Lay Off Jimmy

You go to work every day, and you work hard. You try to do your best. Do you always have the same effort level? Every minute of every day?

Yesterday, 97.5 in Philly, on their digital billboards, called out Jimmy Rollins for his perceived lack of effort running to first on a ground ball where he was way out the day before in Miami, in what was still a 3-2 game. Fans were none the happy either on the internets, complaining about Jimmy on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and anywhere else one can troll to talk about a ballplayer.

This week, Jimmy Rollins broke Larry Bowa's club record for games at shortstop. He has 1,751 games played in his career. He's at 1,981 hits in his career. He has 702 career extra base hits. He has multiple Gold Gloves. He has multiple All-Star Games. He has an MVP. He has a pair of World Series appearances. He has a World Championship. All as a Phillie. For the "saber-nerds" out there, and I say that lovingly, he's going to be a +40 WAR guy for his career.

Let's not pretend he's trash now either. He's got 115 games this season, and continues to play his stellar defense. While his .246 average is not ideal for a lead-off man, nor is his .717 OPS amazing, neither number puts him in the trash heap of the National League, in fact both put him in the upper levels of shortstops (it's not an offensive position anymore). His 14 homers and 44 extra-base hits are pretty good numbers too, and his 20 steals aren't anything to laugh at. This is not a bad ballplayer, even if he occasionally doesn't bust out the box to beat out a grounder. We don't complain about every other player occasionally not getting going. Jimmy's had leg issues in the recent past, and occasionally this happens with him. Deal with it. Charlie did. He played him the next night.

Lay off Jimmy. Find something better to do.