Cabrera's Range Discussion - The Facts Only Please.

[Brisco]

You know Leake does that on purpose, don't you? He's usually getting a left-side infield of Cairo at 3rd and Cabrera at SS (and Gomes in Left). A pitcher with any amount of intelligence is going to throw pitches that cause the ball to be hit towards Phillips and Votto (and Bruce).

If Leake had Janish at SS (and Rolen at 3rd), he would pitch differently and use the entire field.

Like last night? : )

C'mon, how far are you going to stretch this? Now you are arguing that even in games that Mike Leake has been ineffective, he somehow retains the ability to only allow contact to the right side?

Finally, OCab has the 6th most chances of any SS in MLB. That means that plenty of balls are being hit to the left.

[Brisco]

Because for an aging player, as far as defensive ability, the last 2 years are by far the most relevant. He is or at least should be a completely different player defensively than he was 5 years ago. For instance you wouldn't look at Ken Griffey Jr.'s stats 5 years ago to determine if he could still play CF or not.

If you look, I did not argue that OCab's defensive skills were equal to those of five years ago... I said 8.5 is what we should expect, not 24.7.

Age will gradually steal your skills in defense rather than have you drop off a cliff like in offense. If you follow that pattern of 5 years ago, 24.7, 3 years ago 13.7 and now 8.9 UZR that seems to follow a consistent declining trend.

If you look at only the last two years, you run the risk of a statistical anomaly caused by injury or whatever. Since three of the last four years have been 8.9 or higher, and then last year was a hugely divergent -12.1, it seems to be the outlier.

[Kingspoint]

Like last night? : )

C'mon, how far are you going to stretch this? Now you are arguing that even in games that Mike Leake has been ineffective, he somehow retains the ability to only allow contact to the right side?

Finally, OCab has the 6th most chances of any SS in MLB. That means that plenty of balls are being hit to the left.

If you don't know that Mike Leake intentionally controls a ball being hit to the left side or the right side, then you have a lot to learn....a whole lot to learn...about baseball and Defense. It's baseball Defense 101. If I was pitching to you and I don't want you hitting it to the left side of the field, you're not going to be hitting it to the left side of the field. And, there's nothing you can do about it.

[Kingspoint]

Finally, OCab has the 6th most chances of any SS in MLB. That means that plenty of balls are being hit to the left.

That means that he gets fewer innings off than any SS in MLB (and that the REDS use more Right-handed starters than others, too.)

[Reds]

So, what's his range how? How far do you stretch off a couch to reach the remote?

[Griffey012]

If you don't know that Mike Leake intentionally controls a ball being hit to the left side or the right side, then you have a lot to learn....a whole lot to learn...about baseball and Defense. It's baseball Defense 101. If I was pitching to you and I don't want you hitting it to the left side of the field, you're not going to be hitting it to the left side of the field. And, there's nothing you can do about it.

But I am gonna smoke it to right center for a gapper.

[Vottomatic]

The fact is, Cabrera's fielding range stinks.