FG on Fox: Finding a Position for Hanley Ramirez
There aren’t any Mike Trouts on the free-agent market. And actually, at this rate, there might never be any Mike Trouts on the free-agent market.
There are plenty of talented position players available, but they all bring their own individual question marks. People wonder how Pablo Sandoval’s body is going to age. People wonder how Yasmany Tomas is going to translate his skills from Cuba. People wonder if Victor Martinez is going to sustain last year’s power spike, and no one’s really clear on whether Nelson Cruz can repeat his massive 2014.
Perhaps top among all of them, in desirability, is Hanley Ramirez, but he, too, has a question people ask. Actually, there are a few questions, but maybe most pressingly, there are questions about his defense.
He’s never been a great defender at shortstop, and now he’s almost 31 years old, having gotten through a countless number of aches and pains. I’ll quote writer and frequent Dodgers observer Mike Petriello, from the beginning of October:
[…] that defense took a bigger step back, to the point that it’s hard to see him sticking at shortstop rather than moving to third, and the injuries continued to pile up. In 2014 alone, he missed time with minor injuries to his left hand, left calf, right shoulder, right calf, and left oblique, and those are just the ones we know about.
It’s pretty well known that current defensive statistics aren’t as reliable as current offensive statistics, but it’s also pretty well known that current defensive statistics aren’t measuring nothing, and by the numbers, Ramirez looks bad. Over the last few years, he’s been one of the very worst defensive shortstops. When he spent a chunk of time playing third base, he was statistically bad there, too. You have to allow him an adjustment period there, but still, it’s evidence that points to Ramirez being a defensive liability. Not coincidentally, though he just played short for a contender, there’s talk that Ramirez is willing to move just about anywhere.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
All this proves is that fans are bad scouts.
Probably!
I think this is the takeaway: “Ramirez looked particularly bad because he was playing so much short, and the same skills would’ve gotten higher ratings if he were at second or third.”
What if we repeated this exercise with the understanding that the crowd graded Ramirez overly harshly because he was playing a position that’s over his head? So rather than the raw numbers, look at his strengths/weaknesses and grade him on a curve. It seems he’s strong on speed and arm strength, has an average first step, and is below average elsewhere.
If his hands/instincts/release are really so poor, let’s eliminate 3B. But CF or RF seem very possible. Compared to the left side of the infield (where you need to throw the ball accurately to the 1Bman without pulling him off the bag), throws by an outfielder are more rare and the targets are much more flexible (you don’t need to worry about pulling the cutoff man off the bag).
Sample size of me but as a Dodger fan (sadly living in the Bay Area) who watches (and appreciates) Hanley the ranking of his arm accuracy is probably generous. He skips balls and throws wide to first on routine plays more than any SS I see on a regular basis.