Snakes Made Of Leather

After comparing Jeff Keppinger to Tony Gwynn this morning, I figure I should write something that everyone can agree with for the afternoon post. So, here’s a non-newsflash; the Arizona Diamondbacks are good.

Anyone following baseball right now has probably come to that conclusion. They are second in baseball in offensive production at 6.25 runs per game and second in run prevention, allowing only 3.55 runs per game. When you score a lot and don’t give up many runs, you win. It’s a pretty good combination. Most of the platitudes so far have gone to offensive heroes Mark Reynolds and Conor Jackson, along with the duel aces of Dan Haren and Brandon Webb. All four are off to terrific starts to their 2008 seasons and are among the main reasons the team is performing so well.

However, I’d like to suggest that there’s another reason Arizona is finding success, and one that won’t get as much mention – their work with the gloves, and particularly, their outfield defense. Eric Byrnes, Chris Young, and Justin Upton are all legitimate major league center fielders, and having three rangy athletes covering that much ground has made life quite easy on the pitching staff. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Diamondbacks are turning 73% of all balls in play against them into outs, which is the main reason the D’Backs are running a 2.98 ERA despite a FIP of 3.81 – the largest difference between FIP and ERA in baseball. In particular, The Hardball Times Revised Zone Rating believes that the D’Backs outfielders have been among the best in the league so far at making plays.

The D’Backs pitching is good, but it’s not solely responsible for the team’s run prevention. Let’s make sure that the trio of outfielders gets their fair share of credit. It’s been a while since we’ve seen an outfield defense that has the potential to be this good. Oh, and they can hit too.