Rays 2009 player preview: Jason Bartlett

January 12, 12:46 AMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Jason Bartlett joined the Rays pretty much as an afterthought before the 2008 season, coming over with Matt Garza in the trade that sent Delmon Young and Brendan Harris to the Minnesota Twins. The light-hitting shortstop made a name for himself, not only among Rays fans, but throughout the entire baseball community.

Bartlett quickly became a favorite of manager Joe Maddon because of his attitude, hustle and consistency. Bartlett’s game is all intangibles, because his numbers are unimpressive across the board. Bartlett hit only one home run, scored only 48 runs and finished 2008 with a total of 37 RBI. He only played in 128 games and was actually next to last among AL shortstops in fielding percentage.

Bartlett’s overall numbers do not tell the tale of a player deserving of even an ounce of MVP consideration. His leadership and intangibles, however, tell a different story. I was not in the Rays’ clubhouse for the 2008 season, so I’ll have to take Joe Maddon’s word on how much Bartlett meant to the team. Bartlett was named the 2008 MVP of the Rays by the BBWAA.

Bartlett, much like Carlos Pena, was at his best when the Rays needed him most – August and September. On August 1, Bartlett was hitting .252 with no homers and 20 RBI. Jason then went on an absolute tear to end the season, hitting .389 in the month of August and punctuating the month off by going 4 for 4 including his only homer of the season in a 10-4 Rays win over the Orioles on August 31 at the Trop. Overall, Bartlett raised his average 34 points over the last two months of the season to wind up at .286 for the year.

Bartlett’s stellar finish to the season and veteran leadership did not go unnoticed, which takes me to my trivia question of the day. Can you name the only two position players since the 1994 strike to hit only one home run in a season and receive MVP votes? Rey Ordonez and Miguel Cairo? I don’t think so. The answer is Jason Bartlett in 2008 (of course!) and Juan Pierre of the 2003 Florida Marlins.

Clearly, Bartlett was an integral part of the Rays’ turnaround in 2008. For Bartlett to build on the respect he earned for himself last year, he needs to play better defense. I have already challenged him to win the Gold Glove next year, but if Bartlett is the type of guy I think he is then he had already set that goal for himself.

RaysIndex and DRaysBay combined for a great series of articles about the decline of Bartlett’s defense and they get into all kinds of in-depth fielding stats from Baseball Musings. I appreciate stats as much as anyone, but I am not buying into the fact that Bartlett’s defense is in decline. I think Bartlett has great range and still has a chance to be one of the best fielding shortstops in baseball. When evaluating his career, however, I would say he has been a consistently mediocre performer in the field. Honestly, I haven’t analyzed what types of errors he has been making from year to year or anything like that, but just judging by the number of errors and his fielding percentages, there has been no decline. I know those numbers don’t tell the whole story, but he’s been next to last in the AL in fielding percentage in both of his seasons as a full-time starting shortstop. We’ll see how he fares in 2009.

My 2009 prediction: 148 G, 505 AB, .278 AVG, 3 HR, 43 RBI, 72 R, 24 SB, .339 OBP, 13 E

Bartlett knows his role as the number nine hitter in the Rays’ lineup and the Gold Glove is certainly there to be won with Michael Young defending the title. I think Bartlett will have a much better season defensively, but could come up just short of the Gold Glove.

Jason Bartlett on Baseball Reference

Jason Bartlett on Retrosheet

Jason Bartlett on FanGraphs

Comment on my predictions for Bartlett or e-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com