Yuniesky Betancourt is one of the worst players in the MLB. Arguably
the worst. He hits for a decent average, doesn't draw walks, and has no power. He's also a bad fielder (his career career high in Ultimate Zone Rating is 0.0 from way back in '06; his career high in Plus/Minus is also 0, also from '06). He does nothing well. And yet he continues to start, forcing Mike "Actually Good At Baseball" Aviles over from shortstop to second base. Which has forced second baseman Alberto Callaspo to third base. Which has in turn caused Alex Gordon, one of the team's best players, to get punted back to AAA to "learn how to play left field", which more or less translates to "hit well, because no one cares about left field defense".
I bring all of this up because Mike Aviles made a sweet grab on a groundball up the middle in yesterday's game. I've included a screencap below. I hope you don't mind, but I've taken the liberty of adding lines to show approximately how far the fielders moved on the play.
Did I mention the Royals have to pay Yuni a minimum of $7 million over the next 2 years? And they gave up 2 pitchers to get him? Awesome!
