from Amazon
Monday, October 16, 2006
Tom-AY-to, Tom-AH-to, J-EE-ter, Pol-AH-nco
Placido Polanco is a league average hitter. He is on the other hand, an excellent fielding infielder. Derek Jeter is a wonderful offensive player. He is on the other hand, at best, an average-fielding infielder, and likely a below-average-fielding infielder. Which one do you want?
The gap in offense between the two is around 2 wins, in Jeter’s favor.
Fans see Polanco as an above-average, though not great, infielder, as worth a few runs more than Jeter with the glove. Somewhere around 0.5 wins. UZR on the other hand sees Polanco as one of the three best infielders of 2000-2005, along with two very-fan-favorites (Rolen, Everett):
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/article/uzr_2000_2005_infielders_and_outfielders/
UZR is also famous for not liking Derek Jeter, and while he doesn’t appear in the bottom list, he just missed the cutoff. The gap would be almost 3 wins. In short, UZR sees Polanco as even better than Fans appreciate, and UZR sees Jeter as even worse than Fans can understand. It turns a 0.5-win scouting gap into a 3.0-win performance gap.
Since Jeter has a 2 win advantage over Polanco on offense, Polanco has somewhere between a 0.5 and 3.0 win gap with the glove. Polanco is also 1 year younger.
Even if Jeter is a bit ahead of Polanco (doubtful), he certainly is not the many millions ahead of him. Hard to believe that Polanco was a free agent coming into the 2005 season, and he signed a league-average (for a regular position player) salary. He’s exactly the kind of free agent that I’d recommend to any team to sign, and the kind of guy that is part of your core team.
You say Jeter, and I’ll say Polanco.