Author Topic: Ian Desmond Appreciation Thread  (Read 32725 times)

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Offline NJ Ave

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Re: King Ian Desmond Appreciation Thread
« Reply #50: May 18, 2010, 09:18:00 AM »
A SS under team control for the next 6 years who is already playing at this kind of level is an amazing asset. Desmond is on pace to be worth north of $10 million dollars this year with his play, and he's going to cost us $400,000. Why nitpick his OBP (lots of young players are overeager at the plate).

The interesting thing to me is: doesn't Desmond show how flawed minor league scouting is? All we heard about was his great arm. We heard he was going to have average range and make too many errors, and would probably be moved to second by the time Espinosa comes up.

Well, after making 3 errors in the first 5 games, he's only made 3 errors in the past 34 games and will almost certainly end up with just 15-20 on the season. Thus far, he's been just about at the top of the league in terms of range. The only thing that was correct about his scouting report was the most obvious thing: he has a great arm.

If Espinoza comes up in the next few years and his defense is anywhere near Desmond's (and most scouts think he's better) then deciding who has to be moved to second base will be a pretty nice problem to have, and would give up some of the top up the middle defense in the majors, and with Zimmerman at third maybe the best infield defense in the league.

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying Desmond as the first above-average position player from our farm system in 5 years.