ramfandan wrote: ↑30 Jan 2026 16:35 pm
I see Elly De La Cruz is ranked 7th .... The guy has excellent range and a cannon arm yet he had the 2nd most fielding errors in MLB with 11 and the 2nd most throwing errors in MLB with 15 for a grand total of 26 errors .
Sorry, but that is not what I want for SS position.
He's been at worst a close to average defender thus far in his career, and by statcast metrics he's been a little bit better than that.
Watch this posters and tell me you would want De La Cruz playing SS for the Cardinals SS over Winn. De La Cruz can hit , steal bases , etc. but no way I would want him at SS on Cardinals.
Argument by cherry-picked YouTube lowlights video . . . How persuasive. And rigorous. Who needs 3,364 innings of fielding data when we have ramfandan’s YouTube video curation . . .
The discussion was not whether De La Cruz is a better fielder than Winn—I think (hope) we can all agree Winn is the better defensive player. The point is De La Cruz hasn’t been nearly as bad in the field as you made him out to be. And I would venture to say De La Cruz likely is the more valuable player of the two, regardless of whom you’d personally “want as SS for the Cardinals.”
ramfandan wrote: ↑30 Jan 2026 16:35 pm
I see Elly De La Cruz is ranked 7th .... The guy has excellent range and a cannon arm yet he had the 2nd most fielding errors in MLB with 11 and the 2nd most throwing errors in MLB with 15 for a grand total of 26 errors .
Sorry, but that is not what I want for SS position.
He's been at worst a close to average defender thus far in his career, and by statcast metrics he's been a little bit better than that.
Watch this posters and tell me you would want De La Cruz playing SS for the Cardinals SS over Winn. De La Cruz can hit , steal bases , etc. but no way I would want him at SS on Cardinals.
Argument by cherry-picked YouTube lowlights video . . . How persuasive. And rigorous. Who needs 3,364 innings of fielding data when we have ramfandan’s YouTube video curation . . .
The discussion was not whether De La Cruz is a better fielder than Winn—I think (hope) we can all agree Winn is the better defensive player. The point is De La Cruz hasn’t been nearly as bad in the field as you made him out to be. And I would venture to say De La Cruz likely is the more valuable player of the two, regardless of whom you’d personally “want as SS for the Cardinals.”
You have to factor in ballparks to the equation. Cruz plays in a homer friendly park and Winn doesn't. I agree with Whitey on shortstops. He said Ozzie Smith probably saved 100 runs per year. I'm sure that was hyperbole but it does have to be figured in to the equation. A run saved is as good as a run produced.
Winn is perhaps the best defensive SS in all of MLB, but that's always debatable. I think you conservatively must place him in the top 5 defensively.
As many have posted, what keeps him out of the "top 10" overall is his lack of offensive production compared to the top. 26th in HRs, 17th in BA, 18th in OBP, 19th in OPS, 22nd in SB (not to mention his steal percentage was low at 64.29%).
Compared to his peers he's in the bottom half of average, power, OBP, OPS, and very low in steals.
As many agree, that doesn't make him a bad SS. You can sacrafice offense for defense at positions such as SS, CF and C. We just have to hope he improves offensively and build an offense at other positions. This is a rebuild, though, so we don't have that just yet.
