Jim Thome's 600th HR Causes Ripples of Stupidity

It’s nice when good things happen to good people.  It reinforces our faith in humanity.  As such, I’m not surprised about the outpouring of adulation for Twins Designated Hitter, Jim Thome.  Thome, a former Phillies first baseman, hit his 600^th career home run on Monday.  His career accomplishments will likely land him in the Hall of Fame one day.  After playing 11 seasons in Cleveland for the Indians, Thome signed a monster free agent contract with the Phillies before the 2003 season.  It was a move 1 part baseball, 2 parts public relations and marketing.  Sure, the Phillies were a reasonably competitive team at the time, but Thome’s signing was ownership’s chief “Hey, come to the new stadium we tricked you into paying for!” plea. 

Thome with Chase Utley.

In 2004, when Citizens Bank Park opened, Thome was already the face of an awkward franchise.  A 24 year old Jimmy Rollins and a 26 year old Pat Burrell hadn’t yet grabbed hold of the reigns in the clubhouse from the likes of Bobby Abreu and Mike Lieberthal.  The on field play of Burrell, Rollins, Lieberthal, David Bell and Marlon Byrd was frustratingly erratic and Abreu (one of the greatest Phillies ever) was totally unlikeable despite his excellence.  The pitchers were all awful.  Combining the 2003 and 2004 seasons, only Randy Wolf in 2003 had a sub-4 ERA.  Thome had to step in and immediately be the Phillies bell cow, producing on the field and shining behind the microphones.  He did.  He played two full, terrific seasons for the Phillies before getting hurt in his third year (like 34 year old players often do).  The player who replaced him during his injury? Ryan Howard.  The Phillies realized they had a cheaper, younger alternative to Thome and so he was traded during the following offseason.  In just two and a half years, Thome managed to make a lasting mark upon our fair city.  He gets a standing ovation every time he comes back.  His name graces the short list of ex-Philadelphia athletes that the town still loves.  A number of specific criteria must be met to get on that list and the All Time Ex-Philadelphia Athlete Roster deserves its own column one day, but for now Thome deserves a column all to himself.

He is the 8^th major leaguer to hit 600 home runs.  Eight.  That’s how many people have done what Jim Thome has done.  It’s a remarkable accomplishment that was reported lightly in comparison to Alex Rodriguez’s track toward 600 homers and Derek Jeter’s corpse’s march to 3000 hits.  I’m sure Thome, whose personality is almost universally lauded in the media, wouldn’t have had it any other way.  After Thome homers he circles the bases with swiftness and humility.  It’s as if he wants to get back into the dugout as quickly as possible because it makes him uncomfortable that everyone in the stadium is looking at him.  He is 80^th all time in Career Wins Above Replacement, ranking ahead of Brooks Robinson, Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn and Barry Larkin.  He’s had an incredible career. 

That was it.  That was supposed to be the extent of this column. “Jim Thome is really good and more people should notice.”  Unfortunately, I ran into something dumb that needs addressing.

“@DailyHombre:   Hate to say it, but just because J. Thome is a nice guy doesn't mean we can accept his 600 HR without question. He's tainted like everyone.”

“Daily Hombre” is the Twitter handle for Philadelphia based sports writer, Michael Bradley.  Bradley’s career has been impressive especially when you consider the journalistic climate he’s had to deal with over the past decade and a half.  He’s broken a number of big stories (Rich Rodriguez’s hiring at Michigan comes to mind), written pieces for Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News and even makes cameos on the radio for 97.5 The Fanatic every now and then.  He’s mostly a college sports guy.  The 140 character comment of his you see above is insipid and irresponsible.  It is totally inappropriate for Bradley to offer up speculation like that.  It was irresponsible when Colin Cowherd made similar comments after Raul Ibanez had a hot month two years ago and again when several mainstream media outlets whispered about Blue Jays slugger, Jose Bautista, after he exploded into an MVP candidate last year.  Some industries never learn.

