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?





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Bill
14 years ago

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?