Player Comparison 2

Sitting in church yesterday I was curious about how Edgar Renteria's start last year compared to Alex Gonzalez's start with Boston this year. Gonzalez has been a wizard with the glove but is known as a no-hit fielder. I was curious how his start (till the end of May) compared against the high priced Renteria's start last year.

Renteria 2005 - .293 BA / 29 R / 4 HR / 21 RBI / 47 G
Gonzalez 2006 - .230 BA / 16 R / 2 HR / 14 RBI / 43 G

It should be noted that Renteria batted 2nd last year while A-Gone is 9th in the Red Sox batting order. The 2nd slot has more than adequately been filled by Mark Loretta and the the combination of Loretta and Gonzalez is much more productive than the combination of Renteria and Mark Bellhorn (who started at 2nd for the first half of the season last year).

It should also be noted that Gonzalez was brought on board for his glove and he has not disappointed with only 1 error so far this season and highlight plays in the field on a regular basis. Last year Renteria had 30 errors for the season (some were due to having stone-hands Kevin Millar at first). Renteria blamed his tough season on the infield at Fenway but he already has 8 errors playing for the Braves this year.

My conclusion is that the Red Sox made the right move at shortstop and I would go so far as to argue that the Red Sox now have the best defensive infield in all of baseball.