Baseball Reference's minor league pages have been very informative to me this off season, that site just keeps on getting better and better. But check this out:
Albuquerque: 5.01
Colorado Springs: 5.96
Fresno: 4.97
Iowa: 4.87
Las Vegas: 4.82
Memphis: 4.77
Nashville: 4.77
New Orleans: 4.91
Oklahoma: 4.92
Omaha: 4.99
Portland: 4.98
Round Rock: 4.75
Salt Lake: 5.03
Sacramento: 4.96
Tacoma: 5.10
Tuscon: 4.80
No other player who logged more than fifty games at second base in the PCL had a range factor greater than 5.00. Think about that. Not only did Nix cover the most ground among second baseman in the PCL last season, he did so by nearly 20% over his closest competitor. Tucson as a team had 400 assists and 110 double plays at the position in 142 games, Nix had 404 assists and turned 124 DP's in 107 games. Furthermore, looking at the International League and all three AA leagues doesn't turn up anybody close either, so let's compare the numbers we can with Nix to the best in the NL last year, Chase Utley and Orlando Hudson as well as Dewan's Fielding Bible award winner Aaron Hill of the AL:
J. Nix G:107 PO:234 A:404 E:9 DP:124 .986 RFg: 5.96
C. Utley G:132 PO:289 A:372 E:10 DP:85 .985 RFg: 5.10 D's +/-: +22
O. Hudson G:137 PO:258 A:387 E:10 DP:96 .985 RFg: 4.91 D's +/-: +20
A. Hill G:160 PO:244 A:560 E:14 DP:114 .983 RFg: 5.13 D's +/-: +22
The games played might throw you off here, but Nix had roughly two thirds the playing time of Hill, so multiplying his counting stats by 1.5 gives you a rough idea of the kind of astronomical pace we was running at. Even factoring in that it strains credibility that he could have kept that up for another fifty-three games, Nix's 2007 season would project out to around a +30 with the glove. That's amazing, and if we get even something close to that next year he could be fifteen runs behind Kaz-Mat (+12) at the plate and still come out about even.