This has been a very interesting season already. Things have gone badly, specifically the pitching, but the \u201cimportant\u201d parts of the team have mostly been on track. Jordan Walker appears to have broken out, JJ Wetherholt is as advertised if not frankly better with his defensive results, and the late inning combo of Riley O\u2019Brien and JoJo Romero are looking mighty appealing to opposing teams if the Cardinals decide to deal them.<\/p>\n
On the bad side, I\u2019ll single out Matthew Liberatore as one of the important parts decidedly not going well. He\u2019s been my biggest disappointment. It\u2019s only four starts, but he\u2019s not missing any bats. Michael McGreevy is pretty much going as planned. Dustin May still has ugly stats, but now has two consecutive good starts and his stats will be better when his BABIP against isn\u2019t over .400. I don\u2019t really think Kyle Leahy or Andre Pallante are in the long term plans so their struggles aren\u2019t problematic for the future to me.<\/p>\n
On the hitting side, I\u2019d pretty much limit it to Nolan Gorman, who makes it hard to believe in his bat. He\u2019s not the only one struggling, but the others either seeem unlucky (Masyn Winn) or they just don\u2019t have a ticking clock (Nathan Church). This is Gorman\u2019s final shot on the Cardinals. And like last year, the problem isn\u2019t that he is striking out – that comes with the territory – it\u2019s that his power is gone. He needs elite power. He hasn\u2019t had it since 2023. That\u2019s why it\u2019s hard to believe in his bat.<\/p>\n
However, the early returns on his defense are very promising, to the point where a Ryan McMahon type – closer to an average hitter and with worse defense than McMahon – is more a possibility than I would have assumed. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s likely, but if Gorman can be an above average defender at 3B – it changes what his bat needs to be. Which is very important, because it\u2019s looking increasingly less likely that Gorman will be much more than an average hitter.<\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t be playing 3B, but an interesting thought experiment is if Brendan Donovan was in the lineup instead of Gorman. The 2026 team would certainly be better, though it\u2019s unfair to judge it that way, because we\u2019re not going to see the benefits immediately. However, it might surprise some of you – imagine in this hypothetical that Donovan literally plays 3B – that, by the small sample defense that we have, it would be a HUGE downgrade in defense.<\/p>\n
Yeah that\u2019s right. Donovan has been used exclusively as a third baseman for the Seattle Mariners and he\u2019s been awful defensively. Coming into the season, he played almost as much RF as he had played 3B and if you don\u2019t remember him playing RF, he played one inning combined his last two seasons in St. Louis. So as a result, Donovan has been -4 OAA at 3B. Gorman has been +2. It is April 15. That is a crazy huge disparity 20 games into the season.<\/p>\n
But it bring up a concept that I\u2019ve thought about before. Donovan isn\u2019t actually that good of a defender, but he looks like he is. I tried to figure out why. And I think I did. Donovan is a high effort defender, he goes all out to make the plays he can make. Mentally, I think we give him credit for plays he doesn\u2019t make because he almost made them. A diving stop, but the runner\u2019s safe. He also doesn\u2019t have a ton of range, so he\u2019ll make diving plays that some other fielders don\u2019t have to dive for.<\/p>\n
Which gave me the idea for this post. I\u2019m workshopping this idea, so it might not even fit like I\u2019m hoping it does. But it\u2019s more of a descriptor of a defender. Essentially, I came up with three categories to help describe what type of defender a player is. The first category is effort, which is less meant as a judgment call on how hard a player is trying and more \u201chow it looks.\u201d Nationals budding star James Wood is a low effort defender, not because I think he isn\u2019t trying hard to catch it, but because he looks like he\u2019s barely trying. He just has resting bored face. Nick Castellanos is low effort because he isn\u2019t trying hard defensively. He basically admitted as much.<\/p>\n
The second category is smoothness. Sometimes this goes hand-in-hand with effort. A smooth player may not look like they\u2019re trying very hard. You can probably reinterpret this as how easy do they make defense look. Even if we know we would never be able to make that play, that doesn\u2019t mean the player doesn\u2019t make it look easy. Masyn Winn makes defense look easy. Brendan Donovan does not make defense look easy. Masyn Winn is smooth. Donovan is clumsy.<\/p>\n
The third category is more objective, or at least should be, which is simply how good they actually are. Pretty straightforward. Use the best defensive data you have at the time and determine if they are a good or bad defender or in between. That\u2019s the other thing. It\u2019s a sliding scale. Most players are in the middle. Most players aren\u2019t really clumsy or smooth, and most players aren\u2019t high effort or low effort.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the part I\u2019m really workshopping. Coming up with names for each of these types. I think just naming it after the prototypical example is kind of boring, but I\u2019m not clever enough to come up with a nice punchy name for all of these. So you\u2019ll get my best effort.<\/p>\n
The high effort, clumsy, bad defender<\/p>\n
Gold Standard: Jose Martinez<\/p>\n
Did Jose Martinez motivate the name? Absolutely. But also I feel like being a tall and awkward dude is kind of a prerequisite for being in this category. Before this season, Jordan Walker fit. Just tall guys who don\u2019t quite know how to move in their own body. I\u2019m struggling to think of a small guy where this fits. But these are also obviously bad defenders, and teams put up with them because they have power or power potential and well small guys don\u2019t tend to have power.<\/p>\n
The high effort, smooth, bad defender<\/p>\n
The Gold Standard: Bo Jackson<\/p>\n
Bo Jackson is a little bit before my time, but I\u2019ve seen some clips and I certainly am not capable of coming up with a better example. A smooth and high effort defender was a tough combo for me to think of. But Bo Jackson rated as a bad fielder, admittedly from defensive stats that are not perfect. But in the equivalent of four seasons of defensive innings in the outfield, spread between all three positions, Jackson averaged -5 DRS per season. His numbers in CF and RF do drag down the numbers, so I am being unfair here.<\/p>\n
The Perpetual Jersey Stain<\/p>\n
The high effort, bad defender<\/p>\n
The Gold Standard: Aaron Miles<\/p>\n
The beautiful thing about finding the perfect example of the type of defender I\u2019m trying to describe is that I almost don\u2019t need to say any more. These are typically middle infield types, bench players, who are always called gritty and somehow begin the game with dirt all over their uniforms. Managers used to love them. Another word used for this player was utility, which before Ben Zobrist, was basically code for bad at all the positions, but he can sure stand there.<\/p>\n
The high effort, clumsy average defender<\/p>\n
The Gold Standard: Brendan Donovan<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know that Donovan is the gold standard, but he motivated this post so I\u2019m going to give it to him. These tend to be the defenders most overrated by a broadcast team or even fans, mostly because we don\u2019t tend to notice they have less range than their counterparts, though they might provide a decent amount of defensive highlights. If you can remember seeing a lot of highlights from a defender but notice their numbers end up average-ish, they might belong here.<\/p>\n
The high effort, clumsy good defender<\/p>\n
Gold Standard: Jordan Walker<\/p>\n
Yes, this is wishful thinking. I can\u2019t call Walker a good defender yet. But if he becomes a good defender, he will definitely be the gold standard. Walker strikes me as a guy who is always going to be clumsy and it does not seem like outfield defense comes naturally to him, but with his arm and speed, he can overcome those two things to be a good defender. It\u2019s not like corner outfielder sets an impossible standard. Why Don Knotts? I mean\u2026. high effort, very clumsy comic actor, perhaps the best version of that has ever existed. This is my favorite name.<\/p>\n
Half-shirt, full extension<\/p>\n
The high effort, smooth good defender<\/p>\n
The Gold Standard: Jim Edmonds<\/p>\n