Alexei Ramirez: Player Spotlight

I had a brainstorm in the shower the other day--I do all my best thinking when I'm soapy and naked--Now that there is a solid user base here, with a reasonably wide-ranging set of opinions, I'm always going to be looking to harness the power of that knowledge base. We've done community projections and a fan satisfaction index--I'll run the next one on our next off-day--but now it's time to take on a new project, the Player Spotlight.

My intention for the Player Spotlight would be to build a community scouting report of sorts. Nobody knows the players better than the rabid fans, of which we are many. Collectively we should be able to come up with scouting report as accurate and in-depth as any scout can compile from a few viewings.

So with that in mind, I chose our most mysterious asset for the inaugural Player Spotlight, Alexei Ramirez. Using empirical, anecdotal and your own observed data try to articulately answer some (or all) of the following questions.

• What is his approach at the plate?
• Does he thrive on certain pitches? certain counts/situations? Why?
• Is he vulnerable to certain pitches, and why?
• What is he like on the basepaths?
• How is his defense? His arm?

The intent of this exercise is to create both a proper macro-level scouting report--feel free to use the 20-80 scale and your best scout speak--but to catch the little things that may be going on with a player right now. (i.e. Konerko actively looking to got to right field.)

I've got one thing in mind that I've noticed about Alexei, but I haven't seen it mentioned yet in any of the gamethreads. I'll post my own observations sometime this afternoon.

If this proves successful, I'll schedule one of these for every weekday around mid-day, unless the Sox play a day game, in which case there will be none.

Update (The Wizard): Pitch F/X data  from Josh Kalk:

All pitches:

Hits only: