The comparison of Uribe and Anderson, regarding their defense, is probably not very relevant. They are completely different kinds of short stops. I didn't check the stats, but I have watched both of them play enough to form an opinion and to my eye, Uribe had an extraordinary arm, but his range couldn't come close to Tim's. They are just different defenders.

Edited September 5, 20187 yr by Lillian

35 minutes ago, Lillian said:

The comparison of Uribe and Anderson, regarding their defense, is probably not very relevant. They are completely different kinds of short stops. I didn't check the stats, but I have watched both of them play enough to form an opinion and to my eye, Uribe had an extraordinary arm, but his range couldn't come close to Tim's. They are just different defenders.

I always thought Uribe had excellent range. I can think of one specific play where he covered a helluva lot of ground and caught a ball just before it entered the stands. There was 1 out in that inning at the time, I believe it was the 9th inning of a game. There's a decent chance the date was October 26. Anyway, that's just one example - Uribe moved rapidly to go get balls when he was out there as well. For whatever its worth, Uribe had a good solid "Range Factor" as we calculated things back in those old days. 

58 minutes ago, Balta1701 said:

I always thought Uribe had excellent range. I can think of one specific play where he covered a helluva lot of ground and caught a ball just before it entered the stands. There was 1 out in that inning at the time, I believe it was the 9th inning of a game. There's a decent chance the date was October 26. Anyway, that's just one example - Uribe moved rapidly to go get balls when he was out there as well. For whatever its worth, Uribe had a good solid "Range Factor" as we calculated things back in those old days. 

Uribe's range was fine, but I doubt that it was as good as Tim's. However, his arm was a "cannon". I attended the entire Spring Training seasons, 9 consecutive years. One of the first was right after the Sox had acquired Uribe, from the Rockies. I was sitting right in line with 1ST and Uribe was playing 2ND. I remember that his arm was almost too much for a first baseman to handle, from that close range. All the fans sitting around me were astounded by his throws. 

1 hour ago, Lillian said:

The comparison of Uribe and Anderson, regarding their defense, is probably not very relevant. They are completely different kinds of short stops. I didn't check the stats, but I have watched both of them play enough to form an opinion and to my eye, Uribe had an extraordinary arm, but his range couldn't come close to Tim's. They are just different defenders.

I have always liked the Alexei comparison best of all for Anderson, as their career arcs also seem to remind me of each other, but Uribe isn't a bad one for Anderson.

Not only was Uribe's a cannon but his strategy of backhanding everything made his release incredibly quick too. I loved that guy (actually when i was young, stupid, I was annoyed by his feast or famine offense, but as soon as he left I missed the crap out of him)

Yeah despite not looking like a short stop, Uribe was a good defender.