03-04-2021, 12:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-04-2021, 12:42 PM by HanspardShowerVoice.)
(03-04-2021, 10:31 AM)mvossman Wrote: If we are going to use a baseball metaphor, he is more like a good defensive shortstop who is a little below average at the plate. That is a quality starter. I think too much is being taken from a small 25 game sample which includes learning a new team and recovering from Covid. Lets see what he is by the end of the year. Don't have to make a call before then anyways (don't see him getting traded at deadline).
The COVID thing is fair enough. And you're right we're dealing with a 25 game sample. But I just think his defense has been way oversold. Not bad per se, but oversold. I mean, right now his defensive rating is a notch below THJ and a notch above Luka. And I'm not saying Defensive Rating is the end all be all statistic that totally defines a player, but he's not been some lock down perimeter defender like I think some want to believe. And now his offense is getting so bad that defenses are actively sagging off of him daring him to shoot. But the shortstop analogy is funny, because really before baseball analytics really got good at capturing defense you would see some shortstop who hit .220 and people would rave about what an amazing defender he is who turned out to not really be that great of a defender. It's like people had to create a narrative that he had to be a great defender because his offense is so bad why else would he play so much? The .220 proves he's a great defender, because that's the batting average a great defender would have.