You might argue that, due to the dark cloud of Performance Enhancing Drugs that hovers over the era in which Thome left his mark, it is okay to question the legitimacy of Thome’s accomplishments.  You’d be wrong.  If you know anything about the science of PEDs, you know there isn’t a lot of science to it.  Studies on the effects of HGH and Steroids on baseball players don’t exist, because you’d have to have Major League players taking steroids to do the tests.  It’s impossible to say what any known steroid user would have done had he not taken the drugs, since we can’t quantify the aid the drugs provided.

Secondly, Thome has never tested positive for anything.  Bradley’s tweet about Thome being tainted is unfounded speculation and nothing more.  Bradley might hide behind the guise of journalism and claim it is okay to ask questions Thome’s HR total, but this claim is entirely semantic.  Which is why I sent Bradley the following tweet immediately after reading his drivel:

“Aren’t you an Anti-Semite?”

Do you see how ridiculous that is? Let me be clear, Michael Bradley is not an anti-Semite.  But for me to say such things and claim I’m just asking questions about him is a dangerous game to play.  I had exactly as much evidence about Bradley’s anti-Semitism as he does for Thome’s steroid use.  The problem is that when public figures like Bradley plant seeds like that in the public consciousness they can be very difficult to uproot. 

Michael Bradley is a great guy who made a mistake. I'm calling him on it

Why have I deviated from what started as a puffy little diddy about Jim Thome? What about Bradley’s comment got to me?  Why do I hold such high journalistic standards? Because Michael Bradley taught them to me.  Bradley was my Sports Journalism professor at Saint Joseph’s University (I took it as an elective, I was a Business Administration Major).  He was a brilliant teacher and even offered to be a reference on my resume or call in a favor should I need it (I have not, as of yet).  He violated the rules he so passionately preached from 6-9pm on Tuesday nights on Hawk Hill.  Old school, hardcore, journalistic standards thrown aside for a split second, but thrown away nonetheless. 

Jim Thome hit 600 home runs.  He can go to Cooperstown to pick up his Hall of Fame plaque.  Where can he go to get his reputation back?

Note: I approached Michael Bradley via email for comment before sending this to editing.  He threatened to sue for libel.  I’m not sure if he was serious or not.  I guess I’ll find out.

Brown Noise: A Grass Roots Movement for Logic in Right

Let’s not over think this, people. Heading into Spring Training your beloved Phillies are one of the favorites to win the World Series, they have baseball’s best rotation, the best 2nd baseman on the planet, one of the best defensive shortstops on the planet, and players with at least one elite skill all the way down the lineup (Chooch: Plate Discipline, Howard: Power, Polanco: Contact and Defense, Victorino: Arm and Speed, Ibanez: Baldness). Despite raw talent as good as anyone in the league, ongoing discourse as to who the starting right fielder should be rages on. It’s not that hard.


No matter what happens in Spring Training, Domonic Brown should be your starting Right Fielder on Opening Day. And not in some bullshit platoon, either. I want to be confident in Ruben Amaro Jr., who has done well to regain my trust of late, but when rumors surface that Phillies decision makers are seriously considering a Ben Francisco/John Mayberry/Ross Gload timeshare in right, I want to vomit.

Is Brown a finished product? That depends what you mean by finished product. If to you finished product means, “He is as good now as he’ll ever be and can’t get any better” then no, he’s not a finished product, he still has plenty of room to improve. If you think finished product means. “He has nothing left to learn from minor league pitching” then yes, he’s golden brown on top.

Brownie demolished pitching at AA and AAA last year and is not going to learn how to hit major league quality changeups and sliders in the minors. Any time Brown spends with the Iron Pigs this year is a colossal waste of time, like a talented surgeon spending another year doing nothing but tonsillectomies.

If you’re worried about the pedestrian numbers Brown posted in limited Major League at-bats last year, take a deep breath and listen to reason. He wasn’t getting regular at-bats, his trips to the plate were sporadic. He never had a chance to get into rhythm. I think he should’ve been playing left field every day, instead of Ibanez’s corpse, but we’re past that. In addition, the sample size of plate appearances is far too small to draw any conclusions from.

