2009 Offseason: Shortstop

In this 2009 offseason extravaganza I plan on looking at each area of the team including, starting pitching, relievers, positional players, bench, and what ever else I feel like coming up with. In this section I'm going to covering shortstop.

In 2008 the Reds split the majority of the playing time at short among 3 guys. Keep in mind this is any game they in at shortstop. So chill the shit out if the numbers don't add up.

• Jeff Keppinger: 108 games
• Jerry Hairston Jr.: 36 games
• Paul Janish: 36 games

The Reds went into 2008 planning on Alex Gonzales to be their every day shortstop, but when he went down with a bunked up knee, they moved back to Jeff Keppinger. To start the year Keppinger was a hitting machine, but then he fractured his knee cap on a foul ball. After the DL trip Keppinger's numbers fell hard and fast.

Pre Knee Injury
Average: .324
On base percentage: .373
Slugging: .446
On base plus slugging: .819

Post Knee Injury
Average: .238
On base percentage: .281
Slugging: .299
On base plus slugging: .580

Just based on his seasonal hitting numbers Keppinger was well below average. Of shortstops with 300 plate appearances Keppinger ranked 11th out of 14 in the NL in Average(.267), Slugging(.356), and OPS (.664) and 14th in what many people expected his strong suit to be OBP(.308).

NL Averages for SS
Average: .260
On base percentage: .331
Slugging: .413
On base plus slugging: .744

Reds Team Average
Average: .272
On base percentage: .321
Slugging: .368
On base plus slugging: .689

Defensively shortstop was almost as bad. I really don't feel comfortable with the numbers I normally use (RZR, OOZ) for guys like Paul Janish, and Jerry Hairston Jr. because of the limited amount of time they both played there. The numbers say Hairston is pretty much terrible, and Janish is better by a pretty large margin than Keppinger, who is only slightly better than Hairston, but since the data isn't strong enough to compare them I really don't want to use them.

The obivous problem here is that Reds have no option at short right now that even warrants a big chunk of playing time. Gonzales can maybe be that guy, but he is never healthy and is yet another year older and I think his defense is largely over rated. Personally I would give Brandon Phillips a large chunk of time at short this spring to see if he can handle it and worry about replacing the 2nd baseman. Phillips bat would profile a lot better at short in case he never learns how to hit right handers, and he would have to be better than just about anyone else they have to use their right now.

Key Free Agents:

• Orlando Cabrera
• Rafael Furcal
• Edgar Renteria