Ranking the left fielders in 2007

This is the fifteenth part of my series on fielding in 2007. The table of contents for the entire series is listed below:

Basic fielding stats
Converting Zone Rating to something useful
Revised Zone Rating
Probabilistic Model of Range