Wednesday, January 21, 2009

09 Questions-Defense?

The Reds defense was absolutely awful last season with the lone exception of Brandon Phillips who was electric at times. The personnel has changed a bit, especially in the outfield which will be much improved on the defensive side. With Willy Taveras patrolling center, Bruce in right, and most likely Chris Dickerson in left, the outfield D will be greatly improved.

The infield defense however, has a ton to prove. Phillips was very good. Edwin Encarnarcion was one of the worst defensive 3rd basemen I've seen in my lifetime last season. He's got a mental block when it comes to throwing the ball to 2nd. He loves to throw it towards the outfield wall. He had 23 big errors and only a .930 field percentage. Compare that with Phillips' .990 percentage and only 7 errors. Votto had only 11 errors but I thought he played relatively poorly in the field. He needs to take control of many situations and field the baseball. Keppinger made 8 errors from the SS position. He'll see action at numerous of positions again this season. When Gonzalez returns from injury, the middle will be pretty safe with he and Brandon turning a ton of 4,6,3s.

At catcher, Ramon Hernandez threw out about 25% of basestealers last season in Baltimore. He also had 10 passed balls. That D will have to improve. Young Ryan Hanigan threw out a little better percentage, getting 8 out of 33 runners.

If Edwin can cut down on his errors, and Votto continues to progress at a steady rate, the Reds D should be much improved but..................that's not saying much.

1 comment:

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