I don’t expect Brown to set the world afire right away. There will be growing pains. But he is so physically talented that even while he’s learning on the fly (his defensive reads need work as do his throwing mechanics) he’ll be better than Gload or Francisco or Mayberry.

I’d rather have Dom go through his adjustment period in April and be good from May on than come up in June, have the same adjustment period a few months later and only be good from July on. The sooner he comes up, the sooner he becomes an All Star, and he will be an All Star one day.

So whenever this issue comes up around your water cooler or bar stool, I want you all to be total dicks and monopolize the conversation, beating the uninformed idiots over the head with Bunyanesque stories of Domonic Brown’s talents until the world agrees with us. Exhalt from your pinstriped towers about smart player development.  Rise and be worthy of this historical hour.  It is for the greater good. Aces and Catchers report this weekend, bitches.

Sex on the Bandwagon: Theorizing The Popularity of the Pittsburgh Steelers

 I know, I know, just don't look at the middle one.

“Pittsburgh Steelers fans travel well”

You probably hear it several times every football season.  It speaks to the abnormally large number of Steelers fans that can be found at every NFL road game.  I’ve been to two games in which the Steelers were the road team and in both cases I was blown away by how many fans they had in attendance.  Is it possible that it just SEEMS like there are more of them because they are also abnormally annoying?  That’s unlikely.  I wanted to think about the reasons the Steelers have been able to overcome their rather pedestrian market size (Pittsburgh is 22^nd in the country) to have the NFL’s most rabid fan base.  These are my thoughts.

After World War II, American soldiers came home to their pining wives.  They hadn’t seen each other in quite some time and, naturally, both parties craved some sweet, sweet love making.  There was a lot of banging going on.  This resulted in what we refer to as “The Baby Boom.”  It was a major spike in our country’s birth rate.  The Baby Boom lasted from around 1946 to 1957 when women started faking headaches and “feeling tired” again.  Population rates started to dip back down to normal.  

Graph is purposefully huge

Flash forward, Lost style, to 1970.  The Baby Boomers are now between 13 and 24 years old.  By the end of the decade, they will be between 23 and 34 years old.  Prime time for them to start families of their own.  Corresponding with this exponential growth in population are several factors.

 

First off, color TVs became common in most American homes.  Cable subscriptions in America tripled between 1970 and 1979.  No longer were people forced to squint at Jackie Gleason, they could now simply enjoy how deliciously offensive Archie Bunker was (when you think about it, racially charged jokes become more diverse in color when you can differentiate between races more readily I am going to hell).  Yes, TV was maturing, but it was nowhere near the monster we have today.  The channel selection was minimal, only a few to go around, and so the big time networks dominated.

Secondly, the NFL became the NFL.  In 1970 the NFL and AFL merged, separated the league into two conferences with CBS broadcasting the NFC games and NBC broadcasting the AFC games.  ABC broadcasted Monday Night Football for the first time in…..yup, 1970.  So football is on TV in its modern format and it is in color.  Production value on TV is better and programs are more stimulating to watch.  We took a huge step forward in the quest to make watching games at home more fun than watching them in person (we are there now, but that’s an entirely different post).  

 Look at that little monkey broadcast

So far we have this run on sentence: This monstrous generation is now in a key age range (either highly impressionable teenagers or young adults getting their first taste of disposable income) with access to color TVs and the NFL looks AWESOME in color, way better than in black and white, and it is being shoved down their throats on two of their only handful of channels every Sunday.  

 Jack Lambert

You already know where this is going.  The Steelers were the dynasty of the 1970s.  How many things come to mind when I say, “70s Steelers”?  A dozen hall of fame names, one of the best nicknames in all of sports, 4 Super Bowl Championships, 7 division titles and other stuff I’ve left out.  The Steelers were great and they were on TV a lot.  The Baby Boomer generation fell in love with the Steelers.  

