Juan Uribe
The best defensive player on a very good defensive team. Now that’s saying something!
Overview: Juan Uribe had a breakout season in 2004 after
Kenny Williams acquired him for second baseman Aaron Miles. He
hit 23 homers after hitting only 24 for his career entering the season,
and also gave the White Sox Gold-Glove caliber defense.
Uribe didn’t match that offensive output in 2005, slugging nearly 100
points lower. His batting average hovered around .230 for most of
the year until he heated up in September. But whatever runs he
gave up at the plate, he stole from other teams in the field, making
one unbelievable play after another. He showcased this talent in
front of national audience in making three of the final four outs in
the World Series.
Hitting: Nothing Juan Uribe does is pretty, starting with
the bat. At 5’11” and 215 pounds, he stands squat at the plate
and swings from the heels. When he misses, he looks bad.
When he connects, it seems surprising that he did.
Uribe seems to want to get his at-bats over as quickly as possible – in
fact, he ranked 68th out of 80 qualified American League hitters in
pitches per plate appearance. He did cut down on his strikeouts
(77, down 19 from the year before), but he avoided strikeout situations
by popping up the first pitch a lot. He did pick up his
performance in September, but otherwise, his only hot streak came when
Frank Thomas was in the lineup – a testament to the order that the Big
Hurt brought by just being in the order.
He did match a career high in walks (34), and he seemed to pick them up
at odd times, including one off Brad Radke, who only walked 23 batters
all year. He also drew two walks in Game 1 of the World Series,
which is almost the equivalent of a three-homer game in terms of an
outlying performance for him.
One area at the plate in which Uribe is strong is bunting. He
could very well be the best bunter on the team, and that skill would
serve him well should he bat in the No. 2 slot behind Podsednik in the
batting order in 2006.
Baserunning: When Juan Uribe is on the basepaths, watch out. And not in a good way.
The nice way to say it is that he doesn’t have a lot of baserunning
instincts. The not-nice way to say it is that while his low
on-base percentage needs improvement, at least it spared White Sox fans
from having to watch him run in 2005.
Since joining the White Sox, he’s 13-for-30 in stolen base
attempts. And that’s not counting the times he’s been picked off,
as those don’t count as CSes if he makes no effort towards the base
ahead.
While watching the one-off Labor Day game in Boston, Uribe reached
second and Podsednik stood on first. I commented to friends that
we could be witnessing a rare double play via the pickoff.
Immediately after saying that, Curt Schilling caught Uribe leaning for
one out, and came within a couple inches of erasing Podsednik as well.
Defense: Don’t listen to the Gold Glove voters – you won’t
find a better defensive shortstop in the American League. Sure,
Derek Jeter has won the last two GGs, but he can’t go his left to save
his life. Hopefully Uribe’s sterling postseason play will help
him the next time around.
Once again, you’ll have to get past the aesthetics to enjoy him.
Uribe doesn’t field the ball squarely, instead choosing to backhand the
ball in front of him. And unlike the taller, more graceful
shortstops like Jeter, Miguel Tejada and Alex Rodriguez when he played
there, Uribe looks, well, kinda dumpy.
Ignore that, and he’s an absolute treat to watch. Maybe only
Rafael Furcal has a stronger arm from short, and he can go in both
directions very well. In a game against Detroit, he was able to
backhand a grounder to the hole even though he had committed to his
left to cover second on a hit-and-run. No throw is out of his
range, and unlike say, Shawon Dunston, his cannon arm almost always
hits the target.
He also takes charge of pop-ups in the triangle of doom between short,
third and left field. That’s an under-appreciated skill,
especially since Joe Crede has depth perception problems and Scott
Podsednik gets late jumps.
I can’t wait to see Game 4 again – he has to own one of the most clutch
defensive performances in baseball history. In the eighth inning,
he ended the inning with a runner on by making a play on a weak
grounder up the middle. In the ninth, he made that incredible
diving catch in the stands for out No. 2, and then unleashed a Mach 3
rocket after fielding a chopper to record the final out of the World
Series.
2006 Overview: After batting at the bottom of the order
for nearly the entire season in 2005, he’s expected to move up to the
No. 2 hole in order to let Tadahito Iguchi swing the bat more.
That's a situation that bears monitoring, considering the aforementioned
problems with his plate patience.
It’ll be interesting to see which Uribe shows up – the one that went
4-for-23 with zero walks in the No. 2 slot last year for a .512 OPS, or
the one that put up an .846 OPS in 260 at-bats in 2004. If he can
replicate his performance from two years ago, he’ll be extremely
valuable, but Ozzie Guillen shouldn’t stick with him if he goes
ice-cold again.
His defense earns him a spot in the lineup by itself, and any
above-average offensive performance would be a bonus for the
team. If he has another up-and-down year, Ozzie should just stick
him at the bottom of the order again and focus on what he does in the
field. If he doesn’t bring home a Gold Glove in 2006, it’ll be a
travesty.