Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Ryan Braun Is So Great That He Can Play LF With a Glove Made of Stone

Somebody named Ted Keith on SI.com wrote an article in which he is mildly complaining about the lack of stars on the U.S. World Baseball Classic roster, but then proceeds to take a hatchet to one of the stars that did decide to play.

Grady Sizemore can't catch every flyball (as much as Johnson might want him to, with the stone-gloved Ryan Braun in leftfield).

Now I'm not saying Braun was a Gold Glover in his first season in leftfield, but I think "stone-gloved" is a little harsh. He generally made the plays he was supposed to make, made a few really good plays, and certainly took some bad angles or got late jumps on some balls. But I don't remember him straight-up dropping a ball - he did end up with 0 errors last year (which is kinda laughable, but still). There are probably some great defensive metrics that tell you how Braun did last year but I'm not going to bother to look them up.

Ted, perhaps you're thinking about stone-gloved Ryan Braun at 3B.

2 comments:

Clown said...

What a fucking tool. Obviously, Braun made some errors last year, but I also remember several diving / sliding plays.

Perhaps he meant his bat being made of stone; however, that is made up of owned souls.

PaulNoonan said...

I believe Braun was 12 runs above average last year in left according to BP.

He's a good athlete, and will probably be a better than average corner outfielder for years to come.