September 24th, 2012 at 6:03 am 
by Ron Cervenka There isn’t a person alive who will argue that Dee Gordon isn’t a game-changer. Because of his blazing speed, when Gordon gets on base he immediately gets into the opposing pitcher’s and catcher’s heads and he flat out makes things happen. Unfortunately, that’s about where Dee’s value to the Dodgers seems to end. When Dee is on defense at shortstop, it’s not a matter of if something bad is going to happen, it’s a matter of when and how often. Such was the case on Sunday night’s nationally televised ESPN game at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati during the Dodgers 5-3 victory over the Reds to collect their first series win in exactly a month.
Dee Gordon is a game-changer when he is on the bases. Unfortunately, he is also a game-changer when he is on defense – but not in a good way. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
Gordon entered the game as a pinch runner in the top of the 7th after Hanley Ramirez fouled a ball off of his left shin and remained in the game at shortstop. In the bottom of the 8th, Gordon backhanded a leadoff routine grounder off the bat of Reds second baseman Miguel Cairo that Dee clearly should have gotten in front of and then he absolutely airmailed the ball a good six feet over first baseman Adrian Gonzalez’s head (A-Gon is 6′-2″) landing six rows deep into the stands and allowing Cairo a free pass to second base. And you knew what was going to happen next… and it did – Reds right fielder Denis Phipps absolutely crushed a Ronald Belisario fastball deep into the left field bleachers making it a 5-3 game. And were it not for an outstanding catch and tag by Gonzalez on yet another errant Gordon throw with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, who knows what may have happened.
Hanley Ramirez had to come out of the game after fouling a ball off of his left shin on Sunday night. From all appearances, he might not be ready for Tuesday night’s series opener in San Diego. (Photo courtesy of dodgers.com)
To be fair, it was Gordon’s first appearance at shortstop since he severely dislocated his right thumb on July 4th at Dodger Stadium (against the Reds incidentally), but to make one error and having your first baseman prevent another on the only two balls hit to you has got to send up a red flag to Dodger management – especially when Ramirez, Luis Cruz and Elian Herrera can all play shortstop without risking death or injury to fans seated behind first base.
It would be foolish for the Dodgers to simply give up on Gordon and trade him away – a kid with his game-changing speed simply doesn’t come along very often. But instead of progressing at the shortstop position, he seems to be regressing.
So what to do?
The simplest and most logical answer would be to to move Gordon over to second base, Right? I mean it’s done all the time in the MLB. Yet for some reason, the Dodgers seem very reluctant to give this even little consideration. In fact, during his daily pre-game media conference in the Dodgers dugout a week ago, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was asked why Gordon had taken grounders at second base prior to batting practice. Without even a hint of hesitation Mattingly answered “Dee’s wanting to take some grounders over there (but) we haven’t talked about Dee playing second (base) in any way, shape or form.” Kind of hard to misinterpret that statement, isn’t it. Oh, in case you were wondering, Mark Ellis is under contract through the 2013 season with a club option for 2014. Now I don’t know about you, but I feel real comfortable when Mark is in the starting line-up at second base everyday, and I sort of get the feeling that Mattingly does too.
I suspect that Gordon may see a little more playing time at shortstop before the end of the season, especially if (when) the Dodgers are eliminated from playoff contention, or if Ramirez is going to miss any significant time because of his shin injury. But I also suspect that Dee is not going to be the Dodgers everyday shortstop next season either… or perhaps ever again. I do believe, however, that the Dodgers have absolutely no choice but to at least work him out at second base at spring training next year and that if he makes the transition well, he may eventually become the Dodgers everyday second baseman, but probably not before spending at least a year at that position in Albuquerque.
Aside from that, the only other option would be for the Dodgers to use Dee as a blue chip trading piece, and I simply do not believe that they are ready to do that just yet.
What ends up happening with Dee Gordon remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain – he is certainly making things difficult, for himself and for the Dodgers front office.
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Katy bar the door!
Hanley Ramirez finally dove for a ball during Sunday night’s game against the Cincinnati Reds. In fact he did it twice!
You don’t suppose that the game being nationally televised on ESPN had anything to do with this, do you? I’m just sayin’ (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
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That was very disappointing to see Dee do so lousy throwing both those balls. Could have just been nerves, but its not like he has never played that position before.
It’s really hard to say what happened to cause Gordon to make two consecutive bad throws to first base last night but aside from that, although I hardly make predictions, I have a feeling that either Ramirez, M. Ellis or Cruz will some how end up on the DL this year or next, one way or another and Dee will find his way back into the lineup.
