Apples, Oranges and Shortstops

 Right now, Marcus Semien leads the world with 16 errors and a .911 fielding average.  If only Semien had been born earlier, people wouldn’t have noticed his miscues as much.

The one go-to position for the White Sox has been shortstop, with Luke Appling and Luis Aparicio in the Hall of Fame.  With Appling, it certainly wasn’t for his defense—the man committed 55(!) errors one year and finished with a career .948 fielding average.  Aparicio, on the other hand, was known for defense, which would explain the nine Gold Gloves in an eighteen-year career.  But consider that Aparicio still managed 30 errors during one Gold-Glove season.

And, as bad as Appling was, he ended up with a career fielding average only four points worse than the league average (.948 vs. .952).  So, how come shortstops used to commit so many errors?  Small gloves and rocky infields can’t be the reason.  Balls you can’t pick up or that bounce over your shoulder aren’t errors, right?  Or were they?  My guess is that, back in the proverbial day, official scorers had Jesus standards, as in “If our Lord could have gotten to that ball, he should have, too.”  That attitude changed over time, along with the size of gloves and the playing conditions of most infields.  But that may be little consolation to Marcus Semien.