Eck'sSneakyCheese said:
Depends on what the minimal qualifactions are. On Fangraphs he doesn't even qualify until you put in a min of 500 PAs. Drop it to 400 and there are 6 guys out of 24 who had a higher wRC+. There were 8 players out of 36 with a higher wRC+ if you look at guys with over 300 PAs. Its not impressive.
What I mean by not adding anything to the roster is that they'd be taking out an average switch hitting utility infielder for an above average defensive SS with no positional flexibility and a severe platoon split. I don't see the benefit.
I was just pointing out that he was 9% better than league average (for all batters, not just short stops) and that among shortstops that made him one of the top bats last year. You are pointing to a rate stat and are ignoring actual contributed runs by doing this. It was a quick and dirty way to talk about his value at the plate last year but that doesn't mean that any wRC+ higher than his in smaller sample sizes are an indication of more value.
For example, Jose Reyes had 419 PAs at 114 wRC+. That was worth 9.5 wRAA (a counting stat). Drew was worth 9.3 in 501 PAs. They were worth essentially the same amount of runs at the plate despite Reyes' higher wRC+. You have to draw the line somewhere, and since we were talking about Drew's value, I drew that line at his number of plate appearances last year. In fact, I drew it lower, going to 450 to make sure that someone who had nearly as many PAs but fell just short wouldn't be excluded unfairly.
Looking at wRAA over 300 or more PAs in 2013 puts Drew in 7th among shortstops. The worst you can argue is that he was a top ten bat among short stops, and 10 would even be a stretch. That's impressive. Expecting him to not add value to the club after replacing Herrera is insanely pessimistic. Having a a platoon split does not mean he can't add value. It means the team should use him in a specific way to maximize his value. Considering the flexibility on the roster, especially on the left side of the infield (Bogearts and Holt can both play third, Bogaerts can play short, Middlebrooks can play third if Holt gets hurt or falls off the map, they still have Herrera in the organization), the Red Sox should be able to do exactly that.
If you want to continue insisting he's not going to add anything to the roster, feel free, but I don't see any way to support that statistically. That doesn't mean it can't happen, but I absolutely would not bet on it. It's almost a certainty that Drew will be more valuable to the Red Sox going forward than Herrera will (or would in Drew's place). They don't need a utility infielder who can play short like most teams do since Bogearts can slide over when needed. Why carry a terrible bat for that role if they don't have to?
I don't anything to add about this after this post, so if you want to respond one more time, have at it, but I'll back out of this back and forth now.