Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Don't be afraid to stand alone. In our eyes, you're a hero, Tony Fernandez.

BP's Jay Jaffe picks up on an ESPN Desportes poll asking who is the greatest Latin shortstop of all time. The choices: Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepcion, and Omar Vizquel.

Jaffe, applying his own analytical system called JAWS (Jaffe WARP Score) hashes it out, and notes the glaring omission of Toronto's hit king, Tony Fernandez.
Tony Fernandez, who logged just four votes in his first and only year of eligibility this year, scores better than Aparicio and Vizquel both as a hitter AND as a fielder. Couple that with his status as the major leagues’ first great shortstop from the Dominican Republic, and it’s puzzling that he was excluded from the poll.
After Fernandez left Toronto for the second time in 1993, he was used sparingly as a shortstop, and logged only 10 games at the position in his final four seasons. Nevertheless, he was amongst the elite at his position from 1985 through 1990, and likely deserved more than the four Gold Gloves that he won in that period.

Of course, he's no Eddie Zosky.

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