Talk:Omar Vizquel

Change the pic
Omar played 10 years for the Indians. 1 year for the blue jays. Please change his main picture to reflect his primary team. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Briangraf (talk • contribs) 07:37, 4 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I second this opinion!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.124.111.168 (talk) 03:52, 14 May 2017 (UTC)

Encyclopedia or Omar Vizquel fansite?
I'm laothe to do the edit myself, as I'm no baseball expert, but "Vizquel turns the double play fearlessly, and no one handles popups in short left field or down the line with such ease"?? Is this an encyclopedia or a fansite?--RicardoC 23:01, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Soooooooooo true. This entry is so embarrassingly subjective it's not even funny! Some of my personal favorites used to describe Vizquel in this entry:
 * "Vizquel represents another link in the chain of gifted shortstops from Venezuela..."
 * "He has very soft hands and recovers quickly from miscues..."
 * "With a good range to both sides, he can throw off-balance with a quick release..."
 * "His barehanded plays on slow bounding balls constantly frustrate opposing batters..."
 * "A small man at 5'9 and 163 pounds..."
 * "Although Vizquel has played shortstop almost exclusively on the field, he is known for being more well-rounded off the field." -- Gregorykohler
 * Unless someone cares to object, I'm going to rewrite this soon minus all the complimentary remarks about Omar. -- Smuglife 00:29, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
 * It does make sense to clean it up. That said, one way to make it more objective is to find quotes from baseball authorities that talk about his "good range", "soft hands", and "barehanded plays".  From my observation, these properties are certainly true, and the page would suffer if they were removed completely.  Also, there has been recent coverage about him as a person that could be quoted.  His book might also be a source of information and quotes on both baseball and non-baseball topics. Brholden 05:22, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

I am no baseball expert, but I recall seeing Omar hit a game winning grand slam while he was with the Cleveland Indians. I think it's a fact worth including in this site but I don't know whether it was a playoff game or even what year. Omarfan 17:20, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

minus all the complimentary remarks about Omar Not an Omar Vizquel fan, I gather. Well, you can edit all you want, but remember the rules: no libel and slander.

I would agree that many statements by the author of the entry are rather subjective. Yet, while I'm also learning more about the game daily, I've seen plenty of Omar Vizquel to validate the following:


 * "He has very soft hands and recovers quickly from miscues..."

He has to have soft hands to be able to catch the ball bare-handed as he often does. Otherwise, the ball will bounce off his hand, resulting in error. And yes, he does recover from miscues quickly. That is, when he does make the rare error, he can re-focus and not space out the rest of the game.


 * "With a good range to both sides, he can throw off-balance with a quick release..."

The guy can throw a base-runner at 1st or 3rd while still on the ground after a diving catch.

Oh, and Vizquel now has 11 Gold Gloves--2 as a Giant--so this does have to be updated.

Montira warran 15:41, 15 June 2007 (UTC)montira_warran

Bat company
I heard in a television broadcast last season that Vizquel has his own bat company and that some major leaguers even use his bats. Can anyone verify this? Darwin&#39;s Bulldog 18:55, 29 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, he's part owner of Route 66 Klubs (http://www.66klubs.com/) bat company, and he along with several MLB players do use the bats. Vizquel Fan 13:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Runs/Hits/Stolen Bases while playing shortstop
I added these statistics to his page a couple of years ago because they bring out a salient part of Vizquel's value as a player. Many shortstops follow one of two paths in their career. If their fielding starts to fade first, they tend to retire. If their hitting fades first, they tend to move from the central defensive position of shortstop to other positions. Omar was able to keep both his hitting and his fielding at a high level deep into his career. This was perhaps the most remarkable thing about his career. How many other shortstops at age 39 have ever simultaneously won a gold glove (at shortstop), batted .295, scored 88 runs, and stole 24 bases? The answer is zero. The three career statistics of runs-while-playing-shortstop, hits-while-playing-shortstop, and stolen_bases-while-playing-shortstop give a specific measurement to the reader of this unique combined contribution. A tight estimate of these statistics are easily calculable from the games-played-per-position statistics shown for each career year on the link in the article at baseball-reference.com. These three statistics belong back in the article. Brholden (talk) 03:05, 14 January 2010 (UTC)
 * His average is empty. In fact, from age 38 on, only one shortstop, Louis Aparicio, with at least 1000 PA has a lower SLG. Saros136 (talk) 07:46, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The most important attribute of a shortstop is defense. His combination of a respectable batting average plus good stolen base numbers deep into his career means that he was/is still able to contribute offensively (as evidenced by his good runs scored numbers) despite his lack of power, while making a Gold Glove defensive contribution in the key fielding defensive position.  Brholden (talk) 17:47, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I have some problems with usefulness of the idea of keeping track of career offensive numbers "while playing shortstop". First, this proviso seems designed to eliminate from consideration players like Cal Ripken Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, who had Hall of Fame-worthy careers at shortstop, but who finished their career at the (also defensively important and difficult) position of third base. Second, the "while playing shortstop" condition apparently excludes pinch hits and other offensive stats while playing other defensive positions, even though the player might have played the vast majority of his at-bats "while playing shortstop". This seems extremely complicated and recondite. For example, suppose a successful pinch hitter remains in the game, playing shortstop? Does that count as a hit "while playing shortstop"? What if the pinch hit was made for the pitcher (with the pinch hitter remaining in the game as part of a double switch)? Third, the discussion of offensive numbers "while playing shortstop" is limited to Omar Vizquel, Luis Aparicio, and Derek Jeter. What about Honus Wagner? He finished with significantly more runs, hits and stolen bases than any of those, finished high in the MVP voting at ages 37, 38 and 39; and defied the common player history by playing more (not fewer) games at shortstop as his career went along. Patzer42 (talk) 01:54, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I messed up big time.
My apologies, but when adding a citation to the article in the career section I totally screwed it up. I'm not much of an editer, so I don't have a clue what I did wrong. May somebody please fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.235.69.0 (talk) 21:33, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Done. Remember when adding references, the first tag is with the slash. Bradjamesbrown (talk) 21:36, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Naming convention
It seems pretty silly to have the tag at the top of the page about the Spanish vs. American naming conventions for Hispanic named entries. Vizquel has gone by that name for his entire professional baseball career. If one is going to allow Alexander Rodriguez (better known as Alex) to have a page without such an entry (saying that the traditional convention is to go by his nickname), then this tag should be removed as well. It's extraneous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.248.147.167 (talk) 00:29, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Omar Vizquel and The Simpson
The section talking about Omar Vizquel and The Simpson sounds more for a trivia section than for a personal section to me.

ICE77 (talk) 02:11, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

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