David Kohl – USA TODAY Sports
I have always been a fan of Shin-Soo Choo. As a Chicago White Sox fan, it was hard not to respect the guy when he played on the Cleveland Indians considering he dominated the Palehose. When he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds this offseason, I exhaled as a White Sox fan but was nervous for Choo when I learned he was going to play centerfield. Choo was never that good of a right fielder, so one could assume he would stink in center fielder as well. Judging from the -3.9 UZR he has thus far, those assumptions are accurate — but it doesn’t really matter.
Choo’s hitting skills completely make up for his putrid defensive skills. Coming into today, Choo has definitely been baseball’s best leadoff hitter in the 2013 season. His .492 on-base percentage and .457 wOBA is something that managers can only dream of when they make a lineup each night, and Dusty Baker gets to live that dream. There really couldn’t be a better hitter to have in front of Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce, no matter how bad their defense is.
With Choo’s success, the debate emerges about how much defense actually matters. I believe it matters somewhat, but some of the extreme SABR people overrate it when it comes to player’s value. I mean, it’s very likely Choo is going to have a -20 to -25 UZR at season’s end, so it’s hard to imagine that he will even have a 3+ fWAR even if he has an on-base percentage over .400. I guess therein lies one problem with fWAR. Alas, Choo is showing his worth as an on-base machine, which is exactly what the Reds were hoping for when they acquired him.
