Tribe Talk: The Perils of Playing In The Worst Division In Baseball

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Defensive skills have definitely gone by the wayside in terms of where they come from. I know the Indians are big on defense in terms of stressing it in player development. It's the only reason the Tribe went out and got Mark DeRosa for third instead of pushing Wes Hodges harder. Hodges' bat is probably ready, but his defense is not. It's also the thing that is holding Beau Mills back. His bat should have had him in Double-A last year at some point and probably fast-tracked to Columbus this year, but his defense isn't there.

Defensive skills are not negligible if a player is a good hitter. However, I'll use Ryan Garko for an example. If you are willing to work hard and try your best to improve, but still aren't fantastic, I'll take you on my team. Garko isn't the greatest first baseman, but he's miles ahead of where he was years ago when he first switched. Take in mind that as well, he's a converted catcher, so he had to learn the position at the major league level. But still, he worked hard, always puts in the extra effort an time to get better, and shows steady improvement. You don't have to be amazing, but if you are a good hitter and not great at defense, all I would require from you is hard work to get better. To me hard-work trumps all because you eventually will get what you deserve.

Samantha Bunten: Currently the Indians rank 8th in errors and 6th in fielding percentage in the AL and 17th in errors and 13th in fielding percentage in all of MLB. I think this is a pretty accurate representation of how the Indians defense measures up: very mediocre. Good enough not to draw too much criticism, bad enough to cost the Indians a not insignificant number of wins. Also, at the moment, the Indians' defense is actually far worse than the numbers indicate, as the team is without their two best defenders, Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera.

 I absolutely think that defense is undervalued in baseball, and is perhaps the single most undervalued skill a player can possess. Defense is under-appreciated because it rarely wins ballgames in notable fashion, and tends to be noticed and remembered only when it is done poorly.

In other words, there are a lot more memorable miscues a la Bill Buckner that we can all recall than there are great catches a la Willie Mays that are still being talked about. This leads to an under-appreciation of good defense, because good defense is invisible. Only bad defense is apparent enough to be noteworthy.

I don't think defensive skills are EVER negligible unless you are a consistent 40+ home run first baseman, and that combined with poor defensive skills should really make you a DH anyway.

Dave Wiley:

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