A Short Look at Shortstops

I was going to take Martin Luther King day off, but after reading another Dayn Perry article on Foxsports.com, I thought I’d chip in this short blog.

Dayn Perry is quickly becoming one of my least favorite columnists, due largely to the growing revelation of his misguided arrogance. He uses ‘ballpark adjustments’ with unknown formulas to justify his unqualified statements, and his sweeping declarations of talent evaluation are largely off the mark.

Today, in an article on the Red Sox, and what moves he suggests they make, he calls Miguel Tejada “easily the best offensive shortstop in the game today”.

First, where’s the famous ‘ballpark adjustment’ for hitting in Camden Yards? Tejada doesn’t even stack up as the best, without an adjustment. Straight up stats tell a different story.

In slugging, Jhonny Peralta of the Indians, just 23 years old, led all full time shortstops with a .520 percentage. Tejada was second with a .515 percentage.

In on base, Derek Jeter was first with a .389 percentage. Micheal Young of Texas, Carlos Guillen of Detroit, Peralta, David Eckstein of the Cardinals, Julio Lugo of Tampa Bay, and Felipe Lopez of the Reds all finished ahead of Tejada.

In average, Young’s .331 in Texas leads everyone-- and Guillen and Jeter hit better than Tejada, too.

In OPS, both Young and Peralta beat Tejada.

Twenty-one shortstops stole more bases than Tejada.

Tejada did finish with the most RBIs—98—but then, he also played 162 games, batting in an RBI position. RBIs are a deceiving stat, anyway, as the batting order and on base chances supplied by teammates makes this stat vary tremendously. But still, give him credit where it’s due.

Somehow, it’s not so easy at all to judge Tejada as “easily the best offensive shortstop in the game today”. Especially when you consider the REAL best hitting shortstop in the game is playing third base for the Yankees—Alex Rodriguez.

ARod’s numbers of .321 average, .610 slugging and .410 on base, along with 130 RBIs, crush Miguel’s .304/.515/.349 and 98 RBIs.

But since Johnny Damon has abandoned the Red Sox for pinstripes, thereby killing all talk of moving Derek Jeter to center, and allowing ARod the chance to continue his legacy of being the best shortstop ever, we can’t count those stats against Tejada.

But we don’t have to, anyway. Tejada is clearly not the best hitting shortstop in baseball, even without considering that he may well have started his decline phase—in both performance, and attitude.

Have a happy MLK day, everyone.

Peace-Out
Jim Evans
jevans@baseballdigestdaily.com