Joey P

[klaiggeb]

I just watched Joe Panik boot a hard-hit ball at second base the two years ago he would have scooped up like a vacuum cleaner scooping up cat hair.

I honestly do not know what his problem is but this is not the same Joe Panik that we had back in 2014 2015

[sharksrog]

Joe Panik two years ago wasn't the same Joe Panik defensively that we saw in 2014, 2015 and 2016 either. Was that the season he first hurt his back?

I thought Joe's defense this year was better than it had been the previous two years. Thought maybe the loss of weight helped. His metrics at least have been better.

One area Joe has excelled at this season is in fielding "Likely" plays, the ones on which the probability of success is estimated at 60-90%. Joe has had 22 such plays this season and has completed 21 of them. I'm not sure I've seen such a high rating on what might be called plays that aren't tough but aren't routine either. Maybe the play you're describing, Boly, is the one "Likely" play he missed. Or maybe the play was considered either "Routine" (90-100%) or "Even" (40-60%).

Joe has long been quite good on the pivot, but I wonder if the miraculous play he made in the 2014 World Series caused us to over-estimate his defense. He was pretty good at one time, but I'm not sure he deserved his Gold Glove over D.J. LeMahieu. Then again, 2016 was probably Joe's best defensive season, and it was also probably LeMahieu's worst. So maybe he did deserve it.

But there seems little question that his defense took a big dive in 2017.