I am trying to spur some debate about either the current roster or within the past 5-10 years as to who has been our best homegrown infielder that had great offensive/defensive fundamentals but did not change positions at all. It seems our current crop (to include 1st base candidates) is very good but most of the 2B/SS/3B players have moved around a lot in an effort to find them the right place to play. Any thoughts?

 

Edited July 4, 200916 yr by chisoxfan09

I am trying to spur some debate about either the current roster or within the past 5-10 years as to who has been our best homegrown infielder that had great offensive/defensive fundamentals but did not change positions at all. It seems our current crop (to include 1st base candidates) is very good but most of the 2B/SS/3B players have moved around a lot in an effort to find them the right place to play. Any thoughts?

 

 

Clearly crede is the only candidate. Even he would not count if his rookie ball through winston salem fielding numbers scare you off.

Chris Getz, our current 2B, is the last homegrown player to come up all the way through the ranks with excellent fundamentals.

 

In your post you then go on to ask another question. The last guy who had excellent fundamentals and came up through the system who was very good (meaning he could hit) and never changed positions? Does such a player exist? It wasn't Crede at all. Crede sucked for some time as he developed. Usually young players struggle and nobody is perfect fundamentally and defensively. The type of player you're describing in your second example sounds Longoria-like, and those players are extremely rare, obviously. Beckham is/was our best prospect in quite some time and even he messes up, and he also changed positions, and he never really went all the way through the system. He just kind of took a short baseball vacation between college and the Majors.

Ray Durham, who I would hardly say had excellent defensive fundamentals, but he was fairly polished as an offensive force...and that's going back well more than a decade.

Robin Ventura

 

Robin Ventura

 

As Robins biggest fan, he was a terrible defender when he came up. He worked himself into a gold glover.

As Robins biggest fan, he was a terrible defender when he came up. He worked himself into a gold glover.

That's not my recollection at all. Not by a longshot.

As Robins biggest fan, he was a terrible defender when he came up. He worked himself into a gold glover.

IIRC, he had the tools, and wasn't horrible by a long shot. Yet made a lot of errors that young guys make. No way could he play 3b the way he did just by hard work if he didn't have the fundamentals down pat.