AFL

I just realized I wrote “so its little bit arm” when its supposed to be “so its a little bit odd” lol

Head

Yes he has. He posted an OPS of .448 last year with a -1.1 WAR, and actually played the majority of his games at 2B. I can’t see why he would get another shot as anything more than a bench player after that kind of performance.

He left every bit of his power in Montgomery in 2008. His swing needs a complete overhaul. If he’s not the worst, he’s certainly one of the 10 worst hitters in MLB. His glove is fantastic though.

By UZR (and I guess total zone early on) he had 3 non-negative seasons, the closest 2 were 4 years apart, and he’s at -119.9 runs overall (Ricky Gutierrez is the only SS worse). He has just one non-negative season by DRS, but that’s over just a 9 year sample size. On the other hand he comes in at -132 runs during those 9 years.

I’m not going to argue he was the worst ever defensively, but I certainly don’t think he was ever an above average defender over a period of a few seasons.

You are correct in most of what you say except that part about no biz playing ss last 3-4 years. Jeter had a positive 6+ uzr 2 years ago.

The last 4 years his uzr average has been -1.65 per 150. So he’s barely worse than the average ss in the AL over the last 4 years. A league with Andrus, Hardy, etc.

In his late 30s, he’s barely less than the average of the absolute best fielders in the world.

He’s averaged about 4 war a year over the last 4 years. Sure, buttressed by a great 2009. He didn’t hit last year. A little better than average this year.

This year he averaged 2.6 WAR per 150. So in none of the last 4 years was he below 2.6. To me that means he has had all the business in the world of being a ss the last 3-4 years. This year, his worst, he was 13th in baseball in ss WAR. He isn’t just better than replacement, he’s a little better than average even now. That includes docking him somewhat for D.

He apparently is actually better now at ss than in his prime, as he had multiple seasons of -10 uzrs. To the extent we can trust uzr, although he doesn’t light up any of the defensive measurements.

Hairy actually seems to me to be closer to correct than the young’uns. Then again, I’m old myself.

No, he doesn’t deserve all the gold gloves. He has been way more than adequate given the bat. And as the bat gave way he improved in the field, although his skills are clearly diminishing.

than Adrusbal Cabrera. Cabrera -23.3 uzr, Jeter -5.1. Reyes -7.3. Cliff Pennington -6.2. Until this year’s +9.9, Peralta was worse over a 3 year stretch and going back further about as bad. Starlin Castro last 2 years is -10.8.

People make trade-offs at all positions. Usually, ss is a fielding position. Sure, over an extremely long career, he’s been below the average fielder at ss. At times well below. But to harp on his career uzr is emphasizing a counting stat. He should get credit for being decent the last few years. I rarely hear anyone point out that over a stretch of the last few years Asdrubal Cabrera has no business playing ss (his hitting is enough at times to make up for it; I guess Cleveland fans are aware) or Reyes. Would I have rather had either of those 2 this year? Sure. But he’s been among the top 15 even at his worst in overall ss war.

Someone needs to get over the fact that Jeter was not a gifted SS.

it grants quite a bit of latitude in terms of content. lol

He’s added velocity each winter through a combination of conditioning and a few mechanical tweaks that have sped up his arm a bit. Good example of player development doing their job.
Curiously, he was supposed to start for Peoria yesterday but didn’t…

But Hinze isn’t without power. Even if he’s a “mistake hitter” as you say, and I’m not sure how you qualify that, he did slug .541 last season. It’s not like he has any less power than Brett Wallace or Carlos Lee.

but, can’t you make an argument that KLaw’s only observed Beckham in like one game? how many times do you think KLaw saw him run before he made the judgment that Beckham’s a fringe-average runner now?

There are a lot of things that you can nitpick over on a player, a lot of things that exist in a sort of “gray area” . . .but speed is generally not one of those things. The timing of a player’s running speed is one of the most objective measurements that you can find in the world of baseball scouting.