A Look at 2009 Defensive Performances
Posted by Bill Baer on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 3:37 pm
With most of the first-half reviews focusing on offense and pitching, I thought it’d be a fun trip to check out the best and worst defenders through the first 90-or-so games of the season. The metric of choice is UZR/150 found at FanGraphs. The baseball diamond graphic template I used came courtesy Jeff Zimmerman, whose work you can read at Beyond the Box Score.
Click the images to enlarge them.
American League Best
- 1B: Paul Konerko, CHW, 11.4
- 2B: Placido Polanco, DET, 10.8
- 3B: Joe Crede, MIN, 23.2
- SS: Nick Green, BOS, 12.9
- LF: Juan Rivera, LAA, 21.3
- CF: Franklin Gutierrez, SEA, 20.9
- RF: Nelson Cruz, TEX, 15.3
American League Worst
- 1B: Carlos Pena, TBR, -4.9
- 2B: Alberto Callaspo, KCR, -10.4
- 3B: Michael Young, TEX, -17.6
- SS: Yuniesky Betancourt, SEA/KCR, -16.5
- LF: Johnny Damon, NYY, -15.6
- CF: Vernon Wells, TOR, -30.1
- RF: Jose Guillen, KCR, -32.6
National League Best
- 1B: Travis Ishikawa, SFG, 21.7
- 2B: Brandon Phillips, CIN, 7.8
- 3B: Ryan Zimmerman, WAS, 13.9
- SS: Jack Wilson, PIT, 18.6
- LF: Nyjer Morgan, PIT/WAS, 25.4
- CF: Colby Rasmus, STL, 26.1
- RF: Jay Bruce, CIN, 9.9
National League Worst
- 1B: Joey Votto, CIN, -9.0
- 2B: Skip Schumaker, STL, -14.0
- 3B: Chipper Jones, ATL, -27.3
- SS: Miguel Tejada, HOU, -7.8
- LF: Carlos Lee, HOU, -15.4
- CF: Shane Victorino, PHI, -11.2
- RF: Andre Ethier, LAD, -19.3
Finally, let’s go to team ranks.
- AL Best: Tampa Bay Rays, 7.9
- AL Worst: Kansas City Royals, -5.2
- NL Best: San Francisco Giants, 7.9
- NL Worst: New York Mets, -7.6
- AL Most Improved: Detroit Tigers (-6.5 to 6; +12.5)
- AL Least Improved: Boston Red Sox (4.7 to -4.4; -9.1)
- NL Most Improved: Pittsburgh Pirates (-4.1 to 7.6; +11.7)
- NL Least Improved: New York Mets (4.4 to -7.6; -12)
For what it’s worth, I found only a very small correlation between good defense and regular season success using only this season’s data. Nothing reliable, small sample size and all that — but just because your team doesn’t play good defense doesn’t mean you should give up on the season yet (unless you’re a Nationals or Royals fan). Just some food for thought.
It will be interesting to see how many of these guys win gold gloves. I think Brandon Phillips is the only lock among these guys since that award is more of a popularity/fielding percentage contest.
Crede, Morgan, and Wilson aren’t locks, but have a good shot to win them. Too bad the GG is completely meaningless.
When a metric gives a result that Nick Green is the best defensive shortstop in the AL – even for half a season – it’s a good time to investigate the limitations of precision on said metric. In the case of UZR, the shortcomings in precision are large enough to drive a truck through, obviously, as it’s sort of like trying to measure the thickness of a sheet of paper with an old wooden ruler. (hints: a. look at the size of the zones, b. consider that balls are denoted as “hard”, “medium”, and “soft” in velocity… imagine if we measured pitched ball speeds with such crude categories!)
Hit F/X can’t get here fast enough!
All that aside, I’m sure there is a positive correlation between actual fielding skills and UZR/150 measures, and it’s fun to see things like this… I’d say that we can be pretty sure Juan Rivera’s legs are back at 100%, if not 120%. lol.