Wanted: Middle Infielders, Please Contact Seattle if Interested
The best defensive outfield on land roams in Seattle most nights. Its claim to the crown grows more challenging asEndy Chavez will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL over the weekend in a collision with shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. It seems Wladimir Balentien will platoon in left alongside Ronny Cedeno and/or an additional promotion at some point. Expect some drop-off unless the M’s add a strong defender ath position.
Betancourt does little right nowadays. Even after he swallows sadness (amongst other items) he ranks as one of the worst overall players in the majors. Jose Lopez forms Seattle’s middle infield, and neither is especially good with his glove anymore. On a team with an otherwise solid defense, the Betancourt-Lopez connection sticks out like Cyrano’s nose. Here’s how the pair stack up:
Player INN DPR RngR ErrR UZR UZR/150
Betancourt 522 0.5 -0.68 -2.2 -8.6 -20.1
Lopez 538 0.5 0.2 -3.2 -2.5 -5.9
Betancourt’s defensive decline stems from a robust error rate. Even if Betancourt’s ball-handling skills have decayed, it seems unlikely that he became this poor, this quickly. The range runs and double-play rate are around expectations, reflecting Betancourt’s atrocious play while maintaining that his true talent level is better than the UZR/150 suggests, if only barely.
Lopez can ill afford to chuckle at his counterpart’s failures. The bright side for Lopez is that his error rate is uncharacteristic and remains the only component relatively different from years past. Lopez’ family issues and once again disappearing bat will open the door at second base, but the Mariners currently have little on the shelves. Chris Woodward and newcomer Josh Wilson are little more than replacement level infielders. Ronny Cedeno seems like a logical answer, yet his bat has gone wayward as well.
The Mariners have some parts to move in the next few weeks. When they make a deal, look for at least one middle infielder to head to Seattle. Who and for what remains to be seen.
Ahhh… and to think, we could have had Ass-Dribble Cabrera and Luis Valbuena in the middle of that infield for years to come. Even though Valbuena’s defensive UZR at 2B isn’t all that great right now, it has promise.
Weird how they’re both playing for the same team elsewhere. Heh.
The same team that gave Franklin Gutierrez to Seattle. I’ll take that “trade.” (That Zduriencik managed to tilt the value scales the other way so fast is remarkable; that they were tilted so badly in the first place is a measure of the awfulness of Bavasi.)
With a .300+ average, 5 HR in 55 June at-bats I think Lopez could be looking at a pretty nice second half. Doubt they do anything to replace him, young 2Bs who OPS .764 (’08) don’t exactly grow on trees although that walk rate is pretty horrific.
That being said Betancourt is horrible.
And in classic Lopez fashion, his OBP during this “hot streak” has been lower than his batting average.
Lopez is a strange player, statistically speaking.
Yuni is a joke for a baseball player and that joke has hurt the team in other ways now. It’s time to let someone else play, how about Jr. at SS….or anyone!
Well, you can have Julio Lugo if you want, but I’m guessing you don’t really mean “anyone”.
Eh…Lugo’s an upgrade. I know he’s off to a bad start defensively, but I think that’s mostly just small sample stuff. If Boston really wants to give him away for nothing, we’ll take him. Not as a permanent solution or nothing, but an upgrade’s an upgrade and if they want to give him away, who am I to say no?
If you’ve got $9 million/year lying around to help improve the Mariners, you could do a lot better than Lugo. He’s not worthless, but he’s way too expensive for what he brings to the table.
Jack Wilson and Matt Tuiasosopo say hello.