Darwin Barney is the bee's knees.

[Guest]

Mike (Chicago) Darwin Barney was top 10 in WAR the other day. Who is wrong, the stat or my eyes?

 

Klaw (2:07 PM) The stat - it's not properly accounting for defensive shifts. He's an extra guy at best.

 

I get quibbling over whether he's a decent starter or one of the better second basemen in the league, but I just don't see any way you can argue that he's nothing better than a utility guy.

 

I thought they already made an adjustment to the stat for the shifts? I remember Brett Lawrie rating off the charts defensively before they changed it.

Did they just adjust it for when the 3B is playing on the other side of second base?

[Tracer Bullet]

Mike (Chicago) Darwin Barney was top 10 in WAR the other day. Who is wrong, the stat or my eyes?

 

Klaw (2:07 PM) The stat - it's not properly accounting for defensive shifts. He's an extra guy at best.

 

I get quibbling over whether he's a decent starter or one of the better second basemen in the league, but I just don't see any way you can argue that he's nothing better than a utility guy.

 

I thought they already made an adjustment to the stat for the shifts? I remember Brett Lawrie rating off the charts defensively before they changed it.

Did they just adjust it for when the 3B is playing on the other side of second base?

 

That was my understanding. Not sure what dramatic shifts have been so beneficial to Barney.

[Guest]

Mike (Chicago) Darwin Barney was top 10 in WAR the other day. Who is wrong, the stat or my eyes?

 

Klaw (2:07 PM) The stat - it's not properly accounting for defensive shifts. He's an extra guy at best.

 

I get quibbling over whether he's a decent starter or one of the better second basemen in the league, but I just don't see any way you can argue that he's nothing better than a utility guy.

 

I thought they already made an adjustment to the stat for the shifts? I remember Brett Lawrie rating off the charts defensively before they changed it.

Did they just adjust it for when the 3B is playing on the other side of second base?

 

No idea. I just remember hearing about an adjustment to how it was calculated because of shifting and the main guy it was regarding was Brett Lawrie, since he went from being otherworldly defensively to merely very good. I don't remember the details about it, though.

[Magnetic Curses]

jason goff was on the score a couple days ago saying that he's not sure that he'd take anybody over gordon beckham defensively at second base. i don't generally call in to the score but i was tempted to call him out and say that he's not close to the best second baseman in chicago.

 

he's on with boers and bernstein today, bernstein called beckham a competent fielder, which he is, but that his range is below average. goff then began to say that bernsy was selling beckham short, and bernsy started talking about UZR and looked up the numbers. he explained UZR first and then went over the rankings. beckham's like -2, goff asked who was #1, bernsy said darwin barney at +19. i was glad that goff got his comeuppance.

 

i love dan bernstein most of the time.

[Banedon]

jason goff was on the score a couple days ago saying that he's not sure that he'd take anybody over gordon beckham defensively at second base. i don't generally call in to the score but i was tempted to call him out and say that he's not close to the best second baseman in chicago.

 

he's on with boers and bernstein today, bernstein called beckham a competent fielder, which he is, but that his range is below average. goff then began to say that bernsy was selling beckham short, and bernsy started talking about UZR and looked up the numbers. he explained UZR first and then went over the rankings. beckham's like -2, goff asked who was #1, bernsy said darwin barney at +19. i was glad that goff got his comeuppance.

 

i love dan bernstein most of the time.

 

I used to like Goff, but he's just really confident in his wrongness a lot of times.

[Sammy Sofa]

Everyone on the Score is, B&B included.

[Magnetic Curses]

take it back

[Ding Dong Johnson]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/13009/streak-helping-barney-to-close-in-on-gold

[OleMissCub]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/19971718/darwin-barney-sets-nl-errorless-record

 

On Wednesday night, Darwin Barney of the Cubs set the National League record for most consecutive errorless games when he notched his 114th straight contest without an "E4." Barney tied David Eckstein's NL mark on Tuesday night and not long ago broke Ryne Sandberg's franchise record of 90 consecutive games.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/19971718/darwin-barney-sets-nl-errorless-record

 

On Wednesday night, Darwin Barney of the Cubs set the National League record for most consecutive errorless games when he notched his 114th straight contest without an "E4." Barney tied David Eckstein's NL mark on Tuesday night and not long ago broke Ryne Sandberg's franchise record of 90 consecutive games.

ESPN's box score listed errors by Samardzija, Castillo, and Valbuena then listed somebody as scoring on an error by Barney. I was so confused.

