Dear Brian and Bill,

Please please please, stop referring to JJ Hardy as one of the top defensive shortstops in baseball.

What Hardy does well: He doesn't make errors. 13 errors last year, and 5 errors this year puts him in the top 10 in the league. When someone hits a ball right at him, he gets to it. This shouldn't be overlooked and is important to look at when evaluating his defense. However, it may not be the most important thing.

What Hardy does not do well: Make plays! He is currently second to last in all of baseball (among SS with enough games) in Zone Rating, and was equally as poor last year. Watching him play, I have always kind of had the impression that Hardy doesn't make a lot of plays in the field....and his zone rating backs that up.

Conclusion: Bill, Brian, Robin Yount, most Brewer fans I talk to: JJ Hardy is probably an average to slighty above average defensive shortstop. Looking at his zone rating would lead you to believe that he is one of the worst....but his lack of errors probably elevate him a little more.

While he does have a good fielding percentage, how much of that is a result of him getting to fewer balls than the rest of MLB shortstops?

Listening to Brian, Bill and Yount last night all at some point refer to Hardy as "maybe the best defensive shortstop in the NL" made my blood boil. Hardy is like the slow, small WR in football. If you throw him a 5 yard curl, he'll catch it, but if you need him to make a special play or get to a difficult ball....it ain't going to happen.