The Official Site of Hanley Ramirez

Wed, Jan 27th 2010, 13:23

Next wave of shortstops making a splash

They commanded the game as anchors of the infield, dazzled onlookers and achieved baseball heights, turning what was once considered a light-hitting position into a glitzy gig of glamour.

Starting in the mid-1990s and carrying over through much of the 2000s, Major League Baseball was treated to a quintet of super-shortstops, and they were all easy to identify.

In Boston you had the high-average hitting and occasional pop of Nomar (Garciaparra), and in Cleveland you had the Hall of Fame-caliber fielding of Omar (Vizquel).

New York belonged to Derek (Jeter), the all-around star with a complete and clutch finesse-oriented game, and Seattle and Texas were A-Rod towns where home runs flew off the slugger’s bat in record numbers.

In Oakland, there was Miggy (Tejada) Magic, the power- and hustle-centered package that netted the fiery team leader an American League MVP award in 2002.

Times have changed a bit.

Garciaparra has turned into a first baseman and has an unknown future as an unsigned free agent. Vizquel, who turns 43 in late April, just signed with the White Sox and figures to be a backup. A-Rod is a Yankee, of course, and plays third base, long thought of as a true power position. Tejada, depending where he ends up next season, might follow Rodriguez to the hot corner.

Jeter remains where he always has been, a stalwart at short, in the heart of the Yankees’ lineup and as a team captain, fan favorite and ambassador for the game. He’s still pretty good, too. He broke Lou Gehrig’s all-time Yankees record for hits last year and, if he remains healthy, should top the 3,000-hit mark for his career sometime early in 2011.

But Jeter, who will be 36 in June, is the only one of the aforementioned five still playing shortstop and still regarded as a superstar.

Now it’s time to welcome the new guard at shortstop, and while there are plenty of talented players fitting the bill in today’s game, such as the multi-dimensional 2007 NL MVP, Jimmy Rollins, here’s a new fabulous fivesome of younger stars rising to the top:

1. Hanley Ramirez, Marlins
When the Red Sox traded Ramirez to Florida as part of a package of players that netted them Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, it paid off pretty quickly, with Beckett and Lowell helping Boston win the world Series in 2007. But Ramirez, who turned 26 on Dec. 23, is set to help an improved Marlins club for years to come.

If it weren’t for Albert Pujols doing his usual thing in St. Louis, Ramirez would have easily taken the National League Most Valuable Player Award last year. He won the NL batting title with a .342 clip and added career-high numbers in RBIs (106) on-base percentage (.410) and OPS (.954) while hitting 24 home runs and scoring 101 times.

“Nothing surprises me about this guy,” Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said late in the 2009 season. “With this guy, the sky is the limit.”

And Gonzalez isn’t just talking about offense.

In fact, from 2008-‘09, Ramirez’s fielding percentage grew from .967 to .983, he cut his errors down from 22 to 10, and his Ultimate Zone Rating, which measures how often each defensive player is better than average on balls hit into his specific “zones” on the field, showed Ramirez as markedly better.

“I think we’re just reaching the tip of the iceberg on him,” Gonzalez said. “Everybody talks about his offense, but how about his defense? His numbers have improved tremendously.”

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