The way Aaron Rowand plays defense reminds me of some career advice my father-in-law dispenses. He said that if you do your job competently, you don’t typically get noticed. What gets you noticed is when you fix a problem. So, says he, sometimes you might need to make it look like there’s a problem that you’re solving, and you can get noticed and given credit for your “great work.”
Rowand is generally competent out in CF (problems with the accuracy of his throws to home aside). To me it seems that he’ll sometimes make something look so much harder than it really is, so that when he makes the play it looks great (flopping on a dive, running into the wall, general Gamer! stuff). He makes it look like there’s a real problem, which he takes care of.
I’m sure it’s not a calculated move on his part, but his approach sometimes gives the impression of great defense, when really it’s just regular defense, sometimes done to look really good.
