Sunday, June 1, 2008

The Jimmy Ballgame Odyssey Vol. II

I am going to throw out this touchy subject again. Johnny 2-Turds loves it when I talk about Mr. Edmonds. I am at odds with baseball announcers when they talk about Edmonds’ stellar defense in CF. OK, OK, CF is a hard position to play. There’s no position in baseball where you have to be able to cover more ground. Jim Edmonds is a pretty good centerfielder considering he is like 110 in baseball years. He does make some pretty spectacular catches in the field, although I am not going to go so far as to say he is a great fielder. Edmonds makes those spectacular catches out of necessity. What do I mean by that? Edmonds gets such a bad jump on the ball that a routine catch can turn into a running catch, a running catch turns into a diving catch, and a diving catch turns into a “how the hell did that find his glove” catch. Jimmy Hollywood makes centerfield a little tougher than it needs to be. Having said that, he’s a solid centerfielder. I’m not sure that his lack of hitting makes his defense worth it. However, the Cubs have a good enough team to carry him during his slumps, but the question is: Will they want to all season?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you are talking currently or historically. Historically, he was a great fielder in my opinion especially when you factor in his arm. Sure he made things tougher at times but I never considered him a liablity. Currently, I'm sure his defensive has slipped some. Overall, I give this article a thumbs down considering you are a Cubs fan and should not be talking about Edmonds...too soon, too soon.

Captain Awesome said...

I apologize. I need to clarify. My article was in reference to Mr. Edmonds' play over the past 2 or 3 years. He was a much better fielder in his prime.

Johnny-2-Turds said...

I would like to add a new stat to the slew of new stats being added these days. I call it: JOBvE. It stands for Jump On the Ball versus Edmonds. Basically Jimmy Ballgame is your gold standard for timing the most dramatic jump on the ball, so he is at a "zero".

If you take some potential top ten catch and turn it into a can of corn you get a rating of 100. Everyone else is somewhere in between.

Beyond that, don't ask me how to measure it, I hate stupid new statistics and the people who come up with them.

Anonymous said...

I would do it on a scale of 4-8 but skipping over the number 5 for obvious reasons. Jim Edmonds would be a 4.