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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Second Base--Do Girls Play There?
When we’d play softball with the girls, we’d always put them at 2B and RF for the simple reason that most batters in rec leagues are righties. In the majors, there’s not such a wide gap at all, which is why 2B has had alot of great fielders. What happened in 2006?
Thanks to Patriot, we know:
Here is how the positions stack up as a percentage of the overall RG, with the 1992-2001 figure in parentheses:
C: 93 (89)
1B&DH: 118 (119)
2B: 93 (93)
3B: 109 (101)
SS: 93 (86)
LF&RF: 111 (112)
CF: 97 (102)
The first line I want to draw your attention to is this:
2B: 93 (93)
SS: 93 (86)
Shortstops hit just as well as 2B last year, though in the ten-year period cited by Patriot, 2B outhit SS. There is, without doubt, the fact that the average SS is a better fielder than the average 2B. That if there was an abundance of SS, they’d find room by moving to 2B (just like guys in college play SS, and move to 2B in the minors and majors).
Given that last year SS hit just as well as 2B, then we have to conclude that, at least for last year, the average SS is a better player than the average 2B. Metrics that try to paint both positions as overall equal are overall b.s.
Next, look at this line:
2B: 93 (93)
3B: 109 (101)
You can argue that the average fielding 2B is a better fielder than the average fielding 3B, so that the ten-year offense of 93 and 101 get it all balanced out. But, there’s no way that the better fielding 2B can make up for the huge offensive gap in 2006. Not only that, I looked at each team’s 2B and 3B and it’s pretty clear to me that the average fielding 3B is as good, if not better, than the average fielding 2B.
I don’t know if 2006 is an anomoly, a temporary shift of Kent, Biggio, Vidro making way for the next group. But, in 2006 anyway, the average 2B was way below the average ballplayer. Don’t let any position-adjusted metric tell you otherwise.