Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
It's really not. He can boot no balls and still be a net negative on defense, like a Derek Jeter.
Every ball you don't get to is just as bad as every routine ball you boot.
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It really is.
It's not dispositive, but it does matter. It's the whole 'brick is not a wall' thing.
You don't use it as the crux of your argument, but it's a relevant part of one. As you've noted, not getting to a ball is just as bad as booting it, but when you're talking about a person like Javier Baez who has no better than average range (and I won't even give him that), then his fielding percentage now comes into play in a big way.
If Baez fielded every ball he got to, he'd be a credible defender. He doesn't. He's a shitty defender.
There are better aggregate methods for speaking to defense but to act as though there's no sense at all in discussing fielding percentage assumes that I've never actually watched the person I'm talking about play. Javier Baez doesn't have the range to make his fielding percentage irrelevant and as such, the number of balls he kicks matters. A lot.