Relax, Red Sox Nation: Mike Aviles is WAY better than Lowrie or Scutaro
By Earl Nash
Whenever there’s an outbreak of hysteria in Red Sox Nation, it’s time to take a breath and “look at the chart,” and realize:
Mike Aviles is WAY BETTER than the soon-sainted Scutaro and lately-beatified Lowrie.
When you consider the 162-game projections for 2012 at the Baseball Reference website and narrow your focus to the “meat n’ pid-day-duz” stats, you discover, dear fellow citizen of RSN, that Mike Aviles is WAY BETTER than Saint Marco de San Felipe or Saint Jeb de Salem.
Now, sit down, exhale that deep breath, and look at this chart:
"Age BA OBP SLG OPS Fld% HR RBI R SB Stats winsAviles [30] .288 .318 .419 .737 .973 12 62 82 18 5.5Lowrie [27] .252 .324 .408 .732 .975 12 74 70 2 2.5Scutaro [36] .270 .338 .389 .727 .974 10 59 79 6 1.0Punto [34] .249 .325 .327 .652 .974 3 40 63 17 0"
LISTEN: Mike Aviles takes five statistical categories [bolded]: BA, SLG.,OPS, Rs, SBs, and ties for HRs with Lowrie. [ties were awarded an 0.5 score]
Sure, Aviles finishes last in Fielding percentage, but by a hair: .003, so let’s not gnash our gnoshers over that stat. Put Aviles next to All-Star 2b Dustin “Off” Pedroia and that .003 may disappear in 2012.
If we combine runs batted in and runs scored, we find Aviles and Lowrie tied at 144 and Scutaro with 138. Aviles”loses” the OBP catergory, he places first in the more inclusive stat, OPS and, although he finishes second, behind Lowrie in RBIs [74-62], the combined runs-produced stat is a tie at 144.
Recall that, in 2004 and 2007, the Sox have “gotten by” with shortstops that were not All-Stars or MVPs:
"“2004 Red Sox – They got 58 starts from Orlando Cabrera, 56 from Pokey Reese, 37 from Nomar Garciaparra, seven from Cesar Crespo, three from Ricky Gutierrez and one from Mark Bellhorn. From its Frankenshortstop, the Sox ended up achieving decent production, with a .716 OPS that ranked 16th in the majors from its shortstops. That said, the defense was pitiful, pushing the team to make the deal for Cabrera.2007 Red Sox – Julio Lugo, who hit .237 with a .294 OBP, .349 slugging mark and .643 OPS, making him one of the worst everyday players in the majors that year. Red Sox shortstops produced a dismal .633 OPS, ranked 29th among the 30 major league teams that year.”[http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/alex-speier/2012/01/31/why-red-sox-are-willing-take-different-approac]"
New Sox Skipper Bobby V says:
"“I’m looking forward to seeing how it will play out,” said Valentine. “If I had a preconceived notion of how it would play out, why even go to spring training? I’ve never seen any of the guys play, except for Punto a little.”"
We hope that this “look at the chart” tamps down the rampant shortstop hysteria that abounds in Red Sox Nation, in the blogs, the MSM, and in Hot Stove discussions, as well as proving informative to Mr. Valentine.
And, end all the “dissing” of Mike Aviles.
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