Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Johnny Fever
Heres' my take on Esky. He's got such great range that he reaches a lot of balls average ss's can't even reach. When you can do more than an average player at your position you are bound to make a few errors. When Jeter can't reach a ball it's just a base hit. Esky can reach balls many others can't and he gets penalized for it by not playing every one of those perfectly and sometimes getting an error... a bad throw in a hurry, a ball off his glove that he keeps in the infield etc.. He may not make every play but since he can reach balls others can't he opens himself up to more opportunity to be less than perfect. I'll take him over an average ss every day of the week.
This is a classic case of stats not telling the story of talent.
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Moustakas's increased range also took away a good number of "easier" range plays that Escobar was able to make a year ago (balls where he comes in and to his right). This hurt his zone rating a bit (hopefully, next year they adjust by playing Escobar shaded a step or two to the middle).