I wouldn’t want to see anyone of them badly hurt, that’s not a wish and I’m not favoring Gordon but I’m just saying that it seems sooner or later that it’s bound to happen.
This where we disagree Ron. Gordon has a gun for an arm and range that would cover Yosemite if allowed. I believe it would be wasted in a place like second base. Hanley is a third baseman. His days as a SS are over. We’ve seen it the last two months of the season, where Hanley couldn’t (or should I say wouldn’t?) get to balls that Gordon’s range allowed him to reach in his sleep.
I understand Dee is erratic. It’s unfair to attack him for yesterday’s mess considering he hadn’t seen Major League action at the position since July 4th. It’s also the most pressure he has ever faced in his life. A “do or die” game with the season on the line on national television and he’s thrown out there after not seeing action at the position (on the MLB level) for 2 1/2 months? Dee was definitely pressing out there, and it showed. I have confidence that he’ll be okay though. We’ve seen the acrobatic plays he makes and then they’re followed by botched routine throws. The kid will work hard and get through it.
I’ve seen worse. Remember Offerman? Dee isn’t anywhere hear the mess he was. But if fans start getting on him, he may become that. You’ve seen his work ethic at CBR. You saw how many ground balls he took. How many throws he made, how he never dogged it in running drills and the must routine and mundane routines at Spring Training. This kid is special and he’ll get through this with practice and hard work. He has the tools to be the best defensive shortstop in the league. It makes no sense to me that we move him to second base when he has so much potential at SS and Hanley is so bad at it.
I don’t disagree with what you are saying about Dee and his work ethic, or that he has a cannon arm and impossible range, but I think you missed my point entirely.
My point is that I do not think that this new “win it all and win it now” ownership mentality has the patience to tolerate the type of errors that Gordon has and continues to make. Also, I am not basing my opinion solely on Dee two horrible throws last light, nor do I see where I attacked him, as you suggested.
Dee has made 18 errors this season (mostly throwing) in 186 attempts in only 78 games (several of which were only as a pinch runner). This is a FLDPCT of .946 which is unacceptable for a major league shortstop (Jose Offerman’s career FLDPCT was .943 – in case you were wondering). In other words, Dee is not just making an occasional bad throw, he is making a lot of bad throws, certainly enough to cause management to consider better options. And this doesn’t even take into account Dee’s pathetic .281 OBP, which isn’t just unacceptable for a leadoff batter, it’s deplorable.
As bad as he may seem to you, Hanley Ramirez has made only 5 errors in 124 attempts at shortstop for a .973 FLDPCT, which isn’t great, but isn’t all that bad either. In fact, Hanley Ramirez has a better career shortstop FLDPCT (.968) than Rafael Furcal (.966).
Luis Cruz has made only 2 errors in 58 attempts at shortstop for a .981 FLDPCT (perhaps one of those better option things).
What I am suggesting in my post (and what you apparently missed) is that if Dee cannot cut it at shortstop, Dodger management needs to at least offer him a legitimate shot at second base before trading him away. And if Dee needs more seasoning and development or more time to learn the game, regardless of the position, he needs to do it on a minor league field, not with the Big team.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge Dee Gordon fan (for the very reasons that you mentioned), but he damn near cost the Dodgers a must-win game (or “do or die” as you put it) last night, just as he has done on several other occasions this season.
I too mused about Dee at second base. I think he would excel at turning the DP.
However, his position is not my main concern now. It is that he has to make use of his #1 strength – speed. As mentioned, when he is on base, he is a game changer at that moment. How many of us last night didn’t believe he wasn’t going to score on anything hit to the infield? Votto fumbling the ball, as a result of Dee running, made no difference. Dee was going to score regardless of what Votto did.
The problem has been that Dee has to get on base more regularly. If he is to be a regular next season, especially leading off. He has to have a much improved OBP (.281). He had three times as many K’s as BB’s. To utilize his #1 asset, he has to get on base more often by walking. It can be argued he is still relatively new to the game and as a result has much to learn about hitting. I’m not saying he doesn’t, just that he must get on base to stay with the team. The time frame is up to the team and Dee.
My personal thought is that Dee will be traded in a quest for pitching, not that I want him to be traded.
Slew by the double negative Mike. How many of us didn’t believe he was going to score …?
Gordon has options and the costs are at the minimum. Cruz has earned the 3B job and Hanley and Ellis are under contract. Assuming a trade is not going to happen Gordon is currently odd man out. But with what we’ve seen this year, injuries do happen and change is constant and the Dodgers have the luxury of not having to make a decision any time soon.