 This commercial would only work with someone the country loved.  Do you think Nixon could have sold Coke like Mean Joe?  Fuck no.

They had kids (those kids are now in their forties) and they had kids (today’s teenagers).  They’re likely to be Steelers fans as well.  It is perfectly natural for people to be attracted to winning teams, it happens all the time.  I've seen it first hand here in Philly as the city beams over the Phillies.  However, sports history has never seen a bandwagon born on this great a scale and it never will again.  The dawn of free agency and the salary cap make it nearly impossible for a team to have as dominant a 10 year run as the Steelers did, and a team that belongs to an entire generation is a freak thing of the past.  

 

So during the next week and a half leading up to the Super Bowl when you inevitably hear some say something complementary about the Steelers fan base, you can feel free to explain to that person why it is so: War, Sex and Television

Eric Longenhagen: One Year Closer to Death

Hello, I’m Eric Longenhagen. As you read the introduction to this post, imagine me, Eric Longenhagen, sitting in an easy chair in a luxurious living room at night with a fire roaring in the background. Hear it crackle. I’m staring very intensely, almost sensually, into your eyes. I’m wearing a long, burgundy, paisley smoking jacket with my legs crossed in the most masculine way possible. A wry, mischevous smile creeps across my face. I have a pipe in my left hand. I place the pipe to my mouth for a drag and bubbles slowly spew from the bowl. I speak:


I am now 22 years old. It’s all gone by rather quickly. If you’re experiencing this memoir, you’ve almost certainly affected my life in some way or are interested enough in me or what I have to say to have clicked your way here. I thank you, and hope I’ve somehow positively altered your life experience and that you enjoy what I’ve done here.

As you may know, I’m not really one to celebrate my birthday at all, let alone in a way that is typical of someone in my generation, by getting dressed up, going out to a club or bar, getting totally shitfaced, doing body shots off of a vagrant and eventually breaking down in tears when my tiara breaks after being thrown from a mechanical bull. Alas, it is not my style. So, instead of creating some narcissistic Facebook group inviting everyone to a party I’ve planned for myself, I’ve done this.

I’m constantly worried about “Future Eric”. I want to make sure I leave his keys in a place he’ll be able to find them, keep his cell phone charged, and lock his car doors and basically make sure he only has to worry about the situation at hand. Last week, however, I thought about “Little Eric”. What would I want a younger version of me to have a heads up on as he got older? You think about it, what would YOU want a younger version of YOU, to know? I’ve decided to write an open letter to 12 year old Eric Longenhagen, currently in 6th grade and probably hiding a boner with his social studies textbook right now. I picked 12 because it was 10 years ago, and that a nice round number. I could have picked 18 or 19, because that Eric was pretty stupid too. Actually, in 5 years, I’ll probably look back and say “When I was 22, I was retarded.”, but as of right now I think I’m the smartest and most well rounded person on the planet.

This letter is honest, has inside jokes, and may touch on subjects that people may find in poor taste or too personal, especially considering the fact that I did not have the consent of those included in the letter. Deal with it. 12 year old Eric needs to know this shit, and if we ever find a way to send email back in time, he’ll be better off for having read it. So without further adieu….


Dear Eric,

Hey, little dude. How are you? Horny and acne ridden? I figured. Listen, I’m you. I’m sending you this letter from the future to better prepare you for the next decade of your life. Don’t believe me? You cried yourself to sleep after Kevin Dyson was tackled one yard short of the goal line in last year’s Super Bowl. See! It’s you, dude! Speaking of the Titans, something sucky happens to Steve McNair in 2009, but we’ll get to that later. Right now, I will systematically give you the breakdown of what to expect in the many aspects of life as you age. I’ll try to cover as much as I can but, as you know, I’ll probably forget some stuff. Here we go.

World Events

It is important for you to know what significant things occur between 2001 and 2011 so you know what to devote your time to.

