I know that I have many complaints about TB, but I think what bothers me the most (besides pretty much everything he says), is his repeated stated belief that the Reds have the best player in baseball in each of the positions. If the Reds really have the best player in each of the positions, why are they 5.5 games behind the Cards, 3 behind the Brewers and only 1 ahead the Pirates? Yes, it was huge for the Reds to sweep the Cards a few weeks ago ... but then they turned around and got swept by the Pirates and then the Indians, and then dropped 3 of 4 in Philly and 2 of 3 in Atlanta. If the Reds had the best player in each of the positions, they wouldn't be losing to the better teams in the other divisions. Just sayin'.
During today's game, Reds SS Paul Janish made an error on a routine ground ball. Despite this, TB said, "Janish is one of the elite defensie shortstops in the game today. Castro will get there someday, but Janish is already there." If an opposing player makes an error, TB goes on and on about how bad they are, but when a Reds players screws up, they're still elite. This got me thinking about how Janish truly compares defensively to the other shortstops in the league. Here is my methodology: Janish has played 44 games at SS. I looked at each team in MLB and took stats from anyone who has played at least 44 games at SS. Among the NL, Janish ranks 6th in fielding percentage behind Tulo, Rollins, Carroll, A. Gonzalez and Cedeno. All of the players ahead of him have played more games at SS and have also had more fielding chances. Here is my question for TB, are Ronnie Cedeno and Jamie Carroll "elite defensive shortstops" as well?
When you throw in the AL, you can also put Jeter, Peralta, A. Cabrera, Ryan, Aybar and A. Escobar in front of Janish, making him (statistically) the 12th best defensive SS in the league. I guess middle of the road is synonymous with elite in TB's eyes.
No matter what happens the remainder of the season, one thing is certain ... this gal is getting TB a dictionary for Christmas.
While i am fully on board with the TB hating, I must say I am a little disappointed by your use of standard fielding statistics (field %) to make your point. In my opinion UZR (see http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/defense/uzr/) is the best approximation of a defenders value. Taking UZR into account, soft J (Janish) becomes one of the best SS in baseball.
ReplyDeleteBTW I love the blog.
Zeke