Royals general manager Dayton Moore, on the advanced defensive statistics that show recent acquisition Yuniesky Betancourt as a poor shortstop:
The defensive statistics, I still really don’t understand how some
of those statistics are evaluated, I really don’t. When you watch
baseball games every single day, it’s very apparent who can play
defensively and who can’t.
Apparently not.
I’m not going to suggest that every front office needs to be incredibly
reliant on statistical analysis to be successful, but for a general
manager to reveal that “I still really don’t understand how some of
those statistics are evaluated” seems like it probably isn’t great news
for Royals fans. You know, as if there is such a thing as great news
for Royals fans.
As for Betancourt, the advanced stats universally show that his defense has become horrible and most Mariners fans
who’ve actually watched him play “every single day” for the past five
seasons agree that his glove has declined significantly. Moore
admittedly doesn’t understand the defensive stats and presumably hasn’t
seen Betancourt play every day, which is perhaps why he just acquired one of baseball’s worst players.
