Face facts: Freddie Bynum is not the answer at SS

[El Gordo]

But we have reams of data that run counter your obviously hyperbolic ranting about Knott. Bynum hasn't even played half of a pro season doing the job for which we're now trying to evaluate him.

Knott has little pro playing time as well. But I am willing to accept the judgement of a mojority of Scouts in both the cases of Bynum and Knott.

[Old#5fan]

One thing I don't like about Bynum is that he seems to hit into a lot of double plays. For as speedy as he is, opposing teams shouldn't be turning two on him constantly.

Is he the "answer"? I don't know. Given the choices of Luis Hernandez, Brandon Fahey, Cintron or Bynum, he might be "the answer" after all.

He is a worst defensive SS than LH and his OBP is the same. Please, again, someone tell me why Bynum is perceived as that much of an upgrade over LH? I simply don't see it.:scratchchinhmm:

[davearm]

Jon, I agree with you in concept. However, there may be two things that worked against him as he came through the minors. First he is versatile. Guys that can play many positions can get tagged with a utility label because managers love these versatile guys.

Second he is skinny. Many people think skinny is not durable or strong. If these two things are the reasons he did play a single position like SS, then they are not reasons to hold against him. I'm not saying these two things are the reasons, just that they might be.

That is why I am asking what people have seen from him at short. I would say from the answers, he is exceeding expectations so far. I guess we will just have to watch and see how good he turns out to be.

Do you have any scouting reports that talk about Bynum's shortcoming other then being versatile?

Skinny? Huh?

Skinny is more of a prerequisite for being a SS than a disqualifier. It's the bigger guys who tend to get moved off of SS, due to concerns about their range.

And typically, you become a versatile player in the minors when your org doesn't envision a ML future as an everyday starter at one position.

[DrungoHazewood]

Knott has little pro playing time as well. But I am willing to accept the judgement of a mojority of Scouts in both the cases of Bynum and Knott.

Jon Knott has played 779 professional games.

[El Gordo]

He is a worst defensive SS than LH and his OBP is the same. Please, again, someone tell me why Bynum is perceived as that much of an upgrade over LH? I simply don't see it.:scratchchinhmm:

I've been an LH booster, but so far I believe Bynum is showing better range and no greater inconsistancy than Luis. Bynum is a better all around hitter with more speed and a better base runner.

[DrungoHazewood]

He is a worst defensive SS than LH and his OBP is the same. Please, again, someone tell me why Bynum is perceived as that much of an upgrade over LH? I simply don't see it.:scratchchinhmm:

Bynum is a much better hitter, and not enough of a liability on defense to make up for it.

[Old#5fan]

Bynum is a much better hitter, and not enough of a liability on defense to make up for it.

If he is so much of a "better" hitter how come is OBP is virtually identical to LH this season?

[The Wedge]

I'm not sure anybody has said this yet, but:

Face facts: Nobody in our system "is the answer" at SS. Unless the question is "who can stopgap at SS until we get a real one?"

[Crazysilver03]

If he is so much of a "better" hitter how come is OBP is virtually identical to LH this season?

Wow, you really are dense. I call BS.

Luis had 76 at-bats compared to Bynum's 22.

Bynum has a .318/.348/.364 line

Hernandez has a .250/.306/.263 line

What makes you think .306 and .348 are identical? Do you actually look at stats?

[Sports Guy]

Wow, you really are dense.

Luis had 76 at-bats compared to Bynum's 22.

Bynum has a .318/.348/.364 line

Hernandez has a .250/.306/.263 line

What makes you think .306 and .348 are identical? Do you actually look at stats?

I was about to look this up but now i don't have to...thanks.

[RShack]

Second he is skinny. Many people think skinny is not durable or strong.

I don't think anybody holds being skinny against a SS. For example:

<img src=http://static.baseballtoaster.com/blogs/cardboardgods/images/2007/MarkBelanger76.jpg></img>

He is a worst defensive SS than LH and his OBP is the same. Please, again, someone tell me why Bynum is perceived as that much of an upgrade over LH? I simply don't see it.:scratchchinhmm:

Bynum has been doing fine so far. I think he's kinda slow on the DP-relay, but I'm not really sure about that. So far, I think we've seen Freddie at his best and LH at his worst.

Regardless, if he keeps playing like this in the field, then he'll be fine. I think there's about a 3% chance of him doing that, and that we'll see LH again before it's over, but we'll see...

[El Gordo]

Jon Knott has played 779 professional games.

Forgive me Dottore, poor use of teminology. Bynum has 53 innings at ML SS this year, more over the course of his career, Knott has 31 ML AB.

[wildcard]

Skinny? Huh?

Skinny is more of a prerequisite for being a SS than a disqualifier. It's the bigger guys who tend to get moved off of SS, due to concerns about their range.

You are talking about day gone by. Cal was not skinny. Neither are ARod, Jeter or Tejada. The world has changed from the years of Belanger.

Put Bynum next to the average SS today, he looks skinny.

[Old#5fan]

I was about to look this up but now i don't have to...thanks.

Luis: 145 career AB, .303 OBP, .310 SLG, 4 SB, .972 fielding % in 53 games at SS

Freddie: 258 AB, .304 OBP, .446 SLG, 16 SB, .981 fielding % in 20 games at SS

Bynum in over 100 more career ML ab's at SS has an OBP .001 better than the much offensively maligned LH. I don't see where Bynum is so much better offensively. In fact, he's not.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Forgive me Dottore, poor use of teminology. Bynum has 53 innings at ML SS this year, more over the course of his career, Knott has 31 ML AB.

Defense is also harder to quantify from stats.

And you'll remember that most, if not all, of the criticism around guys like Knott (and House, and now Botts) was because they weren't getting ANY chance to show what they could do in the major leagues. We are, on the other hand, giving Bynum his chance.

So before bringing old arguments into this one, let's try to understand the differences between them, which outweigh any similarlties.