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Bartlett's Importance Can't Be Understated

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By MARC LANCASTER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2008

CLEVELAND - When Jason Bartlett went on the disabled list July 3, the Rays called up not one but two shortstops to replace him. They haven't come close to doing the job.

That isn't as much an indictment of Ben Zobrist and Reid Brignac as it is a don't-know-what-you've-got-'til-it's-gone refresher on just how valuable Bartlett has been to the Rays this season.

Plays everyone had grown accustomed to seeing made - even if they didn't necessarily qualify as routine - have become hits, errors or outs not recorded in his absence. The difference has been noticeable, and costly at times, such as the double play Zobrist couldn't complete Thursday night that helped send the game spiraling out of control.

Manager Joe Maddon took pains after that game to avoid criticizing Zobrist - "That was a big play, obviously, today, but I'm not going to dwell on that" - while also acknowledging the obvious about Bartlett.

"We do miss him in the middle," Maddon said.

While any discussion of how the Rays have come as far as they have this season has to start with improved pitching, there's no question the improved defense behind them has had a significant role in the pitchers' success. Bartlett has been the key addition there, taking the Rays' defending at perhaps the most important position on the field from the worst in baseball to pretty close to the top.

The evidence isn't just anecdotal, either. Take a look at Bartlett's zone rating and how it compares to some of his peers. Zone rating, which is defined as the percentage of balls fielded by a player in what Stats, Inc., defines as the typical defensive zone for his position.

Bartlett checks in at .846, meaning he gets to 84.6 percent of the balls he "should" be able to handle - a number that puts him fifth among all starting shortstops (Orlando Cabrera leads at .858). In far less playing time, Zobrist's zone rating is .724 and Brignac's is .500, but that's working from a small sample size.

So, compare Bartlett to the men he essentially has replaced this season. In 2007, the lowest zone rating for any regular shortstop belonged to Derek Jeter, at .765. The man who played the most games at short for the Rays last season, Brendan Harris, checked in at only .756, and Josh Wilson was even worse at .753.

Essentially, that means Bartlett is tracking down 10 percent more balls in his area than those in his position last year - and as we have seen, he knows what to do when he gets his glove on it. Aside from a brief case of the throwing yips about a month into the season, Bartlett has been reliable and steady.

Reliable and steady, by definition, doesn't jump out at you on a daily basis. But with every game Bartlett misses as he works toward a return from the DL immediately after the All-Star break, his standing is working its way toward a term that hasn't been thrown around to describe any individual Ray this season: Indispensable.

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