Finally, I agree that Miller Park is very underrated. I like not having obstructed views and parts of the stadium falling apart around me (cough, Wrigley, cough).

Plate discipline is an intrinsic thing that is totally under each individual players control regardless of outside factors, such as park size for example.  As such, it cuts across all eras, IMO.  You’ve either got it (or develop it) or you don’t.  The extent to which you have it leads, in turn,  to greater production and better numbers in other areas (of course how much greater is dependent on other factors that exist in your particular era).

Thanks for mentioning the comparisons to Rollins on baseball-reference.com (not bad company for him to be in, btw).  When I was talking about Yount earlier, I got to thinking about who would be comparable to him from this era.  The first guy that popped into my head was Craig Biggio (I should probably save this for the Astros preview but oh well).  I thought of Biggio because of the similar longevity, consistent productivity, and the fact that he also played multiple positions.  Just as Yount played SS for the first 11 years of his career then moved to CF for the last 9, Biggio started out at C (made an all-star team), moved to 2b (made several all-star teams), and finished up in the outfield.  Anyway, I went back to Yount’s page on baseball-reference.com to check and, sure enough, Biggio is #2 on the comparison list, right below Paul Molitor (whom we should be talking about under the Brewers preview.  Maybe a little under the Blue Jays and Twins previews as well when the come up).

I just did a quick check of the stats out of curiosity.  I would say that most people would agree that Yount was a great player (he is in the HOF after all) and was also considered a fantastic offensive shortstop.  You know where I’m going with this, right?  Even though many of us consider Rollins to be a great player and agree that he is the best SS in Phillies history, many of us, myself included, seem to harp on his deficiencies (hits too many fly balls), on what he does not do (draw enough walks), or on what he should be doing more of (hitting more line drives and ground balls and getting on base more).

So, let’s compare Rollin’s numbers to those of Yount.  Here are their numbers over their careers:

Per 162 games (Yount/Rollins)….AB (624/682), Runs (93/109), Hits (178/189), 2b (33/40), 3b (7/12), HR (14/16), RBI (80/70), SB (15/38), CS (6/8), BB (55/55), SO (77/90), BA (.285/.277), OBP (.342/.333), OBP (.430/.441), TB (268/301)

Also, defensively Yount had a career fielding % over 11 years at SS of 0.964 (against a league FP of 0.964), while Rollins has a FP over 8 years at SS of 0.982 (against a league FP of 0.973).

I know that the 80’s and the 00’s are two different eras, but I’d say that Rollins compares pretty well.  What really surprised me were the walk (same as Yount), strikeout (not much worse especially considering Rollins struck out over 100 times in each of his first three full seasons), and the OBP (better the Yount) numbers.  I realize that Yount played 20 years and Rollins has a long way to go to match Yount’s consistency, but I am pleasantly surprised at how well he compares.  I wanted to pull out Yount’s stats specifically for the years he played SS (his first 11 seasons), but I couldn’t so I went with career averages over 162 games instead (which include Yount’s final 9 seasons when he played centerfield).

For what it’s worth.

Remember, the Brewers were the ones who went all in when they got Sabathia (and lost LaPorta in the process like you said, Stu).  Meanwhile, “Stand Pat” made a lesser deal for Blanton and held on to our top prospects.

The Brewers made a good run at it but came up short, weakening themselves over the long run in the process.  On the other hand, we were able to go all the way and still stay solid enough to get several more shots at it.