John Dewan: Jeter vs Ryan and 10×10 Buckets

When it comes to defensive analytics, two things are certain: It remains an inexact science and Baseball Info Solutions is at the forefront. Much of BIS’s groundbreaking work is included in the aptly-named “The Fielding Bible” — volume III is now available — which was edited by John Dewan and Ben Jedlovec.

Dewan was a panelist at this year’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and between sessions he talked about a notable improvement to the Defensive Runs Saved system — and why Derek Jeter costs his team a lot of runs.

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On Derek Jeter and Brendan Ryan: “In the first book, six years ago, Bill James wrote an article comparing Derek Jeter to Adam Everett. He showed that, no matter how you cut it, Derek Jeter couldn’t carry Adam Everett’s glove. At that point, Jeter had two Gold Gloves. Did Bill’s article have any effect? No. Jeter won three more Gold Gloves. My conclusion is that whomever is voting didn’t read his article.

“For the new edition, I decided that we needed to take another shot at comparing Jeter to some of the best shortstops in baseball. Last year, the best shortstop in baseball was Brendan Ryan. Ryan saved 18 runs and Jeter cost his team 15 runs. That’s a 33-run advantage for Ryan over Jeter.

“There’s a line that goes out to the normal shortstop position, and to the right of that line — toward the second base side — shortstops fielded 13,000 grounders last year. To the third base side, they fielded 7,000 balls.

“To the second base side — the side where more grounders are hit — the average shortstop fielded 65 percent over that area. Interestingly, Ryan and Jeter — the best and worst defensive shortstops in the league — had essentially the same percentage. Ryan was league average, at 65, and Jeter was at 64.

“Why did Jeter finish last at his position? Let’s look to other side of the line and break it down [by segments]. On balls hit to the third base-shortstop hole, MLB shortstops averaged 82 percent on balls hit to that [nearest] 7-foot slice. Ryan was at 86 and Jeter was at 73. You go another 7 feet to the right and the average is 61, with Ryan at 78 and Jeter at 40. Go another 7 feet and the average is 34 with Ryan at 56 and Jeter at 16. Go even deeper in the hole, where the average is just 8 percent, Ryan is at 13 and Jeter is at 0. He can’t make that play at all. Essentially, the whole difference between the best and worst shortstops was on balls hit to their right.”

On the Batted-Ball Timer: “We’ve improved a couple of areas that are really going to make a big difference to our metrics. A lot of people are familiar with the plus/minus system, which is a primary component of our Defensive Runs Saved System, and we’ve basically revamped that.

“One of the things that we did was include a batted-ball timer, which measures how long it is from the time the ball hits the bat until it reaches a field-able location. Using that, we’re now able to get a more objective estimate — a more objective decision — of how long a fielder has to get to a ball. We have video scouts accumulating that data for us and we do multiple pass checks to make sure that it’s correct.

“We feel that the batted-ball timer gives us very accurate and objective information, and combined with the location of the batted ball, we’re able to more precisely determine [range]. Say, for example, a ground ball is hit 65 mph and 10 feet to the right of the shortstop position. We can see how often a shortstop gets to that ball, with an example being the comparison between Jeter and Ryan.

“We break the whole field down into buckets, so we know by 10×10 regions in the outfield, in different amounts of time, how difficult those plays are. Using those difficulty elements and comparing, say, Austin Jackson in a bucket 50 feet to his right, when the ball hangs up for 4.2 seconds, he makes that play 80 percent of the time while the average centerfielder only makes it 50 percent of the time.

“The data is pretty consistent with the old system, but there are some changes. Some players improved under the new system and some got worse. One example of a player who got better is Alex Gordon. He’s not rated quite as well for his range, but his arm is unbelievable — he won a Gold Glove because of his arm — and he was among the league leaders in Runs Saved at his position. Even so, when you measure his entire defense, he’s not as good as Brett Gardner. Gardner was the best defensive left fielder in the game last year.”