[SouthSideRyan]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/19971718/darwin-barney-sets-nl-errorless-record

 

On Wednesday night, Darwin Barney of the Cubs set the National League record for most consecutive errorless games when he notched his 114th straight contest without an "E4." Barney tied David Eckstein's NL mark on Tuesday night and not long ago broke Ryne Sandberg's franchise record of 90 consecutive games.

ESPN's box score listed errors by Samardzija, Castillo, and Valbuena then listed somebody as scoring on an error by Barney. I was so confused.

 

The error on Valbuena was originally charged to Barney. They corrected it the next half inning.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

The error on Valbuena was originally charged to Barney. They corrected it the next half inning.

 

was the correction correct or "homerism"?

[davell]

From everything I read, it was the correct call. Valbuena whiffed on the throw and should have had it.

[Guest]

 

The error on Valbuena was originally charged to Barney. They corrected it the next half inning.

 

was the correction correct or "homerism"?

 

 

Video: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/darwin-barney-secures-record-errorless-streak-official-scoring-060306780--mlb.html

[SouthSideRyan]

It was absolutely the correct call. It was a steal attempt that Castro couldn't pick out of the dirt, Barney ran it down and threw it right to Valbuena's glove. (It was almost a perfect throw, got it there on a fly, but led him to the bag) He just flat missed the catch.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Yep, that's Valbuena's error.

[OleMissCub]

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images//visual/whatshot/Barney.gif

[jersey cubs fan]

well that answered that question

[treebird]

that throw was ridiculously perfect. barney is officially the kid playing on a little league team that is so much better than his teammates that they can't anticipate what he is going to do and they are constantly out of position and just generally screwing things up.

[cubweiser03]

that throw was ridiculously perfect. barney is officially the kid playing on a little league team that is so much better than his teammates that they can't anticipate what he is going to do and they are constantly out of position and just generally screwing things up.

 

The cubs ex Barney look like the bad news bears on that play.

[El Duderino]

From the game notes: Darwin Barney has gone 51 straight plate appearances without striking out. That’s the longest current stretch in the majors. Barney also has a career-high 13 game hitting streak, which is tops on the team this year. He’s 18-for-44 (.409) in the streak with 6 walks and a .480 on-base percentage. Barney’s errorless streak at second base is now an NL-record 133 straight games. The major-league record for a single season is 141, set by Placido Polanco of Detroit in 2007.

 

http://t.co/9IME0D82

[weis21]

That's that [expletive] i DO like.

[Guest]

Looking good for Barney on the Gold Glove front...

 

In fact, second baseman Darwin Barney already might have won the Cubs’ postseason haul for the year, if a casual survey of opposing NL managers on Gold Glove voting means anything.

 

Four out of five polled in recent weeks say they already cast their votes for Barney to win his first Gold Glove.

 

The fifth hadn’t voted but suggested he was leaning toward Barney.

 

Another, Reds manager Dusty Baker, declined to reveal his vote. But considering he can’t vote for his own guy — two-time defending Gold Glove second baseman and preseason favorite Brandon Phillips — his vote shouldn’t hurt Barney’s chances, at least.

 

Either way, if there’s any drama for the Cubs in the chilled air of fast-approaching autumn, it might be the battle for the hardware between the league’s top two fielding second basemen.

 

Each manager and coach in the league gets a Gold Glove vote, and in a change this year, Major League Baseball included with the ballots detailed position-by-position fielding-stat breakdowns through Aug. 30 for all qualifiers — which highlighted Barney’s NL-record errorless streak (now 133 games) and impressive ‘‘ultimate zone rating per 150 games.’’

 

‘‘I voted for Barney,’’ Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. ‘‘Phillips has obviously been the guy that you measure him against. He’s been steady; he’s made all the routine plays and made some above-average plays.’’

 

Said Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson, a three-time Gold Glove second baseman: ‘‘On reputation, I looked at Phillips of Cincinnati. He’s a little flashier. I’m more of a steady-Eddie type of guy. And I voted for Barney. Anybody that can have only one error at this point in the season. …’’

 

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/15234655-573/darwin-barney-might-be-on-track-to-win-a-gold-glove.html

[dew1679666265]

I'm happy about that for two reasons:

 

1) It's a neat honor for Barney and well-deserved.

 

2) If the Theo regime does choose to trade/shop Barney, being able to market him as a "gold glove second baseman" does nothing but increase his value.

[davell]

I'm OK if he stays or if we dealt him. If his bat comes around just a bit more though, it'd be ideal to keep him.