Also, Wang should reach that 20-win plateau that had eluded him for the past few seasons. He’s that good.

You make a very good point – Cano’s defensive statistics are everywhere, and it’s hard to tell who the real Cano is. The jury is out, and I think next season will be an important test to determine just how good (or bad) a defender he is.

I think Wang’s lowered GB% can be directly traced to the fact that he’s thrown more sliders every year since first coming to the majors (at the expense of a changeup, it appears). However, I think that the rise in sliders is also directly correlated to a rise in strikeouts. In other words, it appears that Wang is foregoing some grounders in exchange for increased strikeouts. That seems like a worthwhile tradeoff, especially considering Wang still induced a lot of grounders in 2008.

I agree that Jeter with only a few exceptions over his career is a minus defender. However, I disagree on Cano. From 2006 through Wang’s injury this past June, Cano probably saved Wang runs. He was bad his rookie year but improved immensely to a +8.1 UZR last year. This year was a Jekyll and Hyde type of season defensively (http://www.replacementlevel.com/index.php/RLYW/direct/why_did_the_2008_yankees_disappointdefense_edition). Cano looked like he’d gotten even better defensively over the first 3 months. I don’t know what his UZR was in mid-July but his ZR was .865, a 19 pts better than ’07. Then for about a month and a half/two months he was just dreadful, and looked like a completely different defender. Then in Sept he turned back into a very good defender again.

Maybe that bad stretch was just a reversion to mean and Cano truly isn’t capable of an .850 ZR or a +8 UZR, but since he was playing at that level for about a season and a half, I doubt it was a fluke.

I have no idea if this trend will continue but I am a bit hesitant to say nothing is “wang” with Wang.