- Cure for Cancer: Nope, not yet, but you never really worked on that one anyway

- Creation of Anti Matter: Yes! Just a little bit for fractions of a second in a controlled environment in which temperatures are near absolute zero in order to slow things down enough for it to be detected, but still, it totally happens. You can stop worrying about this one.

- Bigfoot Existence Proven: No, sorry. Try looking harder out the window when you drive through the woods.

- Next September something really shitty will happen. Not to you but to everyone in general. Try to be strong for your classmates that have trouble dealing with it. This isn’t one you can diffuse with humor, at least at first. The events that take place that day will alter everyone’s life, but just because they will change things doesn’t mean life will be bad. I hesitate to say exactly what happens, for fear that you will somehow find a way to stop things, I know you’d certainly try. While stopping them sounds good on the surface, this one’s bigger than you and altering history like that could cause the universe to collapse or something.

Also, there isn’t actually a kid in the balloon. It’s a hoax.



Women, Relationships and Sex

Alright Cassanova, let’s talk girls. Don’t be embarrassed, asshole, I’m you. Unless things change this is not likely to be your strong suit but that’s okay. Spending most of your life as a single guy hasn’t turned you into a sexual deviant or anything. So while I don’t have a wealth of knowledge to impart, I do have some.

- Your first kiss will come within the next year. It will take place at the Catty Park, in the ditch behind the men’s bathroom. It will be super hot. I won’t say who it is to its still a surprise!

- The girl you kiss will dump you shortly thereafter, citing a lame joke you tell as her primary reason. The joke? That one about the US spending tons of money to make a pen that will write in anti-gravity and the Russians using a pencil instead. Don’t tell it and maybe you get to second base.

- Laura Stubits will dump Andy Shankweiler and want to go out with you. Don’t do it. Andy is your best friend and you’ll feel like shit years later for doing it. This courtesy will eventually be known as “bros before hoes” and the phrase isn’t in vogue until 2008 or so. Maybe you should start saying it?

- Do NOT watch Miss Congeniality alone. If you do, don’t tell everyone about it later.

- Know ahead of time when the SI Swimsuit Issue comes out. Get home fast on those days. If you’re not the first to get it, it will be thrown out.

- Practice unhooking bras, you’re still not very good at it.

- Despite early projections, you become an “Ass Man”

- High School is relatively desolate because you don’t have enough self confidence to trust that a girl could actually like you because you don’t really like you. They do. Failure to realize this creates a casualty or two. Should be avoided, tell Jill and Devin you’re sorry, douchebag.

- Keep this one in your back pocket for a while because this is important. When you intern for the…well, don’t worry about the name of the team because I’ll have to explain it…just know it’s a sports team. As soon as you see the cute usher girl go talk to her. She’s little and might have a bow in her hair. Bring her a diet coke to get things rolling. You will eventually talk to her anyway but much later than you should have. Every second counts with this one and even if pulling the trigger earlier doesn’t change the way things end (in a fireball of sadness that sends you spiraling into a dark emotional and psychological abyss where you stop shaving for 3 weeks and stop working out for 5) it’s all worth it because this one is very special.

- If you like a girl, ask her out. The pain of rejection may seem horrific to you now, but that’s because you’ve never had any real problems. It’s really not that bad. Just do it, pussy.

- Girls will say they like guys who have a sense of humor. They are lying. They just laugh at stupid shit that good looking guys say. Your current pudginess and overall looks force you to develop something called “a personality” and then late in high school and in college you get hot. It’s awesome.



School and Education

- If you run into Mr. Abraham, check to see if his pupils dialate.

- Keep any girlfriends you might have away from Mr. Dreisbach

- Right now you’re probably frustrated that, while YOU have a well developed grasp on the social structure of a small public middle school, nobody else does and you don’t have anyone to talk about it with. Your classmates are rightfully concerned with their own lives and your teachers are too far removed from middle school to remember what it was like. This isolation continues until the second half of high school when your classmates…actually they’re still justifiably worried exclusively about themselves, but one teacher totally gets it. I won’t spoil who it is because it won’t be who you think it is.

