Superb post. Especially about how these effects multiply. I liked the Byrd and Johnson signings, but combining their lack of holding runners, and Martinez's arm makes a steal a freebie for opponents. If the FO is as smart as we give them credit for, you think they would have considered this deadly combination. I admit, I missed it as a fan.

I've been concerned about the left side defense ever since they acquired Marte (I never have been convinced about his defense), but I never expected the prospects to look so bleak. Hopefully this is the darkness before the dawn, rather than the darkness before going completely black.

This being said, I think the defense will look better from here on out. The loss of Johnson will definitely make it look statistically better. But to above average? I don't know how they get there from here.

I've been hoping that a potential outfield of Crowe, Sizemore, and Gutierrez would negate future infield difficulties. (Please, please do not move Crowe to 2B, this team needs outfielders). Gutierrez has been highly touted, but the last two days he has been a mess.    

Shapiro admitted Chicago and Detroit are
winning because of pitching

mid-market team cannot emphsize offense
at expense of pitching and defense

A quick look at the overall numbers (team-by-team stats) indicates that good pitching usually wins games.

Peralta's FRAA is still at 8. He's been a lot better than most people give him credit for.

Hello mrich, and welcome if you're new! :-)

Great post - I brought up something similar (though not as detailed as your post) within the last few weeks, being concerned about the organizational philosophy of acquiring great offensive players, but either ignoring, or more likely, miscalculating the defensive abilities of these great offensive players.  Martinez and Peralta come to mind based on their play this year.

In my opinion, for this team to improve, they must pay more attention and evaluate the defensive abilities of these players and see if their best positions defensively are at the positions they are currently at.  I'm not sure whether that is the case for either Victor or Peralta.

I know Victor's offense is great at C, but if he can't throw anyone out, and he has never been more than average (to my knowledge) during his professional career, even in the Minors, will that negate his great offense?  This year, he has really fallen off - the question is, will he rebound next year to around average or is this Victor's "average" of throwing out runners now (i.e. he's lost strength in his arm or has some sort of problem with his throwing mechanics that he can't correct and will remain a poor, below-average throwing catcher.)

Same thing with Peralta - it's nice to see his bat finally come alive again, but he bobbles too many balls he should handle and his range seems limited to me.  We essentially sacrificed defense for offense, and this year, it has really come back to burn us.  

We've given up 35 unearned runs this year and when you have a pitching staff outside of C.C. who is not going to strike out a ton of guys, you need to have that defense be at least average, if not above-average or better, to be able to win the close ballgames because most of our pitchers rely on our defense to make the plays to get the outs most of the time.

Half the time, our defense sabotages our pitching, turning a close game into a blowout like it did the last two nights.  Even with our offense, we're going to have a hard time coming back from every deficit our defense puts us in, not to mention doing it against guys like Mike Mussina and Randy Johnson.  

Just my 5 cents.

Again, great post, mrich!  :-)

Ok, I have the benefit (or would it be detriment?) of not getting to watch the Tribe play.  All I've got is what I read here and in the other media.  What I sense on this site, which is beginning to also emerge in much of the local media, is a sense of Chicken Little and the sky falling.  Maybe you're right that there is a big gaping flaw in the organizational plan.  I just don't see it as necessarily a fatal flaw.

Almost everything I've read on Marte says that he's at least average (if not potentially above average) at 3B.  Don't forget that he came to two new organizations within a few months touted as The 3B Prospect of the given trades.  He was obviously pressing at the beginning of the year.  I think it's important to consider that maybe he was pressing in every aspect of his game.  He's been hailed as an improvement on Boone at the very least since day one.

While Vic has never been stellar at defense, he's never been as bad as this season.  Is he regressing to what his norm really is?  Is he truly this bad?  I just can't believe that he is.  Does he need work?  Of course.  Should this `work' continue during the offseason in some fashion or another.  I'd say yes, but then again I've never been paid to be a coach.  I just know that we talk so much here about regression to the mean and I think we forget that sometimes players play below their skills as well as above them.  In the long run maybe Vic goes to 1B, I just can't see them giving up on the offense at C in the next few years.

I am most worried about Peralta.  There's no logic to it, just gut feeling.  I have no doubts he is and will continue to be a Major League level player.  I just don't know that he's meant to be a SS.  Does moving him to 2B solve any of the problems he exhibits?  If going to the left leads to throwing errors for him, will shorter throws solve anything?  I'd like to hope so.  Maybe with improvements to 1B defense his lapses would be better hidden.

Moving Peralta to 2B would then allow the organization to fill the SS spot with a defensive specialist, whether it be via internal means (AstroCab) or a free agent.  It also wouldn't force the Tribe to give up too much since Peralta's offensive numbers are presumably going to be high for any MI position.  This also allows a still very young infield (which might be prone to more errors) to have a solid base.  I think many of us are only know beginning to realize just how truly special Omar was (and still is).

Good pitching and defense win championships, this has been proven over and over again.  I just don't think that switching direction drastically will lead us to any better result.  As mkwng pointed out, you make too many drastic changes our strengths become average positions.   I firmly believe that doing so will get us no closer to the World Series.

One of the things I love about Shapiro and the FO is that they lay out a plan and are very deliberate in following it.  Switching gears every time something goes awry leads us down a path of the Royals, Rockies or DRays.  I share the frustrations of everyone here, I just don't think that abandoning The Plan will provide any solutions.  However, working within its framework might.