I owe Ruben Tejada an apology. Yes, I've been a vocal critic of his presence
in the lineup, particularly when he started off the year sub-Mendoza in batting
while delivering his usual ho-hum defense and dearth of baserunning speed. I have called him a below-replacement-level
player, but I am wrong. With a month or
so of acceptable play he has actually gotten himself up and over the 0.0 WAR
rating to a whopping 0.9. That's
it. He's worth less than one win vs. a
warm body off the street. For that there
are people praising him to the skies.
Let's see how he fares against other major league shortstops.
In terms of WAR, he's in the bottom 25% of the league. There were a few surprises. Highly touted Xander Bogaerts, speedsters
Jean Segura and Everth Cabrera, veteran Yunel Escobar and probable Hall of
Famer Derek Jeter are actually underperforming Tejada in this regard. Maybe it's not so bad after all...
Then we start looking at specific offensive production. It gets ugly fast. In RBIs among clear starters, only Miami's flashy
gloveman Adeiny Hechavarria fares worse than Tejada with just 18 RBIs.
In the power department Ruben has already doubled his
typical annual output by slugging 2 HRs.
That tops..ummm...once again just Hechavarria.
In terms of speed, Ruben is in heady company. He's matched the SB output of stars like Jhonny
Peralta, Troy Tulowitzski as well as Pittsburgh's Jordy Mercer. All of them have but a single stolen base.
Well, if he can perform significantly better than a
replacement player, can't drive in runs, can't hit home runs and can't run, he
must be able to hit for a high batting average, right? Wrong!
Once again there's just a handful of people worse than he is, including
Jed Lowrie, Zack Cozart, Jean Segura, Everth Cabrera and Brad Miller. Once again he's in the bottom quartile.
It's not all bad. In
OPS Tejada finishes somewhat better in the bottom third (woo hoo!) and he's
actually third among all shortstops in OBP.
He epitomizes the Mets philosophy of "Don't swing, pray for a
walk." This approach would make
sense if he could capitalize while getting on base but he's actually trailing
lead footed Lucas Duda in stolen bases! Furthermore
he's ranked 28th (out of 30, kids) in runs scored. So getting on via the walk is not accomplishing
anything.
Defensively he's adequate.
He's smack in the middle of the pack in terms of dWAR which is a
composite statistic showing his worth for range, arm and errors.
So there you have it.
Ruben Tejada is officially mediocre when he plays the field. When he's swinging the bat he's only adept at
taking a walk. In all of the other
offensive categories he's an embarrassment.
While manager Collins inexplicably played him during his
.200 days over the run producing potential of Wilmer Flores is just one
thing. However, for people to say,
"Look how well he's doing", they need to take off the blue and orange
glasses to read the ugly truth. The team
needs more production out of the position.
Bring back Wilmer Flores or promote Matt Reynolds. What they're doing is most definitely not
working.
10 comments:
While Tejada may be average at SS, Wilmer was a flat-out sieve. He may have hit much better, but how many runs would he have given up? He's now being turned into a utility man at Vegas.
I forgot, Ruben is also third in range factor. He can cover a lot of ground.
Let's not forget that it is a lot easy to play this game if your projected replacement and competition (Flores) isn't even on the same team
Eric,
Post down a little lower, in the box under where it says "Post a Comment" in orange letters. That will put your post up with the rest of them.
Yadda, yadda, Tejada. He has been a serviceable SS for a month & a half. OK, Tulo would be nice (Jose R. would be nice). Didn't want Drew & still don't, don't want that Cubbie head-case either.
Want to see Wilmer & Reynolds up? I do. The way to that is get rid of the Youngs & hand LF to Kirk & Campbell.
Dump Chris Young. Trade Bobby Abreu. Bring up Flores (AND PLAY HIM). Insert Campbell in as much as possible until his bat cools off. As long as Collins (lately) is using Eric Young properly as a 4th outfielder and pinch hitter/runner then I can almost live with him on the roster. Just don't start the man.
I can't even with this article.
I'm with you Reese. After his slow start last year as (I believe) the youngest starter in the PCL last year, Wilmer has about a sunning 125 RBIs in his last 130 games in Vegas - but if Ruben were down there, he'd have about 200 I guess. Or 300. It's just a hitters league.
I know Wilmer's defense is not the equal of Tejada's, I just think one more potent BAT (forget Ruben's overrated on base %) pushes this team over the offensive hump to where they'd be just about dangerous. Hitting is contagious, and his bat, once activated, would make the all the position starters' hitting contagious.
And Ruben can be a late inning replacement - and a fine one at that. He should be a back up on any team that struggles to hit - he does not knock in runs and he does not score runs. Chris Young goes, Eric Campbell and Kirk can platoon. EY Jr can be useful in a utility role.
I know Dekker has failed in his few call ups, but he seems to do better the longer he is in each league. He is 14 for his last 24 and only striking out about half his historical rate since he was sent back down to AAA. So I would consider him to replace Chris Young - or leave him to continue to improve in AAA and bring up Reynolds when CY is released, and bring him up later on.
To many people, the initials ARC represent the American Red Cross. To me, they stand for Reese's Anti-Ruben Crusade. I have no clue what Ruben must've done to one of Reese's dogs or a member of his family, but it must've been something completely reprehensible. Heaping this much abuse on a #8 hitter as though he's responsible for all the woes of the line-up is something I've never seen in my 60 years of watching baseball.
In his last 41 games, a pretty sizable sample, Ruben's OBP has been over .400, and his BA is up close to 60 points since May 20. GKR have been ecstatic over his Defense this season, as well---some outstanding plays, as well as consistency (5 Es all season, compared to 11 by Castro---and Wright!).
He's only 24, with lots of time to improve further. When Flores was here and struggling, Reese defended him by saying batting #8 was the problem. It doesn't seem to hold Ruben back, though. In today's game, so far, he's got two walks and a beautiful squeeze bunt to tie the game.
"Bring Fores up AND PLAY HIM", Reese? At what position? We don't have a DH, and he hasn't shown the ability to play anywhere but 3B, which is taken.
I only wish we could find an AL GM who loves Wilmer as much as Reese does, and makes us a strong offer for him.
What part of at or near last in every offensive category did you miss (except OBP)?
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