I'm a bit behind on my Google Reader as I was on vacation  last week but I found this piece of news on Zach Levine's blog that was probably buried by the draft coverage. I wondered who would be a better option at shortstop for the Astros Manzella or Everett?

Both carry a sub .200 batting average, Manzella get's the nod with OBP but that's hardly a plus considering it's sitting at .248. Everett get's the nod with SLG but that's only .247 compared to Manzella's .238. Manzella's projections are to hit around .240 with a some where in the .290's OBP and a .340 SLG. Compare that with Everett's career .243/.294/.348 and you see a very similar picture, Everett is projected to hit in the ..230/.290/.320 area code. So maybe Manzella get's a slight edge offensively but I don't think it's significant. The other dis-concerning thing is that Manzella has a .260 batting average on balls in play while Everett has a .234 average and a career .275 average.

So let's look at defense, Everett has a DSR of 0 and Manzella has a 1. Everett takes the UZR/150 with a 10.2 while Manzella has a -4.6. OOZ has Everett at 11 and Mazella has a 15. It seems that Manzella and Everett are a lot closer defensively than I expected, if UZR is your defensive stat of choice Everett is the clear choice, but with DSR it's a bit more even. My guess for Manzella's advantage of OOZ is that he is the younger of the two. So I'll throw one more traditional stat in here, errors Everett has 1 while Manzella has 7 already.

While I started this wanting to pick Everett over Manzella I just don't know if it would be much of an upgrade. Manzella is younger and has room for improvement, but the 7 errors and the fact that his BABip is already at .260 has me worried (watching him strikeout on a ball well out of the strike zone last night didn't help either). Everett is older, but we already know what to expect from him and the fact that his BABip is due to rise makes me think he can be a better offensive player than Manzella and still maintain the same if not better defense than Manzella. I do not think the Astros picking up Everett is a very likely scenario considering he'd be replacing a younger option at shortstop and he is still an offensive liability, but what can I say I'm a bit of a Everett homer.