re the mystery of ron gant in article news duke edu fls keynes econ duke edu forrest smith writes in article apr mnemosyne cs du edu msilverm nyx cs du edu mike silverman writes o any of you experts want to analyze ron gant omeone sure needs to analyze him gant is a head case in his what six or seven years in the majors he s put together a combined total of maybe one good season he lacks self confidence but worse he doesn t really understand baseball curiously he seems to perform best when his job is threatened sit him down for a game and he might get a hit the next night but let him play and what is he thinking about getting hits driving in runs no he s worried if he s going to get that stolen bases or that th career home run he appears to have no learning curve he never figured out how to play third base what a fiasco he still plays the outfield with his legs he s lucky he s so fast because it enables him to outrun his mistakes but as i suggested earlier in the season it looks to me like he s slowing down a little bit or else every groundskeeper is watering the infield dirt a little extra gant has had way too much of a chance already he may get hot again for a couple of months but he ll always revert to his true level gant s ml record age this season year g ab ba obp slg hr sb cs rd base expt year in the majors for parts of seasons total playing time approx seasons just looking at his hitting record he s had seasons of ops greater than which is pretty good for an of his season is pretty decent for a rookie b the move to third base explains a lot of his when he returned as an of he began hitting again and of course last year he slumped but no learning curve he has obviously improved his batting eye over the years as well as his sb cs ratio as to his fielding he was an infielder when he was drafted a bman as he came up through the braves system and then the braves put him through position changes in the space of a year he s an adequate of although not great and at least some of your perception of his fielding is colored by watching him learn to play the of at the ml level i know you re another long term braves fan about playing b imo that s the nd most difficult position to field after catcher at ss or b you need more range and speed but at b you ve got to have quick reflexes and have a gun for an arm there are no second chances at b even when playing sandlot softball granted i d still put my best overall infielder at ss but that s because he gets more chances not because the job is harder it still amazes me that so many teams have tried to convert other position players to b but maybe that s because the supply of natural b is scarce finally gant is a player who puts pressure on himself to perform well and works hard to improve you don t get those amazingly huge arms on that relatively small body without a lot of weight work now whether he s been overdoing it these days may be a valid question as is the question of whether he tries too hard to make something happen during each at bat but frankly if a player is going to not live up to potential i d much rather they fail by trying too hard than by not trying hard enough you might be able to teach relaxation to an adult but at that age i don t believe you can teach hustle all that said i don t think i d sign gant to another long term contract he s now and i think he s free agent eligible in years when he ll be given his career curve and limitations i wouldn t expect him to last much past as a ml ballplayer he might surprise me here but atlanta s got some talent on the farm and i d rather take my chances down the road with nieves et al eric
