POTD Brendan Ryan = Jack Wilson v2.0
Edit to add, now we see that everybody heard the Jack Wilson echoes in this movement. Good on yer, Capt Jack :- )
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Q. Ryan is pretty much Jack Wilson, or fairly similar to Jack Wilson, or just like Jack Wilson, or ?
A. Brendan Ryan differs from Jack Wilson in no important way whatsoever. Just think of him as a younger, healthier Wilson ... and you won't make any decisions about him incorrectly.
Jack Wilson v2.0, and v2.0 is supposed to mean "Here's the version with the bugs worked out. v2.0 is the one you want, especially if you're buying Microsoft."
Ryan is indeed the v2.0 of --- > what was a noble concept, that concept being a Whitey Herzog shortstop.
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Q. The Shtick Center is okay with glove-first shortstops?
A. I don't think there has ever been a major league manager who wasn't juussssst fine with an 80 OPS+ hitter who could pick it at shortstop. Have there ever been any?
So, what does the collective intuition tell you, when all the experts like a certain idea?
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Whitey thought that your ballclub's karma depended on having a glove-first, team-captain type at short. They've got to know that the middle of the field is solid when they show up to the clubhouse, thought Whitey.
His Cards teams started with the trade for Ozzie Smith.
Whitey had a talented prima-donna SS before Ozzie, that being Garry Templeton, and Templeton was a minor star in the NL back then. But the guy didn't come to play. "He don't want to play if it's too wet, and he don't wanna play if it's too hot," Whitey told the owner. "I've got to have a shortstop I can count on."
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With the Royals, too, Whitey had a shortstop similar to Brendan Ryan, that player being the 5'5", 140-lb. Freddie "the Flea" Patek. Whitey liked to know that if the ball was hit into the middle of the field, that good things happened for his ballclub.
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Q. Does SSI buy into Wilson's UZR's? Forget the stats and the scouts. What's the shtick?
A. When Capt Jack traded for Wilson, the shtick was, this guy's a wonderful shortstop, a guy who will not only show up in the stats, but who will have you ooh'ing and aah'ing, a guy you'll fall in love with defensively.
It's the same thing with Brendan Ryan. He's an old-timey dirt dog who works miracles at SS.
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Q. OK, let's hear why Ryan = Wilson ... beyond their being glove-first NL Central shortstops.
A. First of all take a second and watch this hacky sack video and this one.
It's fun to listen to the nice lady with the camera try to describe hacky sack when she's never seen it before. :- ) Of course, Dr. D doesn't know much about hacky sack either, since he's using the term to describe somebody who can do it with a perfectly smooth, round rock, rather than with a little bean bag.
Jack Wilson, of course, is a soccer player first and Dr. D always loved that about Wilson. Dr. D never gets tired of watching Jack Wilson make up new ways to contort a ball over to first base.
Brendan Ryan is a guy who's obviously scary-good at hacky sack, considering he can do it with a baseball, and Dr. D loves infielders who are that light on their feet.
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