April 22, 2008
All You Need is Glove
There was plenty of praise for Chase Utley's glove last night:
With the bases loaded and one out and the Phillies trailing 3-0, second baseman Chase Utley launched himself parallel to the infield dirt and somehow managed to snag Clint Barmes' hard-hit chopper that seemed destined for centerfield. After landing flat on his torso, he raised his glove and shoveled the ball to shortstop Eric Bruntlett, who made a quick throw to first base for an inning-ending doubleplay.
"After the game, I told him 'Thank you,' " said righthander Kyle Kendrick, who pitched five innings and gave up all five Rockies runs on home runs by Yorvit Torrealba and Garrett Atkins.
Utley saved two runs, for sure.
Who knows how many may have followed?
"Bases loaded, it kind of slowed them down a little bit," Utley said. "A base hit there obviously would have hurt a lot."
Power and defense at second base is a rare combination. Morgan and Sandberg are the only two in my lifetime who did both extremely well. Utley was among the best second baseman in range as measured by PMR last season.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:16 AM
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Utley put up consistently good zone ratings the last three seasons. He was first in 2005 and second in 2007 among qualifiers, in fact.
Funny thing, he's off to a bad start this season in ZR. Small sample, of course. His play on Barmes last night was so spectacular that even the Colorado announcers on Extra Innings were raving about it.
The Rockies-Phils game was entertaining throughout, though it ended as a bummer for the home team. Got to see an inside-the-parker for the first time this year. Werth can run when he wants to.
As a Phil's fan with a diluted sense of objectivity, it's fun to consider how Utley (in terms of peak, at least) ranks among 2B in value. His offense compares well to Jeff Kent's (and, at the same age, is considerably better), but Utley is a much better fielder.
Joe Morgan, on Sunday night baseball, was very impressed by Utley, though, admittedly, it's hard not to be impressed by the multi-homer guy.
It's a shame Utley got a (relatively) late start on his career. Hopefully, he can remain highly productive long into his 30s, because, at least, right now, I have to imagine he's about as good as anybody over the past 20 years or so.
To me, Utley is the best player on that team, but he is always overshadowed by Rollins and Howard.
It's a real shame that the Phillies waited so long to make Utley an everyday player. He played 271 games in Triple A and was platooned for a year and half at the major league level. Obviously it's really early to say, but the delay may be the difference between being a Hall of Famer or not and that's a shame.
You can't blame the Phillies. They had a good hitting secondbaseman at the time Utley was coming up.
Polanco is a pretty good second baseman, but they traded for him towards the end of Utley's first season in Triple A and then re-signed him before the 2005 season when Utley was 25 years old. Even fantasy baseball players were begging for Utley to get playing time.
