There has been some sort of change in Chicago Cubs fans thoughts towards shortstop Addison Russell. He went from a guy that fans thought could contend for an MVP award one day, to a guy they wanted to be traded last month. I am not sure where things went wrong with some fans, but this dude is really freaking good at baseball.
Let’s start with this since Addison has been in the league he has played 3,316.1 innings as the Cubs shortstop. During this time he has saved more runs than every other SS in the game besides Brandon Crawford and Andrelton Simmons. Oh, and those two guys have 1,200 more innings played than Addison does.
What kills me about this list is, a lot of people would rather have any of those other three names than Addison, which I wouldn’t disagree with (much) but Cubs fans for some reason have stopped giving Addy his due.
One thing that I have spoken to many baseball folks about is the way Addison prepares and positions himself. There might not be a better shortstop in the game at positioning himself to make a play. This is done through understanding who is up, their tendencies, what pitcher is throwing, what that pitcher wants to do and how he wants to attack a hitter. He uses all of this data to put himself in the best possible position to make the play – and he has to do that. He doesn’t have the range of someone like Javier Baez, but because he is so smart and understands where he needs to be, he doesn’t have to have that range.
He also lacks in the arm department. Now, his arm has been better this season than the last few, but it is on the weaker side of the shortstops in baseball. But again, Addison uses his positioning, as well as his smoothness to field a ball while also putting himself in a position to make a good strong throw. He does this by rounding off the ball better than anyone not named Andrelton Simmons.
Maybe it had something to do with the allegations of domestic abuse last season. I can understand that. I really can. But from a pure baseball sense, there really should be no reason Cubs fans have jumped ship on Russell.
Maybe they are complaining about his offensive production? But since he came in the league he has the 15th most home runs from the shortstop position, with as many as 52 fewer games played than others above him. He’s scored the 15th most runs, has driven in the 10th most runs and WAR of all shortstops. Again, doing this mostly from the sixth or later positions in the lineup and with fewer games played than those above him.
Cubs fans should really begin to respect what he provides for this team. Afterall, Theo Epstein refers to Addison Russell as one of the Cubs four pillars. He’s a core guy that has helped make this the golden era of Chicago Cubs baseball.
