Peralta, Cabrera, Reyes, Tulowitzki ... Lowrie?
Jose Reyes picked a great time to have a great year, no?
Jhonny Peralta, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jose Reyes, and Troy Tulowitzki: of course. Jed Lowrie? Boston fans have to be pleased. Lowrie's fielding isn't quite up to par with the others pictured, but being in the same conversation with Reyes and Tulo is a great start. The real tell is the difference between the top tier and ... everybody else. Let's see to which group Lowrie belongs, below.
Top 20 after the jump.
Pictured: Jeter (19th). Not Pictured: Betancourt (25th).
I suppose it wasn't fair for to expect Lowrie to hang with the most elite shortstops in the league, at least not yet. Notice that the current difference within the top 5 between Peralta and Lowrie (stress on the word current with a side of "it's only a third of a season, dude") is almost 100 points, while the next 100 down captures the top 15. Not exactly the scientific method here, but there's clearly a top tier and a second tier, and Lowrie belongs to the latter.
Still, Lowrie looks as good on paper (except currently on defense which most of you non-saberists will roll your eyes at anyway) and RedSoxFan has every right to believe they've found their answer.
Check out Marc Normandin's sabermetric analysis on "Why Lowrie Needs To Play" over at RedSoxBeacon. We're welcoming him back into the SBN fold and you can see his work at Over The Monster.