- Don’t go to St. Joseph’s University. The people are great and its nice being near but not really in Philly, but it’s cold and grey, the traffic sucks, crime is bad, and the school’s infrastructure is so poor that even now, in your senior year, scheduling classes is a complete pain in the ass. Go to Pepperdine.



Career Path

- Right now you want to be a marine biologist. That will change when you take your first biology class next year. Sharks are really cool, but not cool enough to deal with that horrific smell. That smell is the same reason you can cross any job associated with the elderly off your potential career list.

- In high school everyone will be required to take a government issued test that assesses the line of work they are most suited for. You skip school on the day it is administered to go to a Phillies game with your friends. That should tell you EXACTLY what line of work you need to be in. (It will snow that day, wear more than your zip up Phillies Hoodie, I was really cold that day)

- Keep a small notebook on you at all times. That stand up comedy pipe dream of yours isn’t likely to come true, because you’ve never been able to sit down and write jokes. Most of the funny things you think of come from reactions to everyday occurrences, so having something to put those ideas down on right away can’t hurt your chances.


Hobbies


- By now you’ve started playing MLB Showdown. Unsurprisingly, you get really good at it. Devote more time to the strategy cards, your failure to do so will leave you just short of a spot in nationals.

- Take an art class in high school

- Start acting sooner

- Within the next year you’ll pick up a guitar for the first time. You get pretty good but don’t work at it enough to reach your full potential.


Politics

- You never care

Sports

- The Phillies will get competitive soon, but not so soon that you should feel guilty for having a little bit of an affair with the Diamondbacks next year.

- Tiger Woods is not such a great dude

- Remember the name Tom Brady

- You don’t realize now, but Chad Solomon’s dad’s request for you to find out who will eventually replace Scott Rolen at 3rd base leads you to learn about a player named Chase Utley. You relay that info to Mr. Solomon and he nicknames you “GM”. You take it very seriously.

- There’s a college basketball player named Stromile Swift. He sucks. Don’t fall for it.

- Steve McNair is murdered.

- Durant, not Oden

- Horford, not Oden

- Conley, not Oden

- Sam Bowie, not Oden

- Michael Vick is not such a great dude

- We later find out OJ Simpson actually didn’t do it. Just kidding he’s a fucking murderer.

- John Kasay will kick the ensuing kickoff out of bounds. It will suck.



Movies/TV



- You and Shankweiler will go to see M Night Shayamalan’s “The Village”, but it will be sold out. You’ll see “Anchorman” instead. Happy accident.

- The Series Finale of The Sopranos will take place during your high school baccalaureate. In order to get out of there sooner so you don’t miss it, you will not perform. This is a mistake.

- You watch the pilot episode of Chappelle’s Show and never look at comedy the same again. Don’t get too attached.

- Best Director of the next 10 years: Christopher Nolan

- Be ready for the first 10 minutes of “Up”

- Don’t let Steve Carrell’s season 1 interpretation of Michael Scott discourage you from watching The Office. He gets much less annoying in season 2.

- The Wire, the greatest TV series of all time, starts in 2002. Find a way to watch it as it airs, instead of in gluttenous DVD sessions later.



Self Care



- Wear your retainer

- Take a second to run your hand across your chest. Feel how smooth and hairless it is? You’ve got two years of that left so enjoy it.



While not comprehensive, this list is a pretty good heads up on lots of things. I completely left out music because you do a pretty good job sorting all that stuff out. I guess whether or not you heed my advice will be reflected upon changes I experience in my current state. Have a happy birthday, little guy.

