Shortstop: Adam Everett

There is this sense among older baseball fans that people just don’t care as much about defense as they used to. There’s also a sense that nobody can bunt nowadays and nobody catches the ball with two hands and the pitchers these days can’t throw strikes, and why is it that nobody appreciates the value of a dollar anymore, a dollar is a lot of money, and don’t get me started on those kids with their hair and the rap music and the tattoos and that Britney Spears dancing in those skimpy devil clothes and …

Oh, wait, sorry, got lost for a second.

(Speaking of catching the ball with two hands, Thursday in San Francisco I saw someone hit a long fly ball left field, and Barry Bonds chased it down, reached out his glove hand, caught the ball, and then used his left hand to make sure it did not pop out of his glove. In other words, 43-year-old Barry Bonds, the scourge of middle-America, the scapegoat of the Steroid Era, the guy Bud Selig was reportedly hoping would get hurt, caught the fly ball precisely the way fathers teach their children. And I could not help but imagine a Dad watching the game with those children, seeing Bonds catch the ball that way, and then swallowing hard and pointing at Barry and saying, “See Bob and Julie. That’s the correct way to do it.” I can’t imagine there will be another scene quite like that on this chase).

Anyway, the point of this is that an older generation of baseball fans is more or less convinced that defense is simply not appreciated the way it once was, and I have to say they may be right. Take Adam Everett. He is a defensive marvel at shortstop. Last year, when we did the first Fielding Bible Awards – ten people voting the top 10 players at each position – Everett almost scored a perfect 100. He scored higher than anyone else at any position. He is, unquestionably (in my small circle of baseball friends, anyway), the best defensive shortstop in the game.

And yet, nobody in the grand scheme of baseball seems to notice this. Or they notice but they don’t care. Everett has never won a Gold Glove (while Derek Jeter, again, has won three. Oh Justice, Sweet Justice, where art thou?). There always seems to be talk coming out of Houston that Everett will be traded (but he never is because nobody else seems to appreciate his defense either). His job always seems on the line.

All of this (including the Gold Glove snubbing) happens because Adam Everett can’t hit a lick. He’s one of the worst everyday hitters in the big leagues as his lovely lifetime 69 OPS+ demonstrates. The Astros do keep playing Everett despite his offensive impotence, which says something good about his defense, but they seem do it only grudgingly, sort of the way the Dread Pirate Roberts kept Wesley as his valet (“Good night Wesley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning”).

The truth is that Everett bears a strong resemblance (as a player) to Mark Belanger.

-- In his career, Belanger hit .228/.300/.280. Everett has hit .247/.299/.357.
-- In his career, Belanger had an OPS+ of 68. Everett, as mentioned, has a 69 OPS+.
-- Both were very steady defensive shortstops who made all the plays.

But Belanger, unlike Everett, was sort of hero of his time. He won eight Gold Gloves. He was constantly being praised. He was the ultimate, “That’s how you play the game, Son” player. Why? It seems to be me Belanger had three distinct advantages:

1. He played in an era when runs were precious.
2. He played for a manager in Earl Weaver, who not only appreciated the value of defense but was creative enough to maximize his talents and minimize his weaknesses (this was in the era of eight and nine man pitching staffs, when managers had many more pinch-hitting and platooning options).
3. He played behind a world-class pitching staff and for teams that always won.

Because of these things, Belanger became an icon. It also didn’t hurt that every so often Belanger would have a sort of decent offensive year – in 1969, for instance, he had a .357 on-base percentage. He did have had a few scrappy offensive talents. Sure, Belanger had absolutely no power, and after 1977 he hit .204. But he would get you a walk now and then, and he famously had some success against the hardest throwers (he hit better than .600 against Jim Kern, he hit .421 against Goose Gossage. I’d always heard he hit Nolan Ryan well too, but apparently that’s a myth – he hit .244 against Ryan).

Everett, meanwhile, plays in an offensive era, in an offensive park, for a team that annually seems to have trouble at some point scoring runs. He doesn’t walk. He strikes out quite a bit. And, it might be worth mentioning, that he doesn’t play SMOOTH defense the way Belanger did. He’s terrific, and he’s got a great arm, but aesthetically, well, he doesn’t make the plays look very pretty. Maybe this matters. I don’t know. And I should also say I don’t know if you can have a good-defense, no-hit shortstop in today’s era and win. People I know in baseball seemed split on it.

In any case, Everett been out for weeks with a broken leg and will probably be out for a while longer. He’s only played the 63 games. But taking everything into account, I still think he’s the best defensive shortstop in the game. And I think had he played in the 1970s for Earl Weaver, he probably would have been better appreciated.

I can tell you that I watched Troy Tulowitzki play three games against the Royals, and I left feeling entirely ambivalent about him. I don’t mean that I ambivalent about how he played. I’m saying that I barely even noticed him. If someone had asked me after that series, “Hey, how good is Troy Tulowitzki defensively?” I would have had to say, “Um, no idea.” This is why I think finding defensive statistics that you can trust will be so helpful – unless a player makes a series of good plays (or one that stands out) or, conversely, makes a few terrible plays (or one that stands out), well, who the heck notices the defense of Troy Tulowitzki?

But his numbers are absolutely sensational. He goes out of his zone to make plays. He is terrific inside his zone. He has the highest range factor in baseball, he has turned more double plays, he has made only six errors. All in all, he’s probably the best defensive shortstop in the game right now, but I need to see him do it for the whole year before I jump him over Everett.

Best defensive shortstops so far (in order):
1. Adam Everett
2. Troy Tulowitzki
3. Omar Vizquel (still!)
4. Jack Wilson
5. Jason Bartlett

Worst defensive shortstops so far (in order)
1. Hanley Ramirez
2. Derek Jeter
3. Brendan Harris
4. Felipe Lopez
5. Jhonny Peralta