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Middle Infielders Should Have Things Covered

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - The root of much of the optimism around the Rays this spring is in the seemingly much-improved pitching staff.

The retooled bullpen should be far better from top to bottom than it was last year, and the rotation might not be far behind, with Matt Garza taking the spot essentially held by Jae Seo early last season and the coming-off-surgery Casey Fossum no longer in the picture.

But one new wrinkle that could make as big an impact as the personnel changes on the pitching staff is the continuity the Rays could have in the middle infield. Whereas last season the Rays started six different players - most of whom were considered sub-par defensively - at second base and four at shortstop, penciling Jason Bartlett and Akinori Iwamura in for at least 150 starts each could make a huge difference.

"We feel that we'll be much stronger up the middle at those two positions this year than we have the last few years," Rays senior vice president Gerry Hunsicker said. "It wasn't just physical errors that show up in the box score, but it's balls that people don't get to that go for hits and double plays that don't get turned because the quickness might not be there.

"Ultimately, when you're weak at those two positions, you end up giving extra outs and runs away."

That happened quite a bit last year. Brendan Harris, for instance, started 86 games at shortstop and handled just about most balls he got to with little trouble, but the Rays expect Bartlett to scoop up far more balls, and that should equal a lot more outs.

"I think the big thing is the range we have out there," Bartlett said. "Aki and I are going to cover a lot of ground. We're going to get the routine plays, but we're also going to get those balls that used to be hits."

Despite the 26 errors he made last season with the Twins, Bartlett's defensive track record is strong. John Dewan, author of "The Fielding Bible," has created a statistical system to measure players' defensive abilities. It's called plus/minus and is roughly based on how many more or less plays a defender makes in a season compared to the average defender at his position.

Obviously, there is no data to measure how Iwamura stands as a second baseman, but Bartlett ranked second-best in plus/minus among all big-league shortstops for the 2005-07 seasons, trailing only Houston's Adam Everett. Harris, on the other hand, had the third-worst plus/minus in the majors last season.

The Rays believe Iwamura will make the adjustment from third base to second without much trouble - "He'll be fine," Bartlett said reassuringly - and some of the skills that made him popular among Rays pitchers last season should translate to his new position.

"Aki's got great body control, so he can pretty much play wherever he wants," RHP James Shields said. "That's one of the reasons he's here right now, because he can do anything. He's like Spiderman."

The individual defensive prowess of each player aside, the Rays should benefit from having a unit in the middle infield rather than shuffling through players on almost a nightly basis. It's difficult to build confidence with such a constant rotation, and the Rays already are feeling better about what they've seen this spring.

"When you know you have a good defense behind you, you're not going to walk too many people," LHP Scott Kazmir said. "Even if you go 3-0, you go, 'OK, you're hitting it. You're not getting off for free, you're hitting it,' because I like my chances with the guys out on the field."

JOINED IN PROGRESS: The Rays' decision to move Saturday home game start times up to 6:10 p.m. during the summer nearly broke up the Detroit Tigers' perfect TV record for this season.

The Tigers had planned to televise all 162 games, but the early start for an Aug. 2 game against the Rays at Tropicana Field created a problem. Fox has an exclusive national window for Saturday broadcasts that doesn't lift until 7:05 p.m.

The solution? FSN Detroit will join the game in progress at 7:05, whatever inning the teams might be in at the time. So diligent Tigers fans will be able to watch the final out of all 162 games this year, even if they see the first pitch of only 161 of them.

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