Edgar Speaks

Here is an interesting interview with Edgar Renteria from the Boston Globe. Money quote:

“’The ball bounces too much in the field of the shortstop, where I play,’ he said. ‘The field is not good like other stadiums. One day it's bad, the next day, it's worse . . . I was uncomfortable the whole year.’”

I don’t quite buy his excuse for the poor fielding last year. He had 16 errors at home and 14 errors on the road; not that big of a discrepancy. The Red Sox as a team had a 54/55 home/road error split; no Fenway fielding folly there. The Red Sox’ opponents had a 56/51 home/Fenway error split; still no indication of a bad surface at Fenway. So it must have been because of this:

“Renteria said he ‘pulled [his] lower back and leg’ catching a ground ball, though he wasn't specific as to when that occurred. He was clear in that it handicapped him.
‘It was really uncomfortable,’ he said. ‘It is not the same thing to play at 100 percent than at 50 or 60 percent.’”

Renteria is a player that will play through minor injuries, so maybe that was it. Let’s hope it’s not age catching up with him.