without taking mitigating circumstances into consideration is to have an incomplete and/or inaccurate evaluation.

Let’s say a pitcher throws poorly for an entire season because of an undiagnosed injury, illness or mechanical problem. The Rangers then decide he sucks, trade him for next to nothing. His new team fixes the problem (or treats illness or injury) and the player becomes a solid contributor. You take everything into consideration when evaluating a player.

Obviously, you are talking mostly about an award scenario, but Jamey did not say that Young should get the award because he had a broken finger, just that it should be considered when evaluating the players’ skills related to that injury.

…I’ve been sick all week with some sort of flu-like bug I can’t shake.

…who got sick this year? I mean, are you really saying we should handpick certain poor performances and throw them out because they were feeling a little ill or had a slight injury? I would think that over a six month season just about every player played a few days (or more) at less than 100% health.

This damn scoreboard is so frigging confusing.

He’s 23rd in tRA+ (still ahead of Santana and Lester). Kazmir was… too further down on the list for me to feel like counting that far, but he was still a good ways behind.

just be wary of depending on a single metric for a single year.

I know Shields is good, but I don’t know if he will match Kazmir going forward. Bill James has Shields showing a FIP improvement and a K/9 improvement over last year, which is awesome.

Kazmir had a weird year, though. His BABIP was a career low .275, but he had his worst year according to FIP (4.37).

Bill James and Marcel both project a correction for Kazmir. HR rate spike should be an aberration, imo. Career HR/9: .90, but 2008 HR/9: 1.36.

You wouldn’t move Volquez, the older pitcher, for Kazmir?

Career WHIP in 723 IP: 1.37.

Hamilton’s probably a left-fielder in 2009, y’know. Borbon’s D seems to be enough to displace him whether he’s healthy enough to stick in center.

I’m pretty much devil’s advocate, but Kaz’s numbers taken alone suggest he’s got plenty left.

If a player is in the minors for less than 2 weeks at the beginning of the season (or something like that amount of time), and then is called up and spends all season on the roster, he is credited with a full season of service time.

That’s done to prevent that sort of monkeying with the roster.

It was overly personal, and wasn’t meant to be personal. It was more on the order of a general observation, for all detractors, and you aren’t by far the biggest detractor. As previously and clearly said, I endorse Adam’s suggestion that MY should be moved to 3B, where his skill at playing what’s hit to him and his normally good arm should play well. I wouldn’t insist that he be a fixture at SS, a defensively critical position. And even that disregards the fact that he makes exceptional plays (occasionally) and has few peers at turning double plays. Those occasions are lost in the overal aggregation of his numbers. Of course “all” shortstops can and do make exceptional plays in MLB, so that’s not praising him or setting him apart.

His winning a golf glove is just another accomplishment, merit or not, much like his AllStar MVP and perinnial selection to the AL AllStar team. Acute analysis would deprive him and the Rangers those notices and honors, but to my way of thinking the add to the Rangers’ being noticed, contribute toward their being respected (by many if not most fans), and add something to the appeal of seeing them play.

I live 8 time zones and a few thousand miles away, and your answer is not quite why I was puzzled—if his range to his left his diminished, why doesn’t he cheat? Or if he DOES cheat, why is this not noted? If you want want to answer the questions without emtion, please do so.

I respect that argument more than the stat argument!

save his life? position? he DID go to his left well when he was a second baseman. Position, I assume , changes with each batter-or should-and age, of course. And measurement becomes …difficult