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yagmaster
05-16-2004, 03:24 PM
34 Errors in 37 games so far. That is just terrible, I'm sure that's a record for a team that in first (at least at the beginning of today) in their division. Never has there been a team that's been good enough to win a championship, but could not play defense. Can the Sox still win it all without great defense?

I think the biggest problem is having Nixon out. With Nixon, who has great range and usually plays good D, the Sox don't need to have two bad outfielders, and they can survive with just Manny. Also, with Mueller out for a few games, our third base defense suffers. Crespo, Bellhorn, Youkilis, Daubach, Ortiz, Millar all play bad defense, and none would have to be in (Ortiz would DH, Millar 1B) without our injuries.

yeszir
05-16-2004, 03:37 PM
In 16 games in right, kaplar's made 1 error. In 20 games, Millar's made 2. Nixon made 4 errors last year in right field. But that's beside the point.

The RF spot, so far this year, accounts for 3 errors. OH NO! How can you go and blame the sox's defensive woes on a position that has 3/34 of the total errors? The vast majority of errors, on all teams, and especially this Red Sox team come from the infield. Mueller has made 7 errors at 3b. Our 3b defense doesn't suffer without him. It improves. 7 errors in the 34 games he's played is horrible.

Crespo has 2 errors, Bellhorn 2, Youki has made, um, 0 errors in the WHOPPING 2 games he's played. Dauber's made 1 error this season, Ortiz has two errors and Millar 3 (at all positions). That's all for the platers you listed. So, I think the only really REALLY weak defensive spot is Mueller. And he's injured. So that kind of helps us, yes?

Nomar makes a lot of errors at short, and Reese is a defensive upgrade over him. So that injury helps us in the defensive deparment. Sure the team is playing sloppily, but not for the reasons you listed. I'd argue more that the injuries have hurt us offensively, not so much defensively.

yagmaster
05-16-2004, 03:39 PM
So, I think the only really REALLY weak defensive spot is Mueller.

I think you are very wrong. How can bill Mueller be the REALLY weak spot. Before last year, he was known as a defensive player that can occasionally hit for a good average.

JMDurron
05-16-2004, 05:33 PM
Bill Mueller may or may not have been known as a good defender, but he has never been much more than below average defensively over his career. He's not as bad as Todd Walker was, but he's not going to save us any runs when he's playing there.

yeszir
05-16-2004, 09:00 PM
You can't go on what's been done in the past when making adjustments for the future. Derek Lowe threw a no-hitter two years ago, but he isn't our number one starter. Just because Mueller was a defensive gold-glove type doesn't mean he'll do it again.

yagmaster
05-16-2004, 09:23 PM
But he has been playing good defense. That play (I forget against who) where he caught a ball on a short hop sprinting towards home plate and threw out the runner off balance was one of the better plays I've seen this year...and I watch webgems on Baseball Tonight ;)

JMDurron
05-17-2004, 07:44 AM
A good play on Baseball Tonight doesn't make a good defensive player. I also don't get where Mueller was supposed to have been a Gold Glove-caliber defensive player in the past.

TheFens
05-17-2004, 03:37 PM
Originally posted by yeszir@May 16 2004, 10:00 PM
You can't go on what's been done in the past when making adjustments for the future. Derek Lowe threw a no-hitter two years ago, but he isn't our number one starter. Just because Mueller was a defensive gold-glove type doesn't mean he'll do it again.
Right. You can't make a decision on what he's done in the past. You can look at how he's playing now (which is crappily) and decide. Big deal if he led all NL second baseman in fielding percentage two years ago, this year he isn't fantastic defensively. He leads the team in errors. You can't go and say he isnt a weakness when he already has 7 errors to his credit.