UZR Tidbits Through 4/26
The baseball season is less of a dash and more of a marathon, which is bad news for those of you who took Nelson Cruz in your UZR seasonal pools. Cruz leads by a half of a run over Jay Bruce, and nearly two full runs over Franklin Gutierrez and Placido Polanco.
You can tell the sample size is still small, because Raul Ibanez of all people has a positive UZR. Even more odd: he’s equal to Endy Chavez – the guy responsible for replacing Raul’s grit and work ethic. I wish a beat writer would ask Raul about his thoughts on defensive metrics now.
Aubrey Huff should probably only be used at DH. Thus far his UZR at first base is -3.5. Take that with the normal sample size warnings – like all of these pieces – but being poor defensively at first base generally means you aren’t very good defensively at all. Other poor defenders this season: Yuniesky Betancourt (-4.1, SS),Vernon Wells (-3.8, CF), Khalil Greene (-3.6, SS) and Nate McLouth (-3.6, CF). Gold Glove be damned.
What do Jordan Schafer Elvis Andrus share, besides their historic ties to the Atlanta Braves? Well, neither are making much headway defensively. I guess if we’re looking for an Evan Longoria-esque defensive rookie season, these two might not be the ones to hand your hat on.
Team rankings wise, the Rays are the leaders (13.9), with the Brewers (10.4), Pirates (9.7), Mariners (7.4), and Rangers (6.5) rounding out the top five. Meanwhile the Orioles (-11.3), Angels (-8.1), and Indians (-8) are the worst.
One has to figure the Orioles will finish the season better off than the Angels defense, right?
The weird thing is, Ibanez actually has been playing a pretty decent left field lately, maybe it helps to play in the smaller CBP next to Victorino?
Two thoughts on Ibanez…
1. Just watching him this year, in limited action of course, I’ve been impressed with his defense. Is he great? No, but he isn’t nearly as bad as his past UZR’s indicated. We’ll see if it keeps up.
2. A prominent Phillies blogger is actually going to get to interview Ibanez on Tuesday. I made him promise me he would bring up this very topic.
He really is as bad as his past UZR’s indicated. Be patient.
That’s what I’m afraid of…
Skip Schumaker should probably not escape mention. He is doing the Ryan Braun thing from 2007 where he is managing to put himself at the bottom of the leaderboard without even playing enough innings to qualify. His -4.0 runs at 2B in fewer than 100 innings are not exactly positive results early on in that experiment. Furthermore, he’s carried his defensive issues to the OF so far this year as well, where he’s compiled a -2.9 in only 25.2 innings as a defensive replacement in left. His combined -6.9 runs at all positions is over 2 runs worse than anyone else in the Majors despite his playing 30-40 fewer innings than a lot of regulars. He also happens to have a negative rating in every single component of both positions right now. Together with Khalil Greene, it’s quite the drop off from last year’s Izturis-Kennedy combo in St. Louis.
I think the outfield thing is just a fluke. Aside obviously from that dropped pop up he’s looked like his old self. He’s done about as well as one would expect at 2B (Read: Not well at all) and the sad thing is that I’m not all that sure he’s the Cardinals’ worst starting middle infielder.
Surely the OF rating is a fluke, although I could see his having to adjust from regularly playing second affecting him some when he has to move cold to the OF for an inning or two at a time. There is no way his -2.9 in 25 innings is anywhere near his true talent level, though. It’s just one of the curiosities of looking at UZRs this early into the season. The second base rating really worries me, though, because it is pretty much what one would expect, so it’s harder to write of as a fluke of small samples. Unless he really turns it around in the field or Barden and Thurston completely go in the tank at the plate, I’d think they would have to consider those two at second once Glaus comes back at third, though I’m not really sure they will.
Also, Chavez’s total UZR is 3.0 right now.
Ibanez has put up a 2.5 UZR in 152 innings in LF.
Chaves has put up a 2.5 in 128.2 innings in LF.
He then added 1.1 in 28 innings in RF and lost -0.6 in 18 innings in CF.
So saying that “he’s equal to Endy Chavez” about Ibanez isn’t quite accurate.
Phillies announcers Tom McCarthy and Sarge Matthews determined yesterday that the “reports indicating Ibanez struggles defensively” are wrong.
Their opinion, after 17 games, is obviously more significant than seasons worth of “reports.”
Ibanez’ poor range has made a lot of his defensive “gems” this season appear much more difficult than they actually were. There will likely be plenty of “GIF-worthy” defensive miscues to come.
Is there any chance that Ibanez was hurt by the spacious LF in Safeco? Any at all?
lol @ Dave Cameron still coming off like a bitter moron.
Nice to see Dave is still the FanGraphs Lightning Rod of Hate. Stating a simple opinion which many other intelligent people consider a proven fact draws this gem from “B”.
Raul will show his true colors. Perhaps LF does play differently in Philadelphia, but I don’t see a positive UZR holding up for Ibanez.