The shortstop position has been ever changing since Cal Ripken Jr. first stepped on a major league field.
The position that used to have only the smallest players and lightest hitters is now filled with tall and powerful baseball players who use their size to extend their defensive range rather than pure speed.
The trend of big, filled-out shortstops has developed so much that it now has branches of styles stemming from it.
There is the Hanley Ramirez and Troy Tulowitzki mold that hits for serious power while still maintaining speed and good on-base skills. There is the J.J. Hardy or Stephen Drew type that plays top of the line defense while still being able to knock one out of the park.
Then there is the Derek Jeter and Yunel Escobar type of shortstop. This is the type of shortstop that the defensive metrics for some reason hate, and that can almost always be counted on for the clutch hit that their team needs.
The comparisons between Jeter and Escobar are more relevant than one would immediately realize.
Many consider Derek Jeter to be one of the top clutch hitters of our generation, as he has come through with huge playoff hit after huge playoff hit. Yunel Escobar may be the next generation's version of Derek Jeter if the Braves are able to get to the postseason as the Yankees have during Jeter's years.
Anyone wonder which shortstop had the highest OPS with runners in scoring position last season? Yunel Escobar at 1.065. Behind Escobar was NL batting champion Hanley Ramirez.
Escobar has had a knack for hitting well in RBI situations since his call-up to the major leagues. He sports a career line of .337/.424/.526 (AVG, OBP, SLG) with men on second or third. Escobar has 29 career home runs, with 11 of them coming with RISP.
When it comes time to score runs, the Braves would rather have nobody else at the plate than Escobar since he has been on their roster. The same can be said for Derek Jeter and the Yankees since 1996.
The comparison continues with their defensive skills. If you watched the Braves' last season, then you know that Escobar is one of the top defensive shortstops in the game. In fact, if you want to check out some of his highlights, you can do so from this Braves.com link.
For some reason, the defensive metrics had Escobar at a -1.1 UZR/150 (most respected defensive metric at this moment), and his career UZR/150 at shortstop is an average -0.1.
This sounds eerily similar to the big shortstop in New York. Many statistics have claimed that Jeter is one of the worst defensive shortstops in the game, and his -16.7 UZR/150 in 2007 seemed to get most baseball people to agree with that.
Jeter's career -4.6 UZR/150 would signal poor defense, but for some reason everyone who watches the Yankees regularly (and I do—I live in Queens) seems to think Jeter's defense is one of the reasons for their success since his arrival.
Defensive metrics are not foolproof, and they still need work to prove how great or poor of a defensive player one truly is. The plays Escobar makes force a watcher to scream "WOW" on a regular basis. Jeter plays defense smoothly. He makes hard plays look so easy that many do not understand the difficulty in his backhand jump throws or spinning hurls to first base.
As someone who values statistics much more than the average person, it takes more than what you see on FanGraphs or Baseball-Reference to realize how good these two players actually are.
Having a player that you can rely on in clutch situations from a traditionally weak hitting position is something that Yankees fans do not take for granted, and it should not be something Braves fans take for granted either. Yunel Escobar has the ability to be a superstar and a top shortstop in the major leagues, and if the Braves make the playoffs this year, Escobar will be one of the reasons.
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