an hour. Turns out, he was locked out of his apartment. His wife had gone to a concert in Tampa, and he didn’t have a spare key. So he decided to come to Midtown for WiFi and to watch the Rays, away in Toronto at the time.

Zobrist was rehabbing a thumb injury that he suffered in spring training, and was in the middle of a rehab assignment in the Florida State League. He openly talked about the injury, his minor league career, what it was like being traded, dealing with the local media, his college experience at Dallas Baptist, and getting his chance to play pro ball.

It was a real treat to hear him share some great baseball stories. But it was hardly a one-sided conversation. He asked me about my plans after college, my short-lived baseball career, family and life. It was refreshing to see a stranger take such a genuine interest.

Clearly, the night turned out much better than I was hoping for, certainly an upgrade over an expected evening of hearing my friend talk about how nasty Lebron James is. I had gotten to chill with a MLB player for a few hours; who wouldn’t be envious of that? Zobrist, who was down to earth and very approachable, quickly became one of my favorite players.

When he returned to the diamond, he ended up having a great year for the A.L.-champion Rays, posting a .505 slugging percentage and .844 OPS in 62 games. He played all over the field, providing versatility and pop of the bench. His home run in Toronto after the All-Star break was one of the biggest hits for the club all year, helping the Rays stop a seven-game losing skid and get off to the right foot in the second half.

Zobrist, with three career homers going into the season, mashed 12 bombs in 227 plate appearances. He put up an excellent .253 ISO–more than double his minor league average–and .364 wOBA. When factoring in batting, fielding and positional factors, he was worth 1.3 Wins Above Replacement in limited action; his on-field production translated to $6.1-M.

For a guy whose role was up in the air going into spring training, he had a great year. He even got to start in the World Series. I was at Game 3 in Philly, when he made one of his first ever appearances in right field. Had someone told me that he would be starting in right field in the World Series the night I met him that spring, I probably would’ve laughed.

It was awesome to see him perform so well.

This year, Zobrist has been just incredible, taking his play to another level. After another fantastic series against the Washington Nationals this weekend, he’s hitting .315/.428/.679 with a 1.107 OPS and .467 wOBA. He’s continued to hit for power, belting 13 homers in his first 194 plate appearances. According to FanGraphs, he’s been w
orth 3.6 WAR–valued at $16.3-M–and 22.3 batting runs. He’s also put up a healthy UZR in right field while providing his usual versatility.

Tommy Rancel tried to get to the bottom of Zobrist’s transformation from slap-hitting singles hitter to legitimate power threat on DRaysBay earlier this spring. Rancel discovered that the utility man has really improved his swing since working with hitting instructor Jaime Cevallos. Cevallos gave excellent insight into what he helped Zobrist with, providing some explanation for the sudden power surge.

I emailed Ben after the article to get his take, and he confirmed that his new hitting coach had been a tremendous help, writing:

“Jaime has been a big help to showing me the truth about my swing and the inconsistencies in it compared with great big league hitters. I don’t think I could say a percentage, but I always mention his name as part of what helped me transform into a much better and more powerful hitter. The guy is a visionary, he knows his stuff, and he has the ability to communicate it to almost anyone if they’ll listen.”

There’s no telling if the power hitting will last. But right now there’s not a player out there like Ben Zobrist, who offers tremendous value to Tampa Bay in his unique role. And, leaving my fan hat at the door, he objectively deserves to be on the American League All-Star team for his performance.

If it happens, there won’t be a better person to receive an invitation to St. Louis for the Midsummer Classic.