Ben Revere's outfield assists

[gunnarthor]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/walking-through-ben-reveres-19-assists/

 

Fun article at fangraphs on Revere's 19 career assists.  But the most important part is the ending: "If you’re looking for visually-impressive assists, Ben Revere isn’t your man. That’s what you’d expect out of an arm rating of 1. But, he’ll always have the Ryan Roberts play. That was a throw any outfielder could be proud of. And it was probably a better throw than you could make. Don’t lose sight of the fact that you completely suck at baseball. You’re just lucky you never get .giffed."

 

 

[ashbury]

High-larious!  Another example of why official defense stats may tell you what happened but are close to useless for evaluating players.

[jimmer]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/walking-through-ben-reveres-19-assists/

 

Fun article at fangraphs on Revere's 19 career assists.  But the most important part is the ending: "If you’re looking for visually-impressive assists, Ben Revere isn’t your man. That’s what you’d expect out of an arm rating of 1. But, he’ll always have the Ryan Roberts play. That was a throw any outfielder could be proud of. And it was probably a better throw than you could make. Don’t lose sight of the fact that you completely suck at baseball. You’re just lucky you never get .giffed."

it was a great article.  His arm is so bloody weak. OF assist is yet another old time stat that used to be considered a telling that. As we can see, it really isn't. It's one reason he gets such bad grades in defensive metrics.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Dear god, it’s perfect. A good throw, on the fly, right on the money, to kill Ryan Roberts. In this same season, the Fan Scouting Report gave Ben Revere’s arm strength a 0 rating. This assist happened on August 11, when the Twins fell to 49-64. In 2012, the latest game of the season any Twins fan watched was on August 10. Considering the Twins lost 12-6 and started Cole De Vries, I’m not one to blame them.

 

Try not to think about what it tells you that the last two third-base coaches tested Ben Revere with Casey Kotchman and Miguel Cabrera.

 

Rob Brantly tells you exactly what went wrong. Revere didn’t kill a baserunner. Brantly killed himself. Revere was just there to make sure he was dead.

 

This article is fantastic. 

[nicksaviking]

That was great! Not to stick up for him, put that does kind of put in perspective that great range can make up for a bad arm.

[ashbury]

That was great! Not to stick up for him, put that does kind of put in perspective that great range can make up for a bad arm.

Or at least, why they (run/field/throw) are considered separate tools on the mythical five-tool scale and not just lumped together.  Several of the assists shown here would also be made by someone with a better arm, and that better arm would make additional plays; but on these plays (with about 2 exceptions) even my arm would have sufficed and my vintage ball team had me at first base.

[Paul Pleiss]

It's a great read. And makes me miss Ben Revere even more. I have a 18-24 of him diving for a ball with a smile on his face hanging on my wall. I miss that energy and excitement. He was just fun to watch. I bet he'd look great in Kasota Gold.

[jimmer]

That was great! Not to stick up for him, put that does kind of put in perspective that great range can make up for a bad arm.

I believe if he took better routes, he'd have a lot less spectacular plays, but be a better overall defender.  Maybe that's why he ranked 17th out of 19 qualifying CFs in revised zone rating (RZR) this year resulting in -18 runs saved.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Great article!
 

Tip to Terry: Let's just name Trevor May our 5th starter and let that trade start paying dividends.

[Paul Pleiss]

Great article!

 

Tip to Terry: Let's just name Trevor May our 5th starter and let that trade start paying dividends.

I would love love love love love love to see the Twins just name May and let the rest of the back of the rotation guys figure it out in the pen or AAA. As much as I love Big Pelf (for no apparent reason, except that maybe I think in the right light he resembles a Sasquatch), I just don't want him pitching in the rotation. I have no idea why the Twins extended him for two additional years. Even Bill Smith would have avoided that one.