Good morning Yankees family and welcome back to the blog.
The New York Yankees fans are the worst, at least that is what I wrote earlier
this offseason, and since the elimination from the postseason they have not
gotten much better. The hottest topic of them all appears to be the possible
acquisition of Manny Machado, Miguel Andujar’s defense at third base, and a
potential move for the 23-year old next season. There have been many
doom-and-gloom posts about his “historically bad” defense this season, but here
is a post giving Yankees fans everywhere a little hope regarding Andujar and
his potential future as a Major League third baseman.
When looking at prospects and young players the scouts, analysts,
and fans always look to other players to compare these young players to. How
about this comparison for Andujar, how about Adrian Beltre? Beltre is highly
respected around Major League Baseball both on and off the field and is
considered to be one of the best third baseman defensively in the game. This
was not always the case for the former Texas Rangers third baseman and
soon-to-be free agent. When Beltre broke into the Major Leagues he was 19-years
old, granted that is a lot younger than Andujar who is 23-years old, playing in
77 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Beltre’s bat left much to be desired,
and so did his defense, and it wasn’t until the 2004 season that the Dodgers
finally saw his true potential come to fruition.
As a rookie, Beltre committed 13 errors. In his first full
season in 1999 the right-hander committed 29 errors which was good for a .932
fielding percentage. In 2000, Beltre committed another 23 errors. From 2001 –
2003, Beltre committed 16, 20, and 19 errors respectively. It was not until the
2004 season, the same season that Beltre began to find his groove at the plate
as well, that we started to see the defensive wizard that we have seen over the
past decade or so. Yet, for whatever reason, some writer at another publication
writes an article that we cannot just assume that Andujar’s defense will
improve, and everyone loses their mind. Everyone is preaching that article like
it is the gospel, yet history (and common sense) would say otherwise.
Just as an FYI, for those who need a reminder, Andujar
committed just 15 errors for a .948 fielding percentage in 2018. If you want to
compare apples-to-apples, Andujar had a better defensive season than Beltre in
his first two-or-three seasons. Beltre improved drastically on the defensive side,
yet Andujar can’t according to many Yankees fans, writers, and journalist? I
call bullshit. The numbers don’t lie. Be patient, and root for your team… or go
root for the Mets.
