The Month in Review

Early in April, I lambasted the Cardinals' decision to pick up Troy Glaus as a replacement for Scott Rolen. My specific complaint was, in actuality, the number of errors he's committed or has committed to committing in the course of the season.

I brought that up on the St. Louis post-dispatch boards today, to hoots and hollers from people who believe Glaus was the right choice. He might very well have been - though his power numbers have dwindled (maybe because he stopped taking steroids), he still leads all third basemen in doubles this year and is near the lead in RBIs through the May 4th games.

In fact, he's doing pretty well overall when it comes to both statistics.

The problem, though, is his fielding. Glaus is a historically bad fielding third baseman. Among a sample of 23 third basemen selected because of the high number of errors committed at 3rd base:
Since 2002, Troy Glaus is 6th-worst in errors/game (.125 E/G), behind Casey Blake (.138), Aaron Boone and Brandon Inge (.135), Ty Wigginton (.132) and Shea Hillenbrand (.126).
(minimum 325 games at 3B)

Since 2005, Troy Glaus is 5th-worst in errors/game, although he's slightly better (.113), behind Mark Teahen (.143), Aaron Boone (.132), Brandon Inge (.130), and Chone Figgins (.126)
(Minimum 200 games at 3B).

In fact, only Adrian Beltre has committed more errors at 3B than Glaus (102 to 87) since 2002, although Beltre has played in 259 more games over that timespan.

Glaus has only committed two errors this season. I fear that he will return to form before the year is out.