This time I am going to put a STAT reference guide at the bottom of the blog. So please don't feel lost when reading all the 2 to 3 letter abbreviations.
1st Base
Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds. $525,000 in 2010.
Mr. Votto hails from America's Attic (aka Canada) and was drafted in the 2nd round with pick number 44 way back in 2002. He played college ball at Richview Collegiate Institute, the powerhouse of baseball from Canada. Not really, he is the first player to be drafted from that school.
Mr. Votto was any real easy pick for the infield. He won the NL MVP award for goodness sake. The Reds got an NL MVP for just $525,000. (The Rays paid $10,250,00 and got Carlos Pena. .196 BA, 158 SO, and .407 SLG). He was #2 in the league in SLG with .600, #2 in the league in OPS at 1.024, #2 BA at .324, #6 in Walks, #1 in OBP, #5 in HR, and #6 among First basemen in FPCT (Fielding percentage). Needless to say he had a ridiculous year. If I was making an all-star team I would put him at #1 due to his performance last year (If Pujols gets his contract negotiated I will stick him above Votto though, just because he has proven he can do these types of numbers over the long haul)
2nd Base
Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves. $440,000 in 2010.
This one was a tough one to decide for me. Gordon Beckham of the White Sox and Blake DeWitt of the Dodgers/Cubs kept popping up. I know Prado had a much better year but he only played around two thirds of his games at 2nd and the other two were full time second basemen. In the end I went with Prado just because he had a much better year offensively compared to the other two and I just had to put him on the list.
Prado is a product of Venezuela. He was taken in the 2001 Amateur draft. Prado posted a solid .307 BA which put him as the 3rd highest among 2nd basemen. He was 5th in SLG, 6th in OPS, and 2nd in XB among all 2nd Basemen. He was 9th in MVP voting and represented Atlanta in the All-Star game as well. The only negative is that he isn't the best fielder. That could have come from him moving around positions so much and having to adjust or just the fact that his offense will overshadow his defense. Either way he had a great year living on such a small budget.
Shortstop
Elvis Andus, Texas Rangers. $418,420 in 2010.
Mr. Andus hails from the same country as Prado and was also taken in the Amateur draft but in 2005 and not 2001. He had a magnificent year, and if it wasn't for Votto this would be the no-brain pick for the infield. 2010 was an All-Star year for Elvis and it also had him coming in 2nd for Rookie of the Year voting.
The first thing I looked at when picking my shortstop was some fielding stats. He was very solid in this department. The most solid player that wasn't making the big bucks really. He was at least 8th among his fellow Shortstops in FPCT, DP, and RF. To add to a good fielding year he had a great small ball offensive year. 5th among shortstops in OBP, tied for 1st with shortstops for steals which put him tied for 15thn overall in the League with 32. He is not a slugging hitter and it shows in his low SLG of .301. He had the 4th highest amount of Ground Balls hit in the league, yet only hit into 6 Double Plays all season. This was the lowest for a Shortstop with at least 600 plate appearances. He also got on base with walks coming in at #4 with his BB/PA ratio of .095. He might have had more steals, or at least been more successful if it hadn't been for a nagging injury during second half of the season and the fact that the Rangers didn't need the risk/reward of him getting caught or not towards the end as well.
Mark Reynolds Arizona Diamondbacks. $833,333 in 2010.
I know what your thinking if you have made it this far into the blog and you kept track of low salaried 3rd baseman last year, "Why didn't this idiot pick Casey Mcghee?". I know I should have, Casey made less money last year and put up better numbers, but Mr. Reynolds is a stat nerds dream. Especially a stat nerd that hates the use of the batting average as a significance on how well a player performs. It is also my blog, and no one read it anyway so I can do what I want.
Mark is from Pikeville, KY, and he was drafted in the 16th round with the 476th pick overall by Arizona back in 2004. He had what some people would call an interesting year. He led the League in K's with 211, and that was down from 223 the year before. The next highest was David Wright with 161, but David also had 98 more plate appearances than Mark. He easily had the lowest BA among Shortstops at .198 and second in the league to Carlos Pena at .196.
So I know what your thinking, "Why in the world did you pick a guy who common sense says had a horrible year"? Well, turns out is wasn't that horrible. He got on base every other way you could try to get on base. He lead all 3rd basemen with 83 Walks, which put him 12th in the league. He also led 3rd basemen with the ever important Hit by Pitch statistic with 9. His SLG wasn't bad with .433. This tells us that when he did actually swing and hit the ball it at least got tattooed. My most favorite stat that he led 3d basemen with was P/PA (Pitches per Plate Appearance), which was 4.31. This means he has patience, maybe a little to much patience, but if he can develop the technique of just putting lumber on the ball then his numbers will rise. This is why I say I think he is a stat nerd dream, he has great potential because he has all the nerdy stats in place, now he just has to please the "common" stat guys. i.e. BA.
Well, do you think I overlooked anyone? Why do I even ask this, you have probably fallen asleep at this point or just really clicked on the link because you saw it on my facebook and thought "What is he doing instead of actual real work?".
References
BA - Batting Average
SO - Strike outs, sometimes referred to as K's.
SLG - Slugging percentage. google it if you do not know it.
OPS - On base percentage plus Slugging percentage
OBP - On base percentage
XB - Number of extra base hits. A base hit more than a single.
DP - Double plays fielded.
RF - Range Factor. You can google it, its just a way to grade fielders.
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