While he never got that gold glove, his combo of playing time and crappy hitting is consistent with his defensive rankings. Or consistent with the idea that baseball managers, coaches and scouts are as crappy as the defensive metrics, take your pick. :-)

Everett certainly looked wonderful at SS. I am sad to see him go.

Gold Gloves

Derek Jeter 5
Adam Everrett 0

Take that, statnerds.

Derek Jeter 5
Adam Everrett 0

Man, that stings. Watching Adam Everett play short reminds me of something Alan Trammell used to say about making a play look easy: "When it looks smooth, then it is smooth." Evertt was smooth.

Farewell to the Eddie Brinkman of the 2000s.

and never won a Gold Glove

What?! That's shocking to me, though it shouldn't be.

Everett was a member of my Strat-O team for 2 years. I was blessed(cursed) with a young Hanley during that time and his awful defense. Hanley would get 3, maybe 4 ABs, and get pulled sometime in the 7th for Everett. If I started an extreme GB pitcher, or thought it was going to be a real close low scoring game, I would started Everett. It was a nice 60/40 SS platoon that I threw together.

Everett hit just .242 with a .294 on-base percentage and .346 slugging percentage in 880 games and never won a Gold Glove, but consistently rated among the elite shortstops in baseball according to various defensive metrics. He also earned about $12 million in addition to the signing bonus he received as the Red Sox’s first-round pick in 1998, so all in all that’s a pretty solid career.

I'd cut off my left pinky with a rusty hacksaw for that kind of career.

I remember when one of the ESPN Baseball Tonight gurus noted before the 2005 or 2006 season that Everett had started to put it together with the bat and would be an offensive contributor for years to come.

I'd cut off my left pinky with a rusty hacksaw for that kind of career.

For an 880 game major league career and that kind of cash, I'd give up a lot more than my left pinky.

I remember when one of the ESPN Baseball Tonight gurus noted before the 2005 or 2006 season that Everett had started to put it together with the bat and would be an offensive contributor for years to come.

That was probably after the 2004 season. And he did appear to be improving with the bat before he was injured in 2004---not great hitting, but decent for a shortstop. In 2004, he had his highest batting average, .275 (which probably got the ESPN attention), his highest OPS (.703), and hit 11 HRs in three quarters of a season. In early August 2004, Everett was hit by a pitch which broke his wrist, and his hitting was terrible in succeeding seasons. Some people attribute the wrist injury to halting any "improvement" in Everett's offense.

Watching Adam Everett play short reminds me of something Alan Trammell used to say about making a play look easy: "When it looks smooth, then it is smooth." Evertt was smooth.

He was an amazing shortstop. He is sometimes compared to Mark Belanger; I didn't see a lot of Belanger's play at shortstop, but that sounds like a good comp.

One play that I will always remember occurred in Game 4 of the NLCS. The Astros were in the bottom of the 9th inning, leading 2-1, with the tying run on 3d and the lead run on 1st and 1 out. Brad Lidge was producing the familiar melt down vibe (which would materialize with Pujols' famous walk off HR in Game 5). On a slow grounder to 2d (not your typical DP ball) Bruntlett and Everett turned an incredibly quick DP--it seemed like you had to watch it in slow motion to see the two infielders handle the ball. Without that play, the Astros probably wouldn't have a World Series appearance. The 2005 ERAs of 1.87, 2.39, and 2.94 by Clemens, Pettitte, and Oswalt owe a lot to Everett's defense.

For an 880 game major league career and that kind of cash, I'd give up a lot more than my left pinky.

I had the exact same thought, but now I'm concerned about where this thread might go.

Well, we're quite obviously just on the outskirts of this. Let's drive into town, shall we?

If I started an extreme GB pitcher, or thought it was going to be a real close low scoring game, I would started Everett. It was a nice 60/40 SS platoon that I threw together.

In Strat? Doesn't every pitcher card have the same number of fielding chances for each player regardless of whether they're a FB or GB pitcher? Maybe the game has changed since I last played it in the 90s but I remember that bit.

In Strat? Doesn't every pitcher card have the same number of fielding chances for each player regardless of whether they're a FB or GB pitcher?

I'd have to look it up, but I believe that every pitcher has the same X odds, but I'm not sure if GB-X and FB-X chances are the same for everyone.

The peak of his career was in the era when statheads didn't care at all about defense, but he survived to have us deem him somewhat valuable.

Who's the all-defense, no-offense standard-bearer now? Jack Morris?

Who's the all-defense, no-offense standard-bearer now? Jack Morris?

Brendan Ryan.

I am almost positive that at least the way they used to make the cards, the X odds for each position was exactly the same from one card to the next. If a pitcher gave up a lot of groundballs, the extra ones would show up as automatic outs. Things may have changed in the last 12 years or so though. Geaux OOTP!

Doesn't every pitcher card have the same number of fielding chances for each player regardless of whether they're a FB or GB pitcher?

Correct. (The same number of chances on which the fielder's ability comes into play, anyway.)

In Strat? Doesn't every pitcher card have the same number of fielding chances for each player regardless of whether they're a FB or GB pitcher? Maybe the game has changed since I last played it in the 90s but I remember that bit.

Yeah I misspoke. Meant to say a pitcher that had a low K rate or put a lot of runners on. I know Everett defense didn't help me turn those automatic GB(a) plays into outs any better than Hanley would, but Everett would help me cut down all those extra runners when (x) plays were rolled.

adam everett was TEH awesomeness. roy oswalt said that when there were 2 outs and a ball was hit up the middle he'd just start walking to the dugout because he knew adam would make whatever play needed to be made. and he did.

the SS before him and after him have been either butchers (lugo or loretta) or OK - bogar, barmes, manzella

but adam everett was absolutely unbelieveable. the only SS i've seen who is anywheres near as good is brendan ryan

he never got a gold glove because his BA wasn't high enough, but he was the best defensive SS in the majors in 04 and 05 - he got hurt again in 06 and carlos lee broke adam's leg in 07 and that really was the end of him.

adam had a decent year with the bat in 04 - batting second in betwen biggio and bagwell - must have had the all time ML record in sac-bunts, too. but i would think it would be a lot easier to hit in front of bagwell than in front of the pitcher

#17 The only time it's varied in the card game is when there was a misprint on one side of a card. There are 30 X chances on every pitcher's card and they're always distributed the same.

7 for SS, 6 for 2B, 3 for CF, C and 3B and 2 for everybody else.

Computer game may be different or the OP may have simply assumed it was.

I'd cut off my left pinky with a rusty hacksaw for that kind of career.

For an 880 game major league career and that kind of cash, I'd give up a lot more than my left pinky.

You're suggesting John Kruk cut a deal with the devil?

Lugo was hardly a butcher in the field, he was error prone but had good range.

I knew Lugo performed well for the Rays but I had never gone back and looked at his numbers before. I had no idea he accumulated nearly 14 WAR in his time here. He's probably going to be the franchise leader for the position for a long time, the closest player currently with the team is Brignac at .4 (and falling if he does anything like last season again!).