Defense by the Metrics

More so then any other spot, statistics are a huge part of baseball. They can be used to prove or disprove virtually any point and these days there seems to be a statistic for everything. Beyond the regular statistics lie the saber metrics, the stats that often get so complex that it could make someone’s head explode. These saber metrics are used for hitting, pitching, fielding, base running, and basically every aspect of the game. These masters of the saber metrics came up with a list of the best and worst defensive players by position for this season. A friend of mine showed me this list from a discussion board, but I was unfortunately unable to ascertain its original writers or location, but it looks legitimate to me nonetheless. As far as I can tell, the list is based on errors, fielding percentage, and more complicated range statistics but fails to explicitly mention the specifics of the list. Some of the things on the list are obvious, like Manny Ramirez being the worst left fielder, Ryan Braun the worst third baseman, and Greg Maddux the best fielding pitcher but it also has its surprises. Most of those surprises happen to be at the Yankees expense, as the list has Melky Cabrera as the second worst center fielder, Bobby Abreu as the fourth worst right fielder, and Derek Jeter as the second worst shortstop. It should be noted that they had Chien-Ming Wang as the second best fielding pitcher and Robinson Cano as the fifth best second baseman, but a lot of Yankee fans would likely be upset by that list. The truth is, they should not be. Bobby Abreu does not have a lot of range in right field and is terrified of running into the wall and shies away from it. Melky Cabrera still takes bad routes to fly balls which is keeping him from being as good of a center fielder as everyone thinks he is. Jeter’s errors count were his highest since 2000 and most scouts believe he has well below average range as short stop, despite his multiple gold gloves. As Yankee fans, we tend to build our own perception of the defensive capabilities of these players based on what we see. However, Yankee fans have conjured a false sense of achievement for particularly Jeter and Melky’s defense since they are so far off from what advanced scouts and statistics prove. The Gold Glove awards that just came out don’t prove anything when it comes to defense, as they are based solely on reputation and on their offense, which really isn’t what the award is supposed to be based on. This graph gives a much better view on defense then these awards ever will.