David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.

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Hejuk
12 years ago

Should shortstops be lining up more toward second base, if something like twice as many balls are hit there as to their right?

Snapper
12 years ago
Reply to  Hejuk

Yeah, that’s a good point.

Completely without thinking, I would have assumed you positioned yourself in the middle of the distribution: 50% to your R, 50% to your L.

That would be my gut assumption as to how to maximizes the balls you fielded.

Bryan
12 years ago
Reply to  Snapper

Is it that simple? Almost all shortstops are right-handed, so plays toward second base are on their glove side and hence easier to handle. David doesn’t give us a percentage of total balls fielded to shortstops’ left (it’s 65% to the right), but it sounds like they’re making a similar percentage of plays on each side, in which case they’re positioned correctly.

Barkey Walker
12 years ago
Reply to  Snapper

It matters how often the next nearest fielder can get the ball on a particular side. i.e. maybe Jeter is just making room for A Rod.

OlMuckymember
12 years ago
Reply to  Snapper

@Bryan What? You’ve misread the article. It is 65% to the LEFT:

“To the second base side — the side where more grounders are hit — the average shortstop fielded 65 percent over that area. Interestingly, Ryan and Jeter — the best and worst defensive shortstops in the league — had essentially the same percentage. Ryan was league average, at 65, and Jeter was at 64.”

nayr mit
12 years ago
Reply to  Hejuk

They already field a high percentage of the balls hit to the second base side (the throw is easier I would assume).

If anything they should be further away from second because they are missing a lot of the plays in the hole. Chances are they are lined up somewhere near the equillibrium point right now.

Steve the Pirate
12 years ago
Reply to  Hejuk

I would think this has something to do with covering 2nd base or double play positioning. Looks like even if you play as far toward 3rd as you can while still being able to cover 2nd, you can’t get into the optimal position.

Dave S
12 years ago
Reply to  Hejuk

Only two players… but the “best” and “worst” players within 1% of each other on the second base side… that information suggests to me that the players already position themselves optimally to make all the “makeable” plays on that side.

Those are the plays that must be made… or else you can’t play SS. Because thats where most of the balls are hit.

SSs with better range/arms can position themselves in such a way that they can also get to more balls on the thirdbase side (deeper, farther towards hole), while still being able to cover the “must make” 65% towards second base.

I’d be interested in seeing the data for all SSs covering the 2b side. Guess I need to buy the Bible! 🙂

Slartibartfast
12 years ago
Reply to  Hejuk

Here’s a rough sketch of why SS field twice as many balls to their left:

First, assume that the spectrum of batted balls is approximately evenly distributed.

Second, realize that the gloves is on the player’s left side, and therefore he will ALWAYS field more balls to his left no matter what (assuming the spectrum is evenly distributed).

Third, realize that it’s easier to make plays (throwing with momentum) on field balls hit to your left.

So, taking that all into account, the optimal positioning would be to maximize the total number of balls you can successfully field, balancing your higher probability left hand chances, and your weaker right hand chances. Hence the correct SS position will be skewed to well to his left.

What’s interesting is that SS never really think about it in those terms. The game has just been played for so long that it’s players naturally evolve to understand proper positioning.

Slartibartfast
12 years ago
Reply to  Slartibartfast

Sorry, I meant to add a point to that third section: since SS can backtrack on the Y axis (go deep behind the second base bag) on balls to their left, but can’t do so on balls to their right, is the last major factor.

Zach
12 years ago
Reply to  Slartibartfast

Seems to me that given your reasoning, which I agree with, the optimal positioning would be to the SS’s right of “straight up”, which maximizes the number of balls hit to his left.

We’re probably saying the same thing with different terminology. Maybe by “the correct SS position will be skewed well to his left” you meant there will be more area to his left.

Dave S
12 years ago
Reply to  Slartibartfast

I think all 3 of us are saying the same thing.

Does anyone do precise “heatmaps” of defensive positioning?