There is a certain segment of the population that realized a few days ago that the acquisition of Mike Cameron would potentially free up Theo to move Ellsbury to San Diego in order to get his paws on Adrian Gonzalez. They're vocal about their belief that Ellsbury has serious defensive deficiencies and on top of that he doesn't get on base enough to make up for that. He doesn't walk enough and he doesn't seem to be able to bunt. His only positive attribute is his speed and speed may be fleeting.
Now, I'm not the biggest Jacoby Ellsbury fan but I do think that that's a very dour take on him as a player. I agree that he could get on base more but I also think that if he would take fewer pitches he'd have a better chance of doing that. He seems to be looking for a walk and falling behind because of it. I do think that if he could bunt for a base hit, then he'd be golden. I also think that his defensive issues are over blown. He goes side-to-side beautifully but seems to have depth perception issues. I'm inclined to think that experience or maybe a new glasses prescription might help that out.
But I would guess that the Ellsbury-detractors are the in the minority as Ellsbury won the Defensive Player of the Year for the This Year in Baseball Awards. So congratulations to him. May he prove me wrong.
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