Who were the best of the best in 2007? Here are your shortstops.
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A quick review of the stats presented: RAR is offensive runs above replacement, FAA is fielding runs compared to positional average, TVAR is total value (the important one), and wOBA is a rate stat measuring offensive performance on the OBP scale. For more complete explanations, check out the original article.
2007’s Top Ten Shortstops
10 - Miguel Tejada (20 RAR, 6 FAA, 31 TVAR, .333 wOBA)
It’s strange to think Miguel Tejada was merely league-average on offense last season. At least he continued to be an asset in the field. Does he have another high-octane season left in him or have we lost another one to the aging curve?
9 - Jack Wilson 24 RAR, 4 FAA, 32 TVAR, .325 wOBA)
This is actually a typical Jack Wilson season. He overachieved a bit with the bat, but his glove was a little worse from what Pirate fans have come to expect. You don’t want your team to overpay for a guy like this, but he’s surprisingly useful.
8 - Orlando Cabrera (29 RAR, -1 FAA, 34 TVAR, .332 wOBA)
Yup, he’s a Gold Glove winner. Actually, Cabrera’s the epitome of modern shortstops — a solid defender with a league-average bat. No more of that old-school all-field, no-hit crap.
7 - Edgar Renteria (35 RAR, -2 FAA, 36 TVAR, .379 wOBA)
Any real discussion of BABIP should include Edgar Renteria as a case study. Let’s see if he likes the AL any better this time around.
6 - Khalil Greene (26 RAR, 10 FAA, 41 TVAR, .329 wOBA)
Greene’s offensive contribution gets a seven run bump because of PETCO. He gets a five run bump for being a shortstop and a ten run bump for being a really good shortstop. Therefore, if you’re just looking at Greene’s raw offensive numbers, you’re underrating him by almost 2.5 wins. You shouldn’t do that.
5 - Carlos Guillen (43 RAR, -4 FAA, 41 TVAR, .355 wOBA)
Guillen’s defensive numbers actually weren’t as bad as I would have guessed. That being said, the Tigers needed somebody to outhit Sean Casey at first base and it’s believed Guillen’s knees could benefit from not playing shortstop full time. He’ll become a plus defender at first, but won’t be any more valuable overall unless his bat gets a boost from less daily stress in the field.
4 - Troy Tulowitzky (24 RAR, 22 FAA, 51 TVAR, .334 wOBA)
It’s true that Tulo’s bat is overrated by playing in Coors. It’s also true that he saved his team as many runs with his glove as Hanley added with the bat (at least relative to each other).
3 - Hanley Ramirez (67 RAR, -19 FAA, 53 TVAR, .413 wOBA)
Hanley’s offensive contribution was on par with Barry Bonds and Ryan Howard, and was half a win better than Matt Holliday. Even when your glove is bad, I’m ok with that.
2 - Jimmy Rollins (51 RAR, -3 FAA, 54 TVAR, .369 wOBA)
I’m sure to discuss how Rollins is a poor choice for MVP a few more times this off-season, so for now I’ll just point out how impressive it is to have four shortstops worth five wins above replacement in the same league. It’s strange to consider Rollins as the old guy of the bunch.
1 - Jose Reyes (39 RAR, 15 FAA, 60 TVAR, .345 wOBA)
That’s right, in a down year Reyes was still the best shortstop in the majors. His hitting skills tapered off from 2006, but his baserunning and fielding skills were perhaps the best they’ve ever been.
Here are the players who finished between 11th and 25th:
Player/TM RAR FAA TVAR wOBA Bartlett,JasonAMIN 14 7 25 .319 Jeter,DerekNYA 41 -24 22 .363 Escobar,YunelATL 21 -2 21 .365 Young,MichaelTEX 26 -11 20 .332 Hardy,J.J.MIL 16 -2 19 .329 Gonzalez,AlexCIN 11 4 18 .329 Keppinger,JeffSCIN 15 -1 15 .367 Vizquel,OmarSF -8 19 15 .263 Furcal,RafaelLAN 6 4 15 .309 Eckstein,DavidSTL 16 -5 15 .331 Peralta,JhonnyCLE 23 -13 14 .335 Guzman,CristianWAS 14 -3 12 .377 McDonald,JohnTOR -7 16 12 .258 Pena,TonyFKC -8 13 10 .267 Theriot,RyanSCHN 2 4 9 .297
That’s a fun list of players. Jason Bartlett gave Ron Gardenhire one big “I told you so” performance. Yunel Escobar was Brian McCann-lite. Derek Jeter had an off year with the bat, bringing down his overall value to just about league average. Yup, 20 million bucks for league average. Tony Pena, Omar Vizquel, and John McDonald were truly awful hitters, yet helped their teams just as much as Jhonny Peralta and David Eckstein.
Finally, how about the worst shortstops of 2007 — those that played poorly, yet enough to really hurt their teams? Here’s the bottom five:
Player/TM RAR FAA TVAR wOBA Wilson,JoshWAS -2 -3 -5 .216 Uribe,JuanCHA -3 -7 -5 .275 Lopez,FelipeWAS 2 -14 -8 .298 Wilson,JoshTB -3 -8 -10 .281 Zobrist,BenTTB -9 -4 -12 .177
Both the Nationals and Rays have two players in the bottom five. At least the Rays eventually found someone (Brandon Harris) who’s competent, and it’s nice to hear they’re looking to upgrade again.
Links to entire series, as they’re published:
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.