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For much of Monday's game in St. Louis, it appeared Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo was destined to be the goat.
With two outs in the first inning, Choo was unable to haul in a Yadier Molina fly ball and two Cardinals players scored. In the sixth inning -- again with two outs and Molina batting -- Choo again committed an error that led to a Cardinals run.
So through six innings, the Reds trailed the Cardinals 4-2 and three of the four St. Louis runs could have been prevented with good defense in center. And this appears to be an ongoing issue with Choo.
Though he entered the game with zero errors, Choo has had a few instances where it's been apparent he's still not completely settled in center -- remember, he moved to center from right field for this season. Just from eyeballing his play, going back on the ball presents an issue and he often turns several times as he's running back. On opening day, there was a Peter Bourjos triple in the 12th inning that Choo badly misplayed.
In terms of the advanced metrics -- with all the requisite "small sample size" warnings we can possibly give -- Choo appears awful thus far. Heading into Monday, he was already a negative-two on plus-minus and negative-three on defensive runs saved. That means in only 60 innings, he's allowed three more runs to score than an average defender would have in center. His ultimate zone rating -- intended to measure range -- on Fangraphs.com was already negative-two.
And, again, this was before Monday's debacle in center.
Offensively, however, Choo has been a Godsend for the Reds. They've been unable in recent years to find a "true leadoff man," but now they have one.
Through seven games, Choo is hitting .379/.514/.759 with two doubles, three homers, six RBI, nine runs and a stolen base. In addition to his four walks, he's also been hit by a pitch four times. Talk about an on-base machine.
Not only that, he was both a catalyst and an RBI man in the insane Reds' nine-run ninth inning Monday.
Choo led off the inning with a four-pitch walk. And after the Reds had scored five runs, Choo came to the plate with the bases loaded and delivered a three-RBI double, moving the lead to 12-4 Reds.
There's every indication Choo is going to be an exceptional leadoff hitter for the Reds this season. Expect an on-base percentage in the .370 range with over 100 runs scored. On the flip-side, there aren't many indications Choo can even be an average defensive center fielder.
So, if you're a Reds fan, you take the bad with the good. Monday, the good outweighed the bad and the Reds are now off to a 5-2 start against quality competition.
