The Legend of Xander
- Thread starter Pitt the Elder
- Start date
Had to stop here to give some love to Xander's clutch 8th inning tonight: hustling for the double, and then the heads-up steal of third, without which he would never have scored the go-ahead run on Blake's bloop.
He really scorched the double. His form on the steal could use some work. I've seen other players do that drop and bounce thing recently.
so, um, what the hell is up with his apparent shoulder injury?
...ok, went and searched, looks like Cora is giving what's essentially an all-clear.
...ok, went and searched, looks like Cora is giving what's essentially an all-clear.
I stated at the beginning of the season that he would likely never hit 20hrs in a season.
He’s stayed healthy and had a monster season. His defense at short is more than passable. I hope they figure a way to get him locked up for 5 more years.
He’s stayed healthy and had a monster season. His defense at short is more than passable. I hope they figure a way to get him locked up for 5 more years.
I saw that season as the likely outlier. Just thought he would never hit for any power and would be a gap doubles hitter. I was wrong
I just took a look and the weird gap between Xander's UZR and DRS has grown. This has been an annual thing, but in past years it's been a matter of degree; the largest gap between the two metrics was 10.1 in 2017. UZR has consistently seen Xander as an average-ish shortstop, maybe just a hair on the fringey side of the line, while DRS until this year saw Xander as a poor but not downright awful defender.
This year, DRS says Xander is the second-worst defender in the American League, topped in awfulness only by Miguel Andujar. According to their calculations, Xander has lost the Sox almost two net games with his glove. In the meantime, UZR continues to say that Xander is essentially average. The gap between their two estimations is a thoroughly ridiculous 20.8 runs.
I'd be really curious to see an explanation of how two systems can look at the same set of events, using superficially pretty similar processes, and come up with that pair of answers. I know some of the differences between the two methods -- among other things, DRS uses smaller buckets and compares to a one-year average, UZR large buckets and a three-year average. But it's a bit mind-boggling that what seem like relatively minor methodological differences can produce such enormously different results. The gap between the worst DRS and the best UZR in baseball this year is 45 runs -- and the range of disagreement about Xander's defensive performance occupies nearly half of that gap.
This year, DRS says Xander is the second-worst defender in the American League, topped in awfulness only by Miguel Andujar. According to their calculations, Xander has lost the Sox almost two net games with his glove. In the meantime, UZR continues to say that Xander is essentially average. The gap between their two estimations is a thoroughly ridiculous 20.8 runs.
I'd be really curious to see an explanation of how two systems can look at the same set of events, using superficially pretty similar processes, and come up with that pair of answers. I know some of the differences between the two methods -- among other things, DRS uses smaller buckets and compares to a one-year average, UZR large buckets and a three-year average. But it's a bit mind-boggling that what seem like relatively minor methodological differences can produce such enormously different results. The gap between the worst DRS and the best UZR in baseball this year is 45 runs -- and the range of disagreement about Xander's defensive performance occupies nearly half of that gap.
Xander wrapped up the best season of his career today with his 23rd bomb. He finished with a slash line of .288/.360/.522 with 45 doubles and 23 home runs. Clearly he regained his power this year, as we have discussed most of this season. He set career highs in almost every meaningful category but the most impressive stuff is found in his statcast numbers. He barrelled approx 10% of his balls in play after doing so in only 1.3% of his balls in play last year and 5.3% being his previous career high. He also hit the ball hard 42% of the time, 10% more than last year.
Earlier in the year, it looked like he was going to pull the ball a lot more but a lot of his early pull tendencies evened out a little bit towards his career norms. He did his to right a career low of 21.7% of the time but it was only 25.9% last year. The real change is that he's just hitting many more balls hard this year than last and he hit more fly balls. It's interesting to see him rework his swing at 25. I would assume a fair amount of this uptick is health, but a fair amount has to be working to rebuild his approach and hit more fly balls.
Hopefully he can keep it going in the postseason. He is going to require a BIG contract after next year and I think they need to sign him.
Earlier in the year, it looked like he was going to pull the ball a lot more but a lot of his early pull tendencies evened out a little bit towards his career norms. He did his to right a career low of 21.7% of the time but it was only 25.9% last year. The real change is that he's just hitting many more balls hard this year than last and he hit more fly balls. It's interesting to see him rework his swing at 25. I would assume a fair amount of this uptick is health, but a fair amount has to be working to rebuild his approach and hit more fly balls.
Hopefully he can keep it going in the postseason. He is going to require a BIG contract after next year and I think they need to sign him.
Found this on CNN of all places -
Imagine winning the world series and then seeing your dad for the first time in 23 years, what a night.
Imagine winning the world series and then seeing your dad for the first time in 23 years, what a night.
This may go along way to explaining X's dreadful WS. It should be noted he got a big hit in game 4 - in the Sox 9th - to cap that inning. After meeting his Dad.
