hubkittel
11-01-2006, 01:46 PM
david eckstein's name came up somehow over in the gold glove thread. while i don't think anybody was claiming that he is a gold glover, there seemed to be some disagreement over how good eck is defensively. i figured that rather than argue the point over there, i'd start a new thread to gauge everyone's opinion of eck as a defensive shortstop.
it's my opinion, having seen the guy play about 300 times over the course of his career, that eck is a good, above average defensive ss. he has good range, decent hands, and makes the plays he's supposed to make. he seems to be smart enough to position himself to make those plays-using the scouting reports, reading the batter, working off the pitcher, etc. the big negative is, of course, his arm.
looking at his range, eck's numbers are pretty good and well above average. during his six seasons, his zone rating has been very good-finishing in the top four among league ss five times. while his range factors in anaheim weren't that good, the last two years in stl he's ranked fifth among league ss and was well above league avg both years. in 05, he was fifth among league ss in probabilistic model of range. i think it's safe to say that eck has decent range.
while fielding percentage as a defensive evaluation tool has its drawbacks, it does tell us something about a player and eck has had good fielding% during his career. the last four years, he's ranked 2nd, 1st, 6th, and 3rd among league ss. within the context of his league, eck is an above avg gloveman. combine this with his range numbers and eck is getting to a lot of balls and making the play.
in making the argument for eck as a good defensive ss, the arm issue is the biggest obstacle. it's entirely possible that he may have the weakest arm in baseball. i have two answers for this. first, i honestly don't believe that his arm hurts his team. the guy makes all the plays that you would expect him to make plus some. i've never seen him not make a play he was supposed to based on lack of arm strength. i've never seen a play and said "a stronger arm would have made that play." that's all ancedotal but i've seen eck play enough were i trust his arm. i don't have any numbers for it, i don't know how many throwing errors he makes a season but i know by watching him day after day that the arm isn't as big a factor as some people want to make it.
the second point about the arm is that eck has adapted to it. he knows his strengths and his weaknesses and has adjusted his game accordingly. an interesting stat that i think illustrates this is bad throw saves/1b. in 05, pujols led all of baseball in bad throw saves by a wide margin (pujols had 42 and the runner up, derek lee, had 23). i think what this stat shows is not so much pujols' ability to scoop balls out of the dirt but rather eck's purposefully bouncing his throws to first. i saw ozzie smith do this for years after his shoulder problems and i think eck, adjusting to his lack of arm strength, has learned how to do it as well. this is how he's making the plays in the hole-he's not throwing the ball to first base, he's throwing it to a spot two to three feet in front of first and skipping it to pujols.
i think the reason that a lot of people consider eck to be a below avg fielding ss is that he doesn't look very good out there. he's small, not all that fast, a little awkward, and has that weak arm. you look at him and think "there's no way this guy can get the job done." you see that arm and think "the worst arm i've ever seen at ss-this guy can't be any good." it's a completely superficial analysis. understandable but superficial none the less. regardless of how he looks out there, eck is a decent defensive ss and certainly above average.
one last thing to consider about eck is that he may be on the best team a player of his defensive skills can be on. he has scott rolen playing to his right covering a lot of ground for him and making all the plays in foul territory. and he has pujols at first scooping all his throws up for him. the cardinals' team defense is not only aided by him but it also helps to cover up some of his flaws. he's a good fit for the team.
it's my opinion, having seen the guy play about 300 times over the course of his career, that eck is a good, above average defensive ss. he has good range, decent hands, and makes the plays he's supposed to make. he seems to be smart enough to position himself to make those plays-using the scouting reports, reading the batter, working off the pitcher, etc. the big negative is, of course, his arm.
looking at his range, eck's numbers are pretty good and well above average. during his six seasons, his zone rating has been very good-finishing in the top four among league ss five times. while his range factors in anaheim weren't that good, the last two years in stl he's ranked fifth among league ss and was well above league avg both years. in 05, he was fifth among league ss in probabilistic model of range. i think it's safe to say that eck has decent range.
while fielding percentage as a defensive evaluation tool has its drawbacks, it does tell us something about a player and eck has had good fielding% during his career. the last four years, he's ranked 2nd, 1st, 6th, and 3rd among league ss. within the context of his league, eck is an above avg gloveman. combine this with his range numbers and eck is getting to a lot of balls and making the play.
in making the argument for eck as a good defensive ss, the arm issue is the biggest obstacle. it's entirely possible that he may have the weakest arm in baseball. i have two answers for this. first, i honestly don't believe that his arm hurts his team. the guy makes all the plays that you would expect him to make plus some. i've never seen him not make a play he was supposed to based on lack of arm strength. i've never seen a play and said "a stronger arm would have made that play." that's all ancedotal but i've seen eck play enough were i trust his arm. i don't have any numbers for it, i don't know how many throwing errors he makes a season but i know by watching him day after day that the arm isn't as big a factor as some people want to make it.
the second point about the arm is that eck has adapted to it. he knows his strengths and his weaknesses and has adjusted his game accordingly. an interesting stat that i think illustrates this is bad throw saves/1b. in 05, pujols led all of baseball in bad throw saves by a wide margin (pujols had 42 and the runner up, derek lee, had 23). i think what this stat shows is not so much pujols' ability to scoop balls out of the dirt but rather eck's purposefully bouncing his throws to first. i saw ozzie smith do this for years after his shoulder problems and i think eck, adjusting to his lack of arm strength, has learned how to do it as well. this is how he's making the plays in the hole-he's not throwing the ball to first base, he's throwing it to a spot two to three feet in front of first and skipping it to pujols.
i think the reason that a lot of people consider eck to be a below avg fielding ss is that he doesn't look very good out there. he's small, not all that fast, a little awkward, and has that weak arm. you look at him and think "there's no way this guy can get the job done." you see that arm and think "the worst arm i've ever seen at ss-this guy can't be any good." it's a completely superficial analysis. understandable but superficial none the less. regardless of how he looks out there, eck is a decent defensive ss and certainly above average.
one last thing to consider about eck is that he may be on the best team a player of his defensive skills can be on. he has scott rolen playing to his right covering a lot of ground for him and making all the plays in foul territory. and he has pujols at first scooping all his throws up for him. the cardinals' team defense is not only aided by him but it also helps to cover up some of his flaws. he's a good fit for the team.