Comments on: Best of the 1st Half: Rauuuuul, Defense, and the Fans http://philliesnation.com/archives/2009/07/best-of-the-1st-half-rauuuuul-defense-and-the-fans/ Your source for Phillies news, events, trade rumors, tickets, bars and other fun stuff. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:33:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Philhttp://philliesnation.com/archives/2009/07/best-of-the-1st-half-rauuuuul-defense-and-the-fans/comment-page-1/#comment-116182 Phil Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:18:14 +0000 http://www.philliesnation.com/?p=6239#comment-116182 Who cares that Utley has the most errors on the team? He is arguably the best defensive infielder in all of baseball. Over the past 3 years(not including this year yet) he has the highest +/- out of any player in baseball. He is so dominant defensively that Bill James wrote a chapter dedicated to Utley in his fielding bible book. The reason Utley is so good is because he covers so much ground. Bill James writes that Utley's defensive skills come from not so much his speed, but his ability to read a ball and know hitters. He adjusts where he stands to every single hitter that comes to the plate because he studies every single hitter in the game. He makes a lot of errors because he covers a lot more ground than any infielder in baseball.Errors and fielding % are a terrible stats to judge a players defensive prowess. If Player A doesn't move and catches all of the balls hit directly at him and gets 100 balls hit at him and fields everyone of them and has a 1.000 fielding percentage is he better than Player B who has a large range and covers a ton of ground getting to 200 balls with 5 errors and a .975 fielding %?Ryan Howard was actually a better fielder than Adrian Gonzales last year and he won the gold glove. A-Gon's range is atrocious, but he didn't make a lot of errors where as Howard's ranger is actually pretty good. He's a middle of the pack guy...no Pujols, but he's still good.If you want to talk about overrated defensive players...Shane Victorino. He was good last year, not gold glove deserving but still good. This year he's been pretty bad. His UZR(ultimate zone rating) is a -7.8. That is horrible. +/-(the best way to rate a player defensively) doesn't come out until after the season is over. What I've found about Shane is that he has to play shallow because he has a problem with balls hit in front of him. This makes it tougher for him to go back to catch a ball. He's got a ton of speed, but he's not smart enough to get a good jump on balls. Jayson Werth would probably be a better option in CF. Who cares that Utley has the most errors on the team? He is arguably the best defensive infielder in all of baseball. Over the past 3 years(not including this year yet) he has the highest +/- out of any player in baseball. He is so dominant defensively that Bill James wrote a chapter dedicated to Utley in his fielding bible book. The reason Utley is so good is because he covers so much ground. Bill James writes that Utley’s defensive skills come from not so much his speed, but his ability to read a ball and know hitters. He adjusts where he stands to every single hitter that comes to the plate because he studies every single hitter in the game. He makes a lot of errors because he covers a lot more ground than any infielder in baseball.

Errors and fielding % are a terrible stats to judge a players defensive prowess. If Player A doesn’t move and catches all of the balls hit directly at him and gets 100 balls hit at him and fields everyone of them and has a 1.000 fielding percentage is he better than Player B who has a large range and covers a ton of ground getting to 200 balls with 5 errors and a .975 fielding %?

Ryan Howard was actually a better fielder than Adrian Gonzales last year and he won the gold glove. A-Gon’s range is atrocious, but he didn’t make a lot of errors where as Howard’s ranger is actually pretty good. He’s a middle of the pack guy…no Pujols, but he’s still good.

If you want to talk about overrated defensive players…Shane Victorino. He was good last year, not gold glove deserving but still good. This year he’s been pretty bad. His UZR(ultimate zone rating) is a -7.8. That is horrible. +/-(the best way to rate a player defensively) doesn’t come out until after the season is over. What I’ve found about Shane is that he has to play shallow because he has a problem with balls hit in front of him. This makes it tougher for him to go back to catch a ball. He’s got a ton of speed, but he’s not smart enough to get a good jump on balls. Jayson Werth would probably be a better option in CF.

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