Here come the Big Three: Lane, Everett, Ensberg sign!

Yeah, that's the logical conclusion from a study that ignores errors and analyzes range, throwing ability and everything else. Your analytical skills are top notch!

 

Yea your skills are top notch too..... Of course if you get to more baseballs you will commit more errors.

 

Mark my words. Jason Lane will hit .274 with 31 HR's next year, and Ensberg will come 2nd in MVP voting.

Roger Clemens will go to the Yankees and have a 5.34 ERA with only 74 innings pitched before getting injured.

Tim Purpura is the quite simply the sharpest GM in the game and has a brain the size of his belly. Go Stros!

 

You do realize you're the only person here talking about errors, right?

 

That may be true, but looking at the following, you'll realize Everett also is top 5 in Range Factor and has the highest Zone Rating of all starting shortstops last year:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/stats/2006/fielding/ml_6_byZONE_RATING.html

A shortstop that can get to more baseballs and commit minimal errors? That sounds like a fantastic defensive shortstop to me.

 

Now that's a sig if I ever saw one!

 

Defensive Stats over the past 4 seasons

E A (assist) FPct avg TC (total chances) G (Games)

Everett 48 1523 .978 2326 526
Vizquel 30 1416 .985 2199 513
Greene 48 1069 .971 1627 396
Wilson 66 1895 .976 2858 593
Rollins 41 1719 .982 2604 622
Eckstein 35 1482 .985 2330 530
Jeter 57 1498 .976 2464 579

 

Those first digits are the errors.

 

where's deckard?

Keep the TAC civil!

 

Everett and Ensberg is Great! Lane on the other hand is kind of a head scratcher. I don't know what it is about this guy that is keeping the Astros interested. He went to freakin Venezuela and stunk up the joint. It's not like he was facing Carpenter or Oswalt, these are unproven pitchers he's going up against. I guess this is an inexpensive insurance plan...in case Scott or Hidalgo don't pan out. But we all know that won't happen.

 

i like how this whole argument is going on, but you haven't once replied to the stats and arguments that conclusively prove you wrong.

Nice skills. I used that when I was 6--ignore the proof that you're wrong and just keep asserting that you're right because you're right.

 

I'm trying to start fresh this year with Phil Garner and give him another chance since he will be here at least for this upcoming year, but if he sticks Lane out there and gives him anywhere near as many ABs as last year with similar results, then I'm putting it all on Phil. Hopefully he will be quicker to react this season.

I believe Lane has had his chance and has never really shown us anything worth watching. I'm happy to give Lidge full opportunity to redeem himself this season because he has proved it to me in the past.

 

Thanks for the numbers, but what are you trying to say?

 

Defensive stats are almost completely useless.

 

I'm pretty sure I've never seen as much ownage in one thread as I have this one.

 

dude are you talking to yourself? NO ONE is saying that because everett makes the fewest errors he is the best shortstop in baseball.

everett is the best for a number of reasons BESIDES ERRORS that are very well documented in a link that you have clearly chosen to ignore.

 

My on-the-record prediction: Morgan Ensberg will be an all-star this season.

 

I agree with the Lane signing just because he's worth giving a shot in spring training. If he stinks it up during the spring the Astros can cut him and only pay 30 days of his total salary.

 

Yeah, and Ausmus will hit .330 and lead the league in batting.

 

you THINK he's making good plays because he can't cover ground. he's a 3B playing SS. he has to dive and tumble head over heels to get to balls. you see that and the natural reaction is to assume he just got to a ball that no one else could...that he made a spectacular play. when truth be told, it might look a lot more routine if someone else were making it.

i routinely see AE make plays up the middle that others have to dive for. AE's positioning is fantastic.

The group that wrote the Fielding Bible have put a lot more thought into this than you and I. Instead of just watching games from time to time around the league or watching highlights..they watch EVERY SINGLE PLAY:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/features/261130.html

The ratings are generated by Baseball Info Solutions, a company Dewan helped found in 2002. Employees reviewed video from every major league game last year and recorded data from every ball put in play, including direction, distance, speed and type of hit (groundball, liner, fly, bunt, etc.). We could try to explain what happens next, but we'll let Dewan do it instead:

"The computer totals all softly hit balls on Vector 17, for example, and determines that these types of batted balls are converted into outs by the shortstop 26 percent of the time," Dewan writes. "Therefore, if, on this occasion, the shortstop converts a slowly hit ball on Vector 17 into an out, that's a heck of a play, and it scores at plus-.74. The credit for the play made, 1.00, minus the expectation that it should be made, which is .26. If the play isn't made--by anybody--it's minus-.26 for the shortstop."

So a player gets credit if he makes a play on a ball that at least one other player at his position missed that season, and loses ground if he misses a ball that at least one other player at his position made. Each player starts with a score of zero, and his final score is the sum of all their plusses and minuses over the season, rounded to the nearest integer.

To get a sense of what the ratings look like, over the last three years Orlando Hudson rates as a plus-77 at second base, while Alfonso Soriano was a minus-40. That means that Hudson made 77 more plays than the average second baseman, while Soriano made 40 fewer. Maybe moving Soriano to the outfield wasn't such a bad idea.


Ok..given all that...
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASAp...t_id=1745935&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou


Dewan concluced that Everett is "simply the best defensive shortstop in baseball."

Everett was also named the Fielding Bible's best shortstop in 2006, as voted on by 10 panelists who have extensive resumes in statistical analysis. Everett received eight of 10 first-place votes and two second-place votes for a total of 98 points, the most awarded to any position.


So truthfully...you can tell me you THINK Jack Wilson is the greatest defensive SS. Or Khalil Greene or Derek Jeter are better. But you're basing on that on very limited information compared to what these guys have done. Not only does AE get credited with being the best defensive SS in the game...they credit him with having the highest score at any position.

oh, and by the way...Jeter rated dead-last among starting SS's.

finally, there's this:

http://blogs.chron.com/fanblogastros/archives/2006/10/cards_on_the_ve.html

Everett is fourth all-time in fielding percentage by a National League shortstop in a single season. Only seven errors all season! Seven! Detroit has that many in the World Series! Think about it! Everett has been named as "simply the best defensive shortstop in baseball" over the last three seasons according to the new book, the Fielding Bible.

Now, follow that with this: Guess which team had the fewest errors in the league this season? Yep, Houston! Coincidence? Nope. So many plays start or end with the shortstop that he sets the tone.

The problem in Houston is not Everett. He would shine even more if the middle of the order would hit.

As for his stats: Everett was sixth in RBIs (59) and he struck out fewer times than any of the regulars (per at bat). My guess is that Everett will be around for a while and that many others will come and go while he continues to take the field at Minute Maid.