This post marks either a new high or a new low. “Why,” you ask?
Because it’s going to piss off my dad.
My thoughts on this were instigated by his post “J-honny on the J-hot Seat” about J-honny Peralta’s performance, the public grumblings of Eric Wedge, and most importantly, the infamous quote Wedge made about Peralta at short stop: “…he’s as good as anybody in the game, if not the best, at the routine play.”
That was a ridiculous thing to say. Let’s be honest. But it did get me thinking about just how good of a SS Peralta is (or was now that he’s playing third base). Yes, it certainly looked like Peralta was slow and didn’t have much range; he wasn’t as flashy as Omar Vizquel, that’s for sure, who is widely considered to be one of the best - if not the best - defensive SS in Indians history.
Undoubtedly, however, memory is a tricky thing. We tend to remember less about the typical and the mundane than we do about the spectacular and the egregious. We remember “The Fumble”, the hit from Craig Counsell, Kenny Lofton being held at third by Joel Skinner. We remember Omar diving deep in the hole and flipping the ball to Robbie Alomar for the start of a double play. We remember Peralta not getting to a groundball we imagine he should’ve gotten to or fumbling an easy hop.
What we don’t remember is Peralta fielding a routine grounder between 2nd and 3rd and throwing the #8 hitter out at first during a game in the middle of June when the Indians are already out of contention (not referring to this year…or maybe I am).
My point: it’s easy to see how highlight plays can play tricks on our memory.
At the same time, it’s important to keep in mind that the routine Peralta play has the same value as the spectacular, diving Vizquel flip to second.
Both plays equal one out. The fact that one play holds a better place in your memory can be emotionally meaningful, but it has very little to do with winning - which is what all of us from Cleveland should be most concerned with.
Statistically speaking, here’s how Peralta and Vizquel break down:
Peralta’s RF/9 - 4.68 | Vizquel’s RF/9 - 4.63
Peralta’s Fielding % - .975 | Vizquel’s Fielding % - .985
RF/9 refers to “Range Factor per 9 innings” and is calculated by the number of assists + put outs divided by 9. It is designed to measure the number of balls a player successfully makes a play on or with.
Fielding % is a bit simpler, as it measures the percentage of balls a player successfully gets to and is able to make a play on.
Statistically then, Peralta has minisculely better range than Vizquel, while Vizquel successfully completed plays on 1% more of the balls he was able to get to.
These numbers makes it sound like Peralta and Vizquel are comparable SS.
How can this be?
It seems ludicrous because - I know from my childhood - I thought Omar was the greatest SS ever. I’ve never thought that about Peralta, nor would anyone expect me to. What’s going on here?
One possible explanation is the fog of memory, as I mentioned. Consider, too, that there are a myriad of reasons why Vizquel might have had to dive for that ball you remember him diving for, a ball that - hypothetically - Peralta might not have had to dive for (start with the fact that Vizquel is only 5’9” while Peralta is 6’1”). While Vizquel was great at making the diving play, Peralta shouldn’t be punished for not having to dive.
And what about arm strength? Perhaps a ball Omar dove to get, Peralta lets through the hole…but suppose Peralta, a bigger player, has a better arm. Hypothetically he can throw people out that Omar couldn’t. Arm strength is less distinguishable on TV and less memorable, but it can counteract lack of speed to some extent and is still valuable.
These sorts of things we could debate endlessly. And we should. But all we can really be sure of is that out of every 100 attempts Vizquel made one less error than Peralta and was involved in .02 less put outs + assists every 9 innings.
That is a very, very small difference.
Still, the overwhelming belief in Cleveland is that Vizquel was a remarkable SS and Peralta was a terrible one. In actuality, they weren’t all that different.
Maybe mastering the routine play isn’t so bad after all… *M*
