Q&A: J.J. Hardy on Shortstop Defense
J.J. Hardy receives a lot of accolades for his bat, and rightly so. He hit 30 home runs last season, which tied him with Troy Tulowitzi for the most among big-league shortstops. He also can flash the leather. According to The Fielding Bible, “J.J. Hardy could be the most underrated shortstop in baseball. He makes all the plays that he should and can make the exceptional play on occasion.”
Hardy discussed the ins and outs of playing shortstop when he and his Baltimore Orioles teammates visited Fenway Park last week.
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On The Fielding Bible saying that he gets to more balls to his right than he did when he played for Milwaukee: “I don’t have a reason as to why that might be. It’s not that I worked on it the last couple of years. Maybe I play a little bit farther to the right than I did before, although we don’t really position any differently here. We go over the same scouting reports and I feel that I play guys who are pull [hitters] in the same spots as before.”
On reading the ball off the bat: “I’ve always felt that I read the ball well and get good jumps, because even though the speed isn’t there, I get to a lot of balls. I read swing path, the pitch — basically, I look in the zone. I see the ball out of the corner of my eye, see their swing, and read it that way. It’s kind of hard to describe. I guess it’s more of an instinct thing.”
On positioning and changing leagues: “With the BATS system and everything else that’s available, I think every shortstop — and every position player — has a pretty good idea of where players hit the ball. There’s a lot of data supporting that. You see it on paper, which is a lot easier than having to study everyone’s swing on video.
“Before every series, [third base coach] DeMarlo Hale will look at the data. He’ll print out the charts, which show where every ball is hit off of lefties and righties. We kind of go off of that. I also know players better. This is my eighth season in the big leagues and maybe that helps me cheat a little bit.
“You get to know certain guys and when you change leagues you don’t see them anymore and have to learn new guys. Another thing is your own pitchers — at first you don’t know how they throw the ball. Do they throw sinkers or cutters, and how do hitters react to their pitches? You have to learn that.”
On assessing an opposing player‘s defense: “We see so many plays on SportsCenter and on Baseball Tonight. We don’t see every game, obviously. It’s a lot easier to judge somebody when you see them for 162 games versus 18 games, or just on highlights.
“I think [defensive play] can kind of be equivalent to a guy who hits .300, but it’s a lot of infield hits and bloopers. He doesn’t really drive the ball, so he hits what you might say is a soft .300. You can’t judge based on just a couple of the numbers. You have to see him play and also look a little deeper [into his defensive statistics].”
On Adam Everett and Brendan Ryan: “I used to watch Adam Everett when he was with Houston and I was in Milwaukee. I really liked the way he played shortstop. That’s who I would say was my favorite shortstop at the time. I liked the way he fielded the ball. He didn’t play too many balls off to the side. He’d get in front of everything. I see a lot of guys now fielding balls off to the side and miss them, and they turn into hits instead of errors. And a lot of times you’ll see plays that look like really good plays, but then you kind of think, ‘Why did he make it like that?’ That was something I never saw Adam Everett do. He never tried to look flashy, he just made the play.
“Brendan Ryan has a lot of range. I played against him in the National League, too. That’s another thing. When he was in St. Louis, he would play so far over in the six hole. He’d be over toward the third baseman, more so than anybody else. Balls that righties would hit in the six hole, he’d make that play, versus guys who would be playing straight-up. It can be hard to assess range, because you can position hitters differently. Ryan obviously has a lot of range, though. He gets to a lot of balls.”
On his personal style: “I’d characterize my style as not having much style. I try to just catch the ball and throw the ball. I don’t try to be flashy. I just try to make every play that I can. If it’s hit in my direction, I expect to make the play.”
JJ is truly a pleasure to watch. He’s incredibly smooth, his arm is tremendously accurate, and you never see him make a dumb play. He’s the best defensive SS in Baltimore since Mike Bordick.
Hardy was routinely condemned as a mediocre defender by a core group in Milwaukee. When RZR was the predominant measure it was considered absolute proof if his ineptness. When OOZ plays were added and he suddenly rated very highly it was considered a fluke based on the team’s aggressive positioning.
That type of analysis is still available on the SBN blog there.
I think it was a pretty small group that didn’t like J.J.’s D in Milwaukee. Watching him play every day, it was always obvious to most that he was a great defender, despite the lack of speed.
Its hard to judge the size of a group, but the ones who dominated the blog/forum community especially brewcrewball and the people who are now at Disciples of Uecker were extremely harsh. I think they in turn influenced the sports talk media people. It was more the average Joe who liked JJ, while the stat crowd thought he was poor defensively and offensively.
What? I heard only good things from people when J.J. played in Milwaukee, other than his horrible final year with the team.
Keith Law wasn’t too happy when the Orioles gave Hardy a 3/$22M extension last July.
https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/91958225427107840
He’s never happy with anything the Orioles do. They could lock up Wieters at only 8-10 million dollars a year for 7 years, and he’d complain its too long for a catcher.
I respect Law’s prospect analysis, and part of me wants to think that he made these comments since Hardy could potentially block uber-prospect Manny Machado. However Law is well-known for having a bias against every transaction made by the Orioles’ front office.
For someone with Law’s intelligence and education, I wish he would apply advanced analytic metrics before making baseless comments like he does. J.J. Hardy is an ASSET, and at 7M a year he produces significant surplus value. Even in limited time with the Twins in 2010 Hardy was still above average. Still if Machado is ready for the show, Dan Duquette should be able to fetch a haul if he does decide to trade Hardy.
Two other shortstops signed deals exceeding Hardy’s guaranteed money last winter. Where was Law to criticize the Phillies when they gave 13M a year to Jimmy Rollins?
The notion that he has a prevailing bias against the Orioles is silly and wrong. He didn’t like the Hardy signing and he seems not to have liked the Jones signing and has been highly critical of their plan with Dylan Bundy. He also hated the Vlad Guerrero and Derrick Lee signings (which we can now say was absolutely right). He also was one of the main proponents of the Wei Yin Chen signing, never wavered from the thought that Wieters would be a star, and to my knowledge has always been the most bullish analyst on Johnathan Schoop.
You are absolutely correct about Law’s bias. Hardy’s contract looked like an obvious bargain at the time, and now looks like one of the better bargains (non arbitration influenced) in baseball. Law also had the most negative comments on Jones’ contract of any observer, professional or otherwise, that I came across. That contract, especially after Ethier just raked it in, looks good. He did seem to be more aware of Chen than most, and was high (early 20s, I think) on him for his offseason free agent rankings, but he stopped praising Chen after he signed with the O’s.
We miss Hardy in MN….but you know, he doesn’t hit weak grounders and take a bunch of walks and steal bases, so he can’t be a real SS apparently….
J.J Hardy plays the game the wrong way! It’s true though, I once saw him round the bases clockwise after hitting a homerun
I’m old enough to remember Mark Belanger, so for me the bar is pretty damn high for Orioles shortstops, as far as defense goes. And while he’s not as good as Cal Ripken in his prime, Hardy is a great asset. I’m still amazed Andy MacPhail got him for essentially nothing. For all-around value, he’s got to be one of the top 5 shortstops in baseball. And he’s a treat to watch in the field for a sometime-coach like me. As he says, he always gets in front of the ball, makes the play without being flashy, and pretty much always makes a good throw. He’s still under-appreciated, but that’s to be expected of someone with Hardy’s style of play and personality in the self-aggrandizing world of Major League Baseball.