.... And with that in mind, you look at his (minor league) SX and range factors and what do you find?
His SX's look better than a lot of SS's, notably, Tug's Speed Index scores look better than Jack Wilson's. Hulett has a lot of 20-4, 15-5, 9-2 seasons stealing bases, with 108 in 4.5 seasons at a good percentage. He's got some triples and he's got nice low GIDP totals. Physically, he looks like he runs as well as Jack or Josh Wilson do, though he has a thicker abdomen and backside.
On Hulett's double Friday, he made the turn around 1B with nice long strides, actually looked fairly light on his feet. Jack Wilson is a scrambler, Hulett a loper, but then again Jack Wilson is the best in the biz. The question is whether Hulett can play mediocre-to-below-average defense, not whether he can play good defense.
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His RF's look scary at SS, and good at 2B -- but that's in 500 games at 2B and only 100 at SS. Fifteen games a year, off and on at SS, isn't enough to warrant dogmatism as to what his RF's mean.
Which is why it's interesting to ask, why the M's have him playing SS, if he's a writeoff there. Easy for a knee-jerk reaction, that Hulett simply can't play short, but then what is he doing there at all in AAA?
What we would like, is a carefully-considered opinion, not a presumption, as to whether Hulett could play (say) -5, -10 runs defense in the bigs. If he could, then he looks like a bat-first SS who could give solid performance for no salary.
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We wouldn't doubt that Hulett is best cast as a championship 5th infielder, playing a Mark McLemore / Nick Punto type role -- getting most of his PT at second base and providing insurance at SS and 2B.
But such a player has seasons in which he holds down the fort at SS, and the 2011 Mariners are in such a position.
Tell you what, since Hulett got to Cheney, he's been overmatching PCL pitching. It isn't a question of him getting some balls through some holes. He has the infielders ducking for cover out there. I'm V-E-R-Y optimistic that he could hit MLB(TM) pitching better than Jack or Josh Wilson could, I'll tell ya that.
Hulett is smokin' hot right now at Tacoma, he visually looks like a real good hitter, and sabermetrically he's got a good hitting background. I'd be intrigued to see what he looks like at short in Safeco.
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And in any case, you've got an intriguing backup infielder here. He's lefty with an EYE and with pop.
Hulett hits like this for another week or 10 days, and he's going to be in there. Maybe at DH.
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Cheers,
Dr D
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http://www.minorleaguesplits.com/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?pl=461834
Zone Rating has him a little above-average at 2B and averagish at SS. -5 to -10 is all you need at SS if he can hit.
Derek Jeter is probably the worst fielding SS of the decade, but hes also the best overall SS of the decade. Jeter himself has had several -15 run seasons.
How is Hulett's arm?
I wouldn't take any of that stuff seriously...not in the slightest.
But range factors, now THOSE we can COUNT on.
Haven't seen it, but being as he's a much *stronger* hitter than the average SS, the presumption is that his arm is stronger than average.
Would presume he's the kind of SS who would play deep and use the hand-eye coord (as reflected in the hitting) and the arm to compensate for dubious feet.
But haven't seen him play SS.
RF has him above-average at SS in the minors too. Have you seen him play Matt?
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hulett002tim
That would be my assumption too. His fielding numbers seem to be better than the scouting reports which suggest that kind of toolset.
He could easily be horrible at SS and be poor offensively, but when the alternative are the Wilsons you're better off finding out.
At least theres some upside with Hulett.
My point is..there is no defensive metric I would hock a loogey at...let alone use objectively to analyze players.
n/m
Remember...we saw a glimpse of Hulett in Seattle a couple of years ago. He looks clonky and uncoordinated playing SECOND...let alone short...good arm, HORRID footwork, no ability to turn and get range on balls not hit right at him...this is one where SX won't help you. Rickey Henderson would have made a comically bad shortstop.
What can I say to that :- )