The Walker Situation Take Two

I get sick of hearing how Walker is a butcher in the field and Mark Grudz's is this far superior defensive 2nd baseman. If you just want to look at last year, then you will win any argument. But the wonderful thing about baseball you can go back and look at some of the stats to tell what is an aberration or what is reality.

If this argument took place 1 year ago today we would be talking about how superior Walker is defensively to Grudz. I am dead serious.

1 year does not make a career.

I am going to delve into stats that the new wave stats people use as fact to prove Grudz's is superior to Walker.

Last year Grudz's had a 5.00 Range Factor and a .854 Zone Rating. Walker had a 4.75 Range Factor and Zone Rating of .788.

But if you look a little deeper you will notice that Grudz in previous years was actually worse than Walkers one bad year.

In 2002 Walker had a Range Factor of 5.14 and a Zone Rating of .824. Grudz had a 4.54 Range Factor and a .842 Zone Rating.

2001 Walker had a Range Factor of 5.09 and a Zone Rating of .822. Grudz had a 4.70 Range Factor and a .823 Zone Rating.

There is a myth surrounding Walker as a horrible 2nd baseman and there is a myth surrounding Grudz as this defensive wizard who we can't live without. Was it the long grass at Wrigley that turned around Grudz's defense? Was it Alex Gonzalez? Was Walker better suited to fast astro turf as compared to grass fields in Boston? Did Barry Larkin help? These are questions that are tough to answer, but Walker has shown he is at the very least just as good of a defensive 2nd baseman as Mark Grudz over his career.

I think the reason people say Walker is horrible in the field is because he goes after the tough plays and trys to get the out and doesnt always have success. My biggest gripe with Grudz over the years is that he is slow as a brick and only goes after plays that he knows he will have success with. Walker to me is the more agressive 2nd baseman that will atleast attempt to try and make a play instead of just letting the ball go to the OF like Grudz has a habit of doing.

I will probably get flamed for that last paragraph but oh well. Walker is not a horrible defensive 2nd and Grudz is not as good with the glove as your lead to believe.