Derek Jeter's Pyrite Glove

The Gold Glove Awards are voted on by coaches throughout the league and are given to whom they perceive to be the best fielders at each position. The American League incarnation of the awards was released today. Here they are:

Pitcher: Mark Buehrle

Catcher: Joe Mauer

1B: Mark Teixeira

2B: Robinson Cano’

3B: Evan Longoria

SS: Derek Jeter

OF: Carl Crawford

OF: Franklin Gutierrez

OF: Ichiro

For the most part the coaches did, in my opinion, a terrific job. Lots of players that deserved Gold Gloves (Brett Gardner, Mark Ellis, Daric Barton to name a few) did not get them, but the guys the coaches picked are fine and I won’t argue with any of them. Except one: Derek Jeter.

For years debate has raged about the quality of Derek Jeter’s defense. Stat heads say he is lousy, Yankee apologists want Derek Jeter’s defense to make sweet, sweet love to them. Jeter has become the linchpin in the debate about the usefulness of numbers in baseball. Many baseball traditionalists have been beaten into submission by the nerds and their math as far as offense is concerned, but the one thing Joe Morganites have held onto for a while has been defense. “You have to watch the games to determine who is good defensively, not just look at numbers,” they say, “you fuckin’ nerd.”. I totally agree. Allow me to explain………

For as long as baseball has been around, there have been errors. Errors and Fielding Percentage (the % of plays on which a player doesn’t make errors) are the mainstream benchmarks for evaluating defensive ability. These stats are deeply flawed for two reasons. First off, errors are based on the subjective judgment of the team’s official scorer. Second, and most importantly, the fundamental flaw of the Error lies in its definition. An Error is credited to a player when it looks like he should have made a play but did not record an out. So there are two ways to avoid errors. You can make every play, or you can make it look like a play could not have been made. A lead-footed fielder (Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Fatty McInfielder) won’t come close to fielding a ball that even average fielders would get to but won’t be credited with an error because he didn’t misplay/bobble/drop the ball. It just fell or whizzed past his slow, lumbering ass. Conversely, great fielders who flub balls that most fielders wouldn’t even come close to making a play on are credited with errors. Errors don’t work.

“Eric, didn’t you say you agreed with the people who say you have to watch games to determine who is good defensively? Get to that shit.”

In 2004 Baseball Info Solutions (headquarters in Coplay, PA) began Plus/Minus. Every play of every game is watched and charted by by game charters who enter the outcome of the play into a computer. They record the exact distance, direction, speed and type of every batted ball and whether or not the fielder made a play on the ball.

Say, a ball hit softly into the hole to the right of the shortstop (Baseball Info. Solutions has very detailed “vectors” mapped out on the field but I’m being less detailed for simplicity) is fielded successfully and converted into an out 26% of the time. If the shortstop converts the play he is awarded +.74. The player gets credit for the play being made (1.0) minus the expectation that he should have made it (.26). If they play is not made he receives a -.26. The sum of these debits and credits are added up over the course of a season and published in various publications.

I have issues with this process. Namely, cumulative stats have problems. It is possible that the reason Chase Utley is perennially toward the top of 2B Plus/Minus is due to the fact that he has lots of playable balls hit his way. His stats are padded because his pitchers induce more groundballs or just by randomness. To account for this, Baseball Info Solutions also publishes the totals from the past 3 years. This gives a larger sample size and is more representative of players’ actual defensive prowess. So you see, YOU DO have to watch the games to know who the best defensive player is. All of them.

It just so happens that I have a copy of this year’s Bill James Handbook, which has the results from Baseball Info Solutions’ exploits during this past (2010) season. Guess who is in the bottom five Shortstops when it comes to Plus/Minus in 2010? Guess who is in the bottom 5 for the past 3 years?

Derek Jeter.

So while Jeter has been part of some of the most iconic defensive plays of the past decade, he’s not a good defensive shortstop. At age 36, his free agency case is one that will be a lot of fun to follow. While it will be fun to watch the Yankees overpay for a mediocre player well beyond his prime, it won’t be fun when your favorite team is negotiating an extension with their shortstop, and the player’s agent is citing the contract the Evil Empire gave to The Captain’s corpse as precedent for a deal. We shall wait and see.