Top Ten Shortstops Right Now/Ten Greatest War Movies

Tropic Thunder breaks the top 10 of war movies.

Wow, I have been away for a while and surprise, surprise, I stumble onto another topic with IS telling people off.

What I really love is when "certain individuals" who's posts I have blocked send me private messages and have set their own private messages to "do not accept replies". I think it shows the kind of character we've come to expect from this individual.

I too, have had to stop personal messages after getting blasted with six PM's in around three hours from "the (self appointed) authority". I guess the war theme is because of the battle that ensues if your opinion differs from "the authority".

At SS, Tulo is the best right now but is helped by the friendly Colorado ballpark and needs to show that these recent injuries are not going to be a yearly thing. His career numbers are around .050 less in BA and .100 SLG on the road as compared to at home. However, there are not any shortstops with the all around game right now to challenge Tulo for the best SS of this current era.

I didn't read Blue Turtle to be saying that my evaluation of today's shortstops was poor but that the players involved were mediocre for that type of top 10 list. And he's right, as I said earlier in the thread, shortstop is a very weak position in baseball right now. A far cry from the Arod/Jeter/Nomar era indeed.

And Turtle is also right about durability and longevity meaning a lot. It can be said that Tulo is the best current shortstop, and that per-at bat he's one of the best in history, but there is no "argument" that he's the best of all time, or even the best per at bat. Bill James isn't arguing that, nor is any analyst of note. Except perhaps Strether and Tulo's mom, Tulo is absent from such top 10 lists that one can easily find on the internet.

I do think it's fair to say that he's been about as good of a 400 PA/year player as the game has seen in some time. But when you're playing the likes of Josh Rutledge 200 PA a year to account for the missed time, it obviously eats into Tulo's overall value considerably, as Turtle rightly points out.

He isn't close to the likes of Honus Wagner even if you discount his injury tendencies entirely.

It's also a complete cop out to utter the mindless mantra "warp isn't everything" without offering an explanation as to what are the supposed flaws of warp or pointing out a superior evaluation criteria as alternative. WARP is used by all 30 teams today along with traditional scouting units in all player acquisition decisions, with the potential exception of Amaro in Philly who seems truly dumb. It's not just something that Billly Beane uses while the other GM's operate in the stone ages. Moreover it's the primary evaluation criteria throughout the analyst community. The serious analyst community that is, not the any guy with a blog community. To be sure some warp systems are preferable to others, and there are improvements to be had in defense evaluation and analysis. But it's the evaluation gold standard today, and it completely utterly dominates traditional team dependent counting stats like RBI and rate stats like BA. I mean , to be honest, evaluating players' relative merits by comparing their RBI is pretty much something that cavemen did in the dark ages, and essentially isn't done in MLB or the sabrmetric communities any more. For fantasy leagues, sure, but that's about it.

I too, have had to stop personal messages after getting blasted with six PM's in around three hours from "the (self appointed) authority".

How ironic. Bedjam, the very guy who caused me to block messages, appears on this thread. Bedjam got very upset when I guessed he has no college degree, so he sent me six PM's until I blocked all messages. Unfortunately, it's clearly hard to get rid of Bedjam...

It's also a complete cop out to utter the mindless mantra "warp isn't everything" without offering an explanation as to what are the supposed flaws of warp or pointing out a superior evaluation criteria as alternative.

WAR isn't everything and saying it isn't isn't a mantra, and it isn't "copping out." WAR is neither a complete statistic, nor is it a perfect statistic. That is why many baseball people and baseball writers, including Baseball America, still value other statistics like OBP, BA, WHIP, ERA, etc. So, learn to live with it, TN. WAR isn't everything, and you need to start utilizing other statistics as well.

", so he sent me six PM's"

I have never, ever, called you a liar but now I can and will. I have the screen shots to prove you are lying. I had six Pm's in my inbox before I had a chance to reply to one of them. The subject was about the meltdown you had because I spelled your name wrong. Judging by your writing my name, you are also struggling with spelling.

I didn't lie at all, but since you are shamelessly lying, I'm correctly calling you one. I guessed you had no college education. That clearly touched a nerve and you had a meltdown, sending me 6 crazy PMs about it. If you want to show the PMs I returned to calm you down, go ahead. They were rational.

As to the spelling, Bedjam, those were just "typos." As you know, people make them all the time...

I didn't read Blue Turtle to be saying that my evaluation of today's shortstops was poor but that the players involved were mediocre for that type of top 10 list. And he's right, as I said earlier in the thread, shortstop is a very weak position in baseball right now. A far cry from the Arod/Jeter/Nomar era indeed.

And Turtle is also right about durability and longevity meaning a lot. It can be said that Tulo is the best current shortstop, and that per-at bat he's one of the best in history, but there is no "argument" that he's the best of all time, or even the best per at bat. Bill James isn't arguing that, nor is any analyst of note. Except perhaps Strether and Tulo's mom, Tulo is absent from such top 10 lists that one can easily find on the internet.

I do think it's fair to say that he's been about as good of a 400 PA/year player as the game has seen in some time. But when you're playing the likes of Josh Rutledge 200 PA a year to account for the missed time, it obviously eats into Tulo's overall value considerably, as Turtle rightly points out.

He isn't close to the likes of Honus Wagner even if you discount his injury tendencies entirely.

I agree completely that today's SS class is, relative to previous years even in my lifetime, pretty mediocre. Tulo is head and shoulders the best of this group. But where would I put him in the A-Rod/Jeter/Nomar/Vizquel/Ripken era? Maybe 3rd. And that is only that era...not all-time. So I just don't see putting him in the top 10 of all time at this time. Maybe, if he stays healthy, and plays for awhile, sure, he very well could merit inclusion in such a discussion. It is part of the reason you never hear Nomar Garciaparra mentioned as one of the greats, no? Injuries diminished him and prematurely ended his entire career.

I did not say your evaluation was poor, and if I seemed to imply that was the case, my apologies.

No apologies necessary BT, I believe your intent was clear.