Saturday Infographic: We need better shortstop(s)

Published by on October 8, 2011 | 10 Responses

In 2011, Giants’ shortstops combined for a slash-line of .210/.265/.299, or a wRC+ of 62. That wRC+ score ties them with the Reds for the second-to-worst score in the majors. Braves’ shortstops were a single percentage point (61) worse than the Giants and Reds. As defined by the bold dashed line, the league average shortstop was a 87 wRC+ in hitter the majors this past year. Teams with ungodly hitting from their shortstops are the Rockies (130), Mets (129), and Indians (117).

The graph doesn’t take into account any defensive factors. It seems pretty clear that, for the Giants, fixing shortstop, or even finding a suitable stop-gap, should rank high on the team’s to-do list this offseason.

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Jose
Jose

At how many other positions would the Giants have been above average on a similar graph? Anywhere besides 3rd? The mistake the Giants make every year when building an offense is to work position by position. They should be signing the best free agent hitters they can afford for their lineup needs rather than taking compromises to fill positional needs. If they don't get Reyes, who else is left at SS? Rollins? Save the money for a better bat and run Crawford and his glove out at SS.

Liem
Liem

"Signing the best free agent hitters they can afford for their line-up needs" means taking a systematic approach to free-agent signing. A very reasonable systematic approach would be to see how much production each position is yielding and compare that amount to what can be gained on the market at those same positions. Simply signing the "best" hitter, regardless of position, will simply result in redundancies or players playing out of position. One can argue that trading for Carlos Beltran this season was an example of the Giants going for the best bat regardless of the target player's position. While Beltran certainly added a boost to the Giants' RF production, the Giants could have gotten a bigger boost had they simply acquired a competent SS. The Giants' RFs, although certainly wanting, were not the teams worst producers--SS, 1B, and C (this off the top of my head) owned that distinction. I'm not criticizing the Beltran trade, but simply illuminating an example where a position-targeted approach at acquiring hitters could have, had it been successful, been much more fruitful than simply signing the biggest stick.

@sports_vault
@sports_vault

Been thinking about this since Tejada was cut...what do you think they will honestly do? Hope Crawford develops enough in the off-season? Sign another veteran?

Shankbone
Shankbone

Awesome graph. You can see the Blue Jays and Orioles pick pocketed the Braves and Twins in the last 2 years. Agreed about Alex Gonzalez not being the answer for stopgap signing.

Liem
Liem

It's crazy to think that a Jamey Carroll type of player could have made all the difference this year.

Damon
Damon

All the proof we'll need to bemoan that trade for Alex Gonzalez.

Damon
Damon

I mean FA signing.

Geoff
Geoff

Fantastic graph Chris, is it possible to do this graph for CF as well as that seems to be the other position of primary concern for the giants to address

marcellosfg
marcellosfg

Torres should be the CF, instead of whatever marginal-upgrade-at-best they decide to throw money at.

Tynan
Tynan

That is a fantastic graph!