I am not surprised to see Blair holding 4 of the top 10 spots --I AM surprised that they all happened in the 70s, since I think of him as being more speedy in the 60s

He is a joy to watch in CF.

Yeah, but he's no Chuck Diering! :-)

But Blair was a horrible infielder! :-) 16.2 career innings at 3B and only 4 chances with 2 errors. Another 6.2 innings at 2B with 6 chances and 1 error.

I am not surprised to see Blair holding 4 of the top 10 spots --I AM surprised that they all happened in the 70s, since I think of him as being more speedy in the 60s

Simple. The Orioles pitchers struck out 200-300 more batters in the 60's than the 70's. In 1976, the O's struck out 678 and Blair had a RF of 3.17. In 1967 he had a RF of 2.74, but the O's struck out 1034. That's 2.2 K/9 difference, dwarfing the .43 difference in RF.

Simple. The Orioles pitchers struck out 200-300 more batters in the 60's than the 70's. In 1976, the O's struck out 678 and Blair had a RF of 3.17. In 1967 he had a RF of 2.74, but the O's struck out 1034. That's 2.2 K/9 difference, dwarfing the .43 difference in RF.

Good point, but it's worth noting that Jones caught all those balls in 2009 behind a pitching staff that was striking out batters at a similar rate to the 1960's Orioles staffs.

And yet... Guti was robbed.

Jones IS wonderful and certainly would usually have been 100% deserving of the GG, though.

Never heard of Busby, but "Bumbry, Busby and Blair" sounds better than an old Cubs infield for making poems. "Captures anything hit in the air/Snatching white bullets with unparalleled flair/Leads the big hitters to fits of despair/Bumbry, Busby and Blair"

I've noticed a lot of handwringing by Orioles fans about Jones this offseason, including some claims that Pie is the better player. I find that odd. Everyone seems to be hung up on the fact that he had a significant drop off in the second half, but I'm not sure why his second half stats are more significant than his stats for the entire season, and he improved in almost every area from 2008 to 2009. He went from .270/.311/.400 in 2008 to .277/.335/.457 in 2009. His OPS+ went from 87 to 106. K rate from 22% to 19%. BB rate from 4.5% to 7%. ISO from .130 to .180. It's hard to find fault with those trends.

His range wasn't very good in 2009, but hopefully it will bounce back.

His range wasn't very good in 2009, but hopefully it will bounce back.

This is oen of those, 'I sort of see what you're saying, but I vehemently disagree' type things.

How can his range not be very good when he caught more balls per nine innings than all but one regular player at his position in the 56-year history of the franchise?

When I read stuff like that, it reminds me of that old Tim McCarver quote about how lucky Bob Gibson was because he always pitched when the other team didn't score.

I've noticed a lot of handwringing by Orioles fans about Jones this offseason, including some claims that Pie is the better player. I find that odd.

I find that insane. Where have you seen such sentiments? We must shun the unbelievers.

Never heard of Busby, but "Bumbry, Busby and Blair" sounds better than an old Cubs infield for making poems. "Captures anything hit in the air/Snatching white bullets with unparalleled flair/Leads the big hitters to fits of despair/Bumbry, Busby and Blair"

Not that I'm ordinarily one to critique others' verse, but this feels like it needs another few syllables in the players' names to really work. Perhaps the fourth member of the hypothetical infield, as well?

It works if you pronounce "Bumbry" as "Bumbery".

The difference between Blair and Jones is not the balls in play that each one sees, but the number of hits that fall in. Jones is good. Last year he caught 84.7% of fly balls hit to center (83.7% is average). But he's no Paul Blair.