Ok, Ok, no need to keep sending in the emails demanding that the Defensive Specialist ends his festive season hiatus and gets back on the damn interweb. The Deep in the Hole inbox has taken a relentless pounding from the loyal readers desperate for their weekly fix of baseball insight and intellect.
Happy New Year!
The Defensive Specialist has relaced and re-oiled the Rawlings Gold Glove, completely rebuilt the Deep in the Hole radar gun and stopwatch and taken daily yoga sessions in order to maintain flexibility and fluidity so that the entire operation is fresh and sharp for the run to the playoffs.
As you may recall, the Defensive Specialist was at the tail end of a special project designed to determine who Australia’s best Major Leaguer is. To recap, the Defensive Specialist split every Aussie that has ever strapped a big league uniform on into 4 pools, providing some metrics around performance and then let the readers cast their votes to determine the top 4. The polls were so overcome by votes that Deep in the Hole Pty Ltd actually had to get additional credit from a reputable financial organisation in order to pay the overtime hours that the Deep in the Hole staff had to put in to count the tally.
Lets be honest, if you wanted to hear about the Deep in the Hole financials you’d show up at the board meetings, so lets keep things moving. After the people came up with Ryan Rowland-Smith, Graeme Lloyd, Dave Nilsson and Peter Moylan as the top 4, the Defensive Specialist put them into their own poll and let the fans make a call once again. After 7 furious days of polling, Graeme Lloyd emerged the winner ahead of Dave Nilsson. Peter Moylan finished in 3rd place with Rowland-Smith bringing up the rear.
Now keen readers may recall that when the Defensive Specialist set out on this journey, it was under the proviso that he would allow the readers to have some input and voice their opinion. However, if you glance over previous posts, you will quickly identify the paragraph in which the Defensive Specialist stated:
The Defensive Specialist plans to run through all 23 (Joe Quinn is the 24th) Australians to play in the big leagues, take a look at their careers, ruminate on their careers and then determine the best Aussie big leaguer. Before the Defensive Specialist makes his call, a poll will be run so that the readers can chime in with their choice.
Ok, so the Defensive Specialist made an error on the total number of Aussies to play in the big leagues (the fact checker was dismissed with a tidy severance package and the Defensive Specialist was suitably flagellated), can we move past the mistake and concentrate on the fact that the Defensive Specialist was going to make the final call?
Along the way, things haven’t always run smoothly as evidenced by the whole Joe Quinn fiasco where his representatives threatened legal action if their boy wasn’t included in the equation. We had some hard core lobbying from players on the list looking to be pushed to the top of the polls (as well as under the table offers that a less pious man would have gobbled up). On top of all that there was significant electronic and hard copy mail that flooded the Deep in the Hole inbox and mailroom from fans actively stating the case of their favourite player.
With all that in mind and under threat of his life by some of the more left of centre fans who take all this a little too seriously, the Defensive Specialist is ready to announce his decision.
In the Defensive Specialist’s expert opinion, Australia’s best Major League player to this point in time is….Dave Nilsson. Now before Graeme Lloyd’s loyal followers start working on the code for some diabolical computer virus designed to blow up the Deep in the Hole super computer, let the guy with the best hands in the business justify his case.
First of all, why not Ryan Rowland- Smith? Well, the 26 (Soon to be 27 on January 26th – get your cards in the mail) year old Hyphen has only been in the big leagues since 2007 and only settled into a regular rotation spot last season. The hype suggests that Rowland-Smith will settle in behind Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez as the number 3 starter which is nothing to sniff at whatsoever. His lack of tenure and until recently, his lack of consistency prevents him from taking top honours. However, with Peter Moylan apparently opting for Lasik eye surgery or the thickest contact lenses in the history of contact lenses, Rowland-Smith does win the prize for Australia’s best Major Leaguer in eye glasses.
Ok, so why not Moylan as the top dog? Well once again length of tenure is the issue at hand. Moylan has only been in the show since 2006 and missed almost all of the 2008 season when his elbow exploded while shelling peanuts in the bullpen. Moylan’s numbers to date are off the chain and if he can maintain these figures he has the potential to vault up the list. Fortunately with his heavily tattooed arms Moylan does take out the award for the best Australian Major Leaguer with arm sleeve tats. Congratulations!
We’re at the gravy part of the post now – Nilsson Vs Lloyd.
Nilsson played 8 years in the big leagues from the age of 22 to 29. Over that period his 162 game averages were a .285 batting average, 20 homeruns, 91 RBI’s, 75 runs. In more modern statistical terms, Nilsson had an OPS+ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-base_plus_slugging) of 110 which is considered slightly above average (with 100 being league average and 150 being excellent). It is important to remember that these numbers were generated by a catcher – perhaps the most demanding position on the field. Granted, Nilsson had a tough time staying on the yard due to injury, but offensively speaking, his output was at an outstanding level. While not considered in this evaluation, it is scary to think that he walked away from the major leagues in his prime. Without factoring in health and based on trends, it is safe to assume that Nilsson’s production would have continued upwards for at least 3-4 more years. One last thing to consider; Nilsson was a free agent at 29 after the 1999 season. To put things into perspective (and not to say that he was in the same class) but Mike Piazza signed a 91 million dollar deal with the New York Mets in 1999. Fair to say that Nilsson would have made a chunk of change.
Now Graeme Lloyd loyalists will be barking by this point, screaming that the man owns two World Series rings and threw one of the greatest running punches in baseball history.
Yeah, the Defensive Specialist notes all that. Lloyd played 10 seasons in the majors with 162 game average of 4 wins, 4 losses, 2 saves and a 4.04 ERA. Once again, keeping the peeps up to speed with the baseball metrics, his ERA+ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjusted_ERA%2B) was 114 (with an ERA+ of 100 deemed as average. Pedro Martinez holds the record with an ERA+ of 291, which is pure insanity).
For the Defensive Specialist, the decision was made not only by looking at career numbers (Nilsson has the edge), but also by role. From the time Lloyd was dealt to the New York Yankees, he was pretty much a LOOGY (Lefty One Out GuY), meaning that he would enter the game to face one key left handed hitter and once that out was recorded he would be lifted. In the Defensive Specialists esteemed opinion, you always go with the guy who plays every day over a role player…and the guy who mashes.
With that puppy put to bed, the Defensive Specialist will kick back and eagerly await the reader feedback to pour in. If you don’t agree with the call or have a different take, by all means share your thoughts on thedefensivespecialist@gmail.com or hit the comments section below. Now if you’ll excuse the Defensive Specialist, he has to go and board up Deep in the Hole Centrals windows in preparation for Lloyd, Moylan and the Hyphen’s angry supporters who may come rampaging.
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