Underrated Part of the Game

Defense is the most underrated aspect in the game of baseball. Most people just care about the home runs and era. To them it's all about the batting average and the wins. People just don't understand how valuable defense is to a team. Without good defense, pitchers wouldn't throw no hitters and perfect games. Without good defense, teams wouldn't win many ballgames. Take the last few world series winners. They all had 2 to 3 good defensive players and the most of the rest were solid. The Cardinals had Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, and Albert Pujols, all superb defensive (and offensive) players. The White Sox had Iguchi and Joe Crede. The Red Sox had Orlando Cabrera, Jason Varitek, and Doug Mien. Obviously, defense is important to win in World Series. Good defense saves a ton of runs. Another example of defense being overlooked is Luis Castillo. He set the 2b errorless games in a row with 143 games in a row. That was between last year and this year, yet most people didn't hear about it or pay much attention to it. Just playing a month without having an error is extremely difficult, almost a whole season is a whole lot harder. People were paying more attention to Vladimir Guerrero and Alex Rodriguez ( I was). I myself find defense the most exciting part of the game. I guess because I just love being in the dirt. Actually it's because it is so underrated. I also like to save runs by making great plays (Especially when your team goes 3-17 in their season). Pitching and hitting are great, but good defense is just as good as good offense and pitching.