Jorge Polanco’s Defensive Transformation

Jorge is just getting better and better. Glad the Twins signed him long term.  Now, Eddie,Buck, Jose.....

Still not the level of SS that you really hope to have, but right not Polanco/Arraez looks like a really solid center of the infield and I am really pleased that Jorge really has worked on his fielding - his intensity is his greatest asset and he will continue to get better.  

with Lewis a couple years out and Javier - who knows - the position in Polanco's.  Then comes the inevitable and positive challenge of multiple good players for the same position. 

Still not the level of SS that you really hope to have, but right not Polanco/Arraez looks like a really solid center of the infield and I am really pleased that Jorge really has worked on his fielding - his intensity is his greatest asset and he will continue to get better.  

 

Maybe not the defensive level, but the bat has been elite and the combo has been fantastic for the Twins, who sit quite solidly at #2 in all of baseball in WAA at SS, and that's mostly because of Polanco.

I'll take a good hitter who can play average defense any day of the week.

Still not the level of SS that you really hope to have, but right not Polanco/Arraez looks like a really solid center of the infield and I am really pleased that Jorge really has worked on his fielding - his intensity is his greatest asset and he will continue to get better.  

 

with Lewis a couple years out and Javier - who knows - the position in Polanco's.  Then comes the inevitable and positive challenge of multiple good players for the same position. 

Hard to please much, or what?   He is the AL starting All Star SS.

Still not the level of SS that you really hope to have, 

I'm just stunned that there are still people who don't think he's good enough to be an MLB SS. I see it on Twitter on a daily basis and, quite frankly, it needs to stop. Is he a gold glove SS? No. But he's average defensively at worst now. So far he's has 9 errors this year in 76 games when he had 13 in the 76 games he played last year. He's gone from 1 error every 5.8 games to 1 every 8.4 games. That's solid improvement. Yes between Mauer last year and Cron this year he gets help at 1B on poor throws but does everyone else that plays with them. 

Polanco should be the SS for years to come. It's good to see stability at the position.

The concern I have is that his errors switched from last year when he made primarily fielding errors to this year when most have been throwing.

No doubt a direct result of a different first baseman.

Hard to please much, or what?   He is the AL starting All Star SS.

I understand and I love having him, but I still want him moving forward with his skills as fielder.  I think he can still be much better. 

I'm just stunned that there are still people who don't think he's good enough to be an MLB SS. I see it on Twitter on a daily basis and, quite frankly, it needs to stop. Is he a gold glove SS? No. But he's average defensively at worst now. So far he's has 9 errors this year in 76 games when he had 13 in the 76 games he played last year. He's gone from 1 error every 5.8 games to 1 every 8.4 games. That's solid improvement. Yes between Mauer last year and Cron this year he gets help at 1B on poor throws but does everyone else that plays with them. 

 

Polanco should be the SS for years to come. It's good to see stability at the position.

I am happy we have him, but that does not mean I do not want him to improve his fielding even more and based on what we have read, he is going to continue to work on his skills.  I love a really good fielding SS. 

Dozier's "advanced" middle infield defensive metrics were awesome when Pedro Florimon was standing next to him. They weren't so good otherwise. We have to be careful here, do Polanco's numbers look better due to Schoop?

We're also forgetting that the "advanced" defensive metrics cited in this article need three years of data to be trustworthy.

The 15-20 errors Polanco will commit this year, to me, says he still isn't a good defender.

Does his offense make up for his errors? So far, sure, at least usually. Later on, maybe not. Every bat gets cold.

Knoblauch was great out there except for his throwing errors, too, and the problem, as we all know, only got worse. Polanco's glove isn't the problem.

I am happy we have him, but that does not mean I do not want him to improve his fielding even more and based on what we have read, he is going to continue to work on his skills.  I love a really good fielding SS. 

I get that and I see no reason he won't continue to improve. Reminds me of when Plouffe was struggling defensively at 3B. He kept working on getting better and eventually he was a better than average 3B. 

I'll take a good hitter who can play average defense any day of the week.

Then you should be a White Sox fan! This is how they have played for at least a generation now.

Someone more in the know should do a similar article with the development of Cody as a writer from a blogger to All Star Writer here at Twins Daily. Would be a good way to show others a development path too

My point is that we don’t have to accept mediocrity in the field at SS. Get a strong defender at SS and let Polanco be the best all around second basemen in baseball because he would be elite at second base

Playing SS at the MLB level ain’t easy. But it doesn’t mean you give up trying to find that guy

One of the main reasons I am optimistic about the future of this team is that its young core players appear to be determined to keep improving every aspect of their game. In fact, I can't point at anybody and say, "That guy's just coasting on his ability." 

Jorge Polanco may be the most striking example of a Twins player improving himself, but an article of this sort could be written on almost any of the Twins players. All of them appear eager to get better, and many of them are succeeding. 

Polanco was signed as an athletic SS with a questionable bat.

After his first couple of seasons the bat emerged to the point where he was a top of the order hitter who got slid down to being a #3 hitter for his team because the hit tool was just that good.

Somebody, somewhere, decided he couldn't play at SS at the ML level, even though he was signed as an athletic SS.

I have posted this over and over and over again. How many have looked at milb error numbers or early MLB error numbers for previous Gold Glove and All Star SS? With little exception, there was a learning curve involved.

Despite some weird handling of his options...and I give credit to Molitor for seeing what this kid could become...he was the starting AL SS in the All Star game just after his 26th birthday.

He continues to get better and better defensively and offensively.

But some would quibble he's not an "elite" SS? Or not yet defensively elite? I get it. But what else could you want at thjs point?

My point is that we don’t have to accept mediocrity in the field at SS. Get a strong defender at SS and let Polanco be the best all around second basemen in baseball because he would be elite at second base

first off, we don't actually know that Polanco would be a better defender at 2B than SS; it's been speculated a lot but he really hasn't played there enough for this to be fact.

second, we've got a guy in Schoop currently doing very well for us at 2B with a very interesting heir apparent in Arraez that's lead us to being 4th in WAA at 2B (80% of that is Schoop, btw). Neither of these guys can play SS full-time, so why would you preemptively move on from Schoop or bury Arraez as a utility guy to move Polanco over?

third, the idea of "get a superior defender at SS" is all well and good in a vacuum, but who is actually going to slot in there and how much do you have to pay to get them? How much offensive drop-off do you have to accept to get the superior defender? who is that superior defender?

I like Polanco just fine where he is. We have him on a long-term deal that's outstanding for the team for the value he brings. He's bringing elite overall play at SS and getting other good bats into play at 2B.