DiamondView Comments

Beyond the Boxscore, a favorite site of mine, has been running a series of "DiamondView" articles which graphically plot four pieces of information as compared to the league average (by position) in an easy-to-comprehend format: on base percentage, power, fielding, and baserunning.

Here are some things I learned and noticed:

*AL East

--The Yankees clearly focused on getting on base and hitting home runs.

--The Rays should have been better than they were last season. Interestingly, the Rays excelled where the Yanks struggled and vice verse.


*Yankees

--Jeter was awesome this year.

--Johnny Damon should be a DH.

--Melky Cabrera: epitome of a league-average outfielder.


*Red Sox

--Jacoby Ellsbury might be a fantasy owner's dream, but he was pretty terrible this season.

--Over the last six months, this team has addressed their most pressing needs (VMart behind the dish, Scutaro at short, Cameron in center and Beltre at third) and has become the team to beat. Plus, they added the league's best free agent arm in John Lackey. Wow.


*Tampa Bay:

--Jason Bartlett, a guy who always had a glove-first reputation, dominated offensively while struggling mightily on defense.

--Ben Zobrist: beast

--Dionner Navarro: not so much


*Blue Jays

--Aaron Hill had a good year, but his exploits were a bit overblown.

--How does Rod Barajas keep a job in the Majors?

--For those of you unconvinced the Blue Jays aren't regretting that Vernon Wells deal (there must be someone out there), let me know what you think after reading this.

--87 was the highest score in a category that any member of this team achieved. Thank goodness for Doc Halladay.


*Orioles

--Aubrey Huff might have seen his last regular duty.

--According to The Sporting News, three teams are interested in Melvin Mora's services. If true, the general managers of those three teams will probably be searching for work elsewhere before too long.

--Nick Markakis struggled but the O's may have something with Nolan Reimold.

--Aside from Cesar Izturis' defense, no one rated at 83 or better in any single category.


I love these graphs. Keep them coming BtB.