Comments on: Cardinals looking for upgrade over Brendan Ryan at shortstop

By: Cardinals bring back Jake Westbrook for two years | HardballTalk

Cardinals bring back Jake Westbrook for two years | HardballTalk — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:29:50 +0000

[...] hard about sticking with Brendan Ryan at shortstop and replacing Skip Schumaker at second base. Indications have been that they want to do the opposite, but while Schumaker is the better bet of the two to bounce back offensively, he’s a subpar [...]

By: WhenMattStairsIsKing

WhenMattStairsIsKing — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:46:03 +0000

Tejada is no longer an offensive upgrade.

Uribe’s career averages include a .256 AVG, a .300 OBP and 85 OPS+. He’s going to get a ballooned contract he doesn’t fully deserve. He’s as good as Khalil Greene ever got to be.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:12:04 +0000

I’m pretty sure he was talking about Ryan being the slick fielding, no hit SS, not Renteria.

By: willmose

willmose — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:50:11 +0000

The only reason Schumaker is staying because with his $2.7 million salary, he will be very hard to trade without eating a lot of it. Besides, even at million, I doubt there are many teams interested. Ryan, on the other hand, is cheap maybe a half million. Ryan also could be the best defensive SS in the game. At the price and the big upside, there are a number of teams interested. The other thing that is forgotten about Ryan is that he started the season 6 weeks after wrist surgery. By the all-star break his wrist was fully healed and his BA and defensive picked up (although offensively not to 2009 levels).

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:50:15 +0000

….but Tejada is a no hit no field 3B/SS. Yeah, Ryan struggled, but he also saved who knows how many hits and thereby reduced the work load on the pitching staff by a non-trivial amount. The inability to accurately measure defense, which blurs the differences between great and mediocre fielders, has perpetuated the under valuation of defense by managers. Want evidence? Look at who they pick for the GG awards. If managers really paid attention to and properly valued player defense, they wouldn’t make such obviously wrong picks every year.

By: Schroeder

Schroeder — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:31:57 +0000

Because the Cardinals didn’t make do with a slick fielding, no hitting SS for over a dozen years at all.

By: Charles Gates

Charles Gates — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:52:32 +0000

Good pitchers will still lose games 1-0 if their teams don’t score runs. Just ask Felix Hernandez.

By: ultimatecardinalwarrior

ultimatecardinalwarrior — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:21:32 +0000

Ground ball team + good defense = winning team
Ground ball team + poor defense = losing team

Tony you should know that! Stop asking for Tejada. I love Brendan Ryan: his defense is fantastic and he is one of the best characters on the Cards right now, but I do understand that he is one of the biggest holes on the lineup day in and day out. It is just foolish to go out and replace him with a player with such poor defense.