Worst Red Sox Shortstop?

[AndyH]

Edgar Renteria is by far the worst shortstop that I remember seeing play for the Red Sox. Who have the others been. I recall:

Cabrera

Nomar

John Valentin

Rick Burleson

Luis Aparicio

Rico Petrocelli

Jerry Adair?

I'm missing a bunch. Without looking them up, who are they?

[Lori Friedman]

Andy, Are you asking about shortstops during your own lifetime, or in the team's entire history? If the latter, how could you possibly forget about Johnny Pesky? Your citizenship in Red Sox Nation is hereby suspended until further notice.

You'll probably remember Spike Owen from the 1986 team?

As for whether Edgar Rentaria is the worst of all time, all I can say is: 29 errors through Monday night's game.

[AndyH]

Lori, you win with Spike. Forgot him. ...that "I remember seeing play". You don't think I am old enough to have seen Johnny Pesky play, now do you? When did he retire, anyways?

Are any on this list as bad as Edgar?

[Lori Friedman]

During the early 70's, Doug Griffin and John Kennedy covered the middle infield and switched off as shortstop and second baseman. I recall that they were both fairly solid defensive players.

As for Edgar, be afraid...be very afraid.

[Belgarath]

I dunno. Rico Petrocelli made 28 errors in only 127 games in 1966.

Hard to figure out Renteria. I think his two years prior to Boston he only had something like 27 errors for the two years COMBINED.

Of course, there are errors and there are errors. I used to see Ozzie Smith make some (but not many!) errors on balls that no other shortstop in baseball could ever have gotten to in the first place.

I wonder how the relative value regulations should be applied to baseball players...

[AndyH]

Two more winners with JFK and DG. Both solid.

Edgar already has 75 errors; they keep giving him breaks and not counting them. Last night he dropped a routine chopper right to him, in his glove. Just dropped it, not on an exchange or anything. They ruled it an infield hit.

Could this be just Edgar being Edgar, i.e. Mannyitis at shortstop? Looks that way to me. Remdog is saying he hopes Edgar is sick or something so this doesn't last the entire contract.

Belgarath, surely nobody will confuse Edgar with Ozzie. He looks more like Ortiz than Ozzie.

[AndyH]

Bye Bye Edgar! Yippee!

[Belgarath]

I wonder if any analysis has been done (by Bill James or some similar stat weenie) on the relative percentages of the "best" shortstops who play on natural grass as opposed to artificial turf? Or for whortstops who change teams and go from turf to grass or vice versa, what happens to their fielding percentages?

My guess would be that the percentages go down when switching from turf to grass, and rise when going the other way. Not that I'm excusing Edgar for his fielding this year - it just occurred to me, that's all.

[Lori Friedman]

Did Busch Stadium have artificial turf? I thought that all ballparks (except for the "domes", of course) had, over the years, made the switch to grass.

By the way, I recently visited the Cardinals website, which made the claim that Busch Stadium had been the last of the 1960's "cookie cutter" ballparks. I had to take issue with that claim and send an email messagae to the site manager. The very first "cookie cutter" happens to be alive and well in Washington, DC -- RFK Stadium, home to the Nationals.

[AndyH]

Interesting points.

Well, December 8 has improved slightly. RIP John Lennon and see ya Edgar.