Comments on: Small stat of the day: the defensive improvement

By: don52656

don52656 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:45:18 +0000

I have been tracking our DEF on a game-by-game basis all year. The uptick in DEF seems to be due more to the changes in the outfield than at 1B.

M’s DEF before Ichiro switched to RF = .678
M’s DEF after Ichrio switched to RF = .706

M’s DEF before Sexson traded = .685
M’s DEF after Sexson traded = .700

I would also hypothesize that the Ichrio move to RF and the recent Washburn success might be related, as Washburn has the lowest AO/GB ratio of the M’s starters and would be most likely to benefit from an improved outfield defense.

How much better would the rest of the starters be with above average defense from 2B and SS, I wonder…..

By: Matt the Dragon

Matt the Dragon — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:40:43 +0000

Let’s say we trade Washburn for Melky Cabrera.
How much of an improvement would it be if we kept Reed in center, stuck Cabrera in left, and moved Ibanez to DH?
(I know this would be a big improvement. I’m asking for a number, like, you konw, +20 runs or something like that.)

Essentially this would be subtracting Vidro’s BRAA (say, -10) and Ibanez’ FRAA for LF (~-15) then adding Melky’s BRAA (-5) and his FRAA for LF (let’s call him an average 0)

That’d equate to about 20 runs improvement (about 2 wins) across a full season.

Those numbers are rough guesstimates and conservative ones for Melky (especially defense, he’s considered a tick below average in CF) so that’s probably a minimum improvement.

By: zackr

zackr — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:26:00 +0000

I haven’t been able to watch any games lately. Does Clement look like he’s improving with the glove, or bat for that matter? His line looks horrible every night he graces the lineup.

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:16:57 +0000

And yes, I know that sucks.

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:10:48 +0000

No.

By: CCW

CCW — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:06:55 +0000

I find defensive quantification to be extremely difficult to pull off without a significant amount of effort. Is there a place that I’m missing that has all of the decent publicly available defensive metrics in one place? Those, averaged, converted into runs, and put onto on a spreadsheet, would be an awesome tool for amateur analysts to have at their disposal.

By: Colm

Colm — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:54:38 +0000

Oh, he’s accusing you of nit-picking.

Am I slow this morning, or was that a bit abstruse?

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:42:51 +0000

began to regularly replace Sexson at first (even with Cairo

The takeaway message here for the M’s is that if you move a player way over on the defensive spectrum (from middle infield to first base) you’ll get a boost in runs saved even though you lose a bunch in runs scored.

No way Cairo should ever play first base, except as a late inning defensive replacement, but when your option was the 2008 version of Sexson, it made perfect sense.

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:31:50 +0000

Yeah, I like lice because you put together a confusing comment where the first sentence completely contradicted everything you wrote afterwards and I got confused. That makes perfect sense.

By: shortbus

shortbus — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:03:33 +0000

Nit –noun 1. the egg of a parasitic insect, esp. of a louse, often attached to a hair or a fiber of clothing. 2. the young of such an insect. [Origin: bef. 900; ME nite, OE hnitu, c. D neet, G Niss, Norw nit]