Steve Phillips is not a smart guy

Steve Phillips used to be the General Manager of the New York Mets. During his tenure, the Mets actually played in a World Series. Still, he wasn’t a very good GM. He signed players like Mo Vaughn (after he stopped being good at baseball), Bobby Bonilla (after he stopped being good at baseball), Kenny Rogers (we all know how that went), and Rickey Henderson (when he was more crazy than good). He also didn’t do so well trading players. If you want to see a Mets fan’s head explode, just bring up Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. He was eventually fired, years later than he should have been. With apologies to Bill Simmons, Steve Phillips probably belongs on the terrible GM Mount Rushmore. Well, now he’s got a job as an analyst on ESPN. He’s all over the place, showing up on Baseball Tonight, the occasional SportsCenter, random games throughout the week, and, starting this season, Sunday Night Baseball, making a broadcast that prominently features Joe Morgan even less enjoyable. He does not go a good job.

Yahoo’s Roto Arcarde brings to light this gem, which in turn was brought to my attention by Jon, that Phillips dropped during one of the games he was working this week. Phillips apparently doesn’t buy into any of the statistical analyses of defense. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that they’re gaining traction with front offices throughout the majors. No, they’re all wrong because they don’t value Jeter highly enough. In fact, most measures of defense seem to suggest that Jeter sucks defensively. And really, most non-Yankee fans, and even the rare reasonable Yankee fan, acknowledge that Jeter is not a good defensive shortstop. Seriously, just go to Baseball-Reference if you don’t believe me; he’s not good defensively. Sure, he puts up good numbers with respect to fielding percentage. He handles balls hit right at him without any real problems. But he can’t move to his left. He lets so many hits go up the middle that a competent shortstop would field. The Yankees know that at some point they’re going to have to move him to a different position, possibly center field, as soon as he lets them. So probably never.

But anyway, this isn’t about how bad Jeter is defensively. No, it’s about Steve Phillips, and how he’s dumb. So Phillips doesn’t buy into any of these measurements of defensive proficiency. Why? Because they’re critical of Jeter. Steve doesn’t see any limitations to Jeter’s range. Look, I know he has a handful of Gold Gloves. He doesn’t deserve them. He pretty much made a reputation for himself as a good defensive player by diving face first into a chair and that flip to home against the A’s. But he’s not good defensively. Seriously, just watch like two Yankee games. Or even watch some of the WBC games where he was killing America. Whatever. You’ll see he’s not good. Unless you’re Steve Phillips.

No, Phillips has made up his mind that Jeter is still great, and everything else is just nonsense. I don’t know how he’s come to this conclusion, but that’s his stance. Here’s what he had to say about these statistics: "Because the statistics don't match what my eyes say, it makes me mistrust the veracity of the system." Maybe the problem is actually with his judgment. I mean, there’s got to be a reason no one else has hired him, while even Dusty Baker still gets job offers.