MAYBE HE REALLY IS THE NEXT OZZIE:

Slick-fielding Betancourt has a glovely 0-for-April (JOHN HICKEY, 5/02/06, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Yuniesky Betancourt has it all defensively -- quick feet, strong arm, soft glove and tremendous instincts.

Now he has a statistical underpinning to the quality of his defense.

The Mariners shortstop went through April without committing an error.

Shortstops are error machines. It's not that they are more prone to errors; it's that they generally handle more difficult chances than anyone else. Errors are the price they pay.

So for a shortstop to go a month without making any foul-ups is special.

In Mariners history, only four shortstops have gone an entire calendar month without an error. Omar Vizquel, among former Mariners the player to whom Betancourt is most frequently compared, did it three times. Alex Rodriguez was the most recent to do it, back in June 2000.

Scouts this Spring were saying he's the best fielding ss they've ever seen.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2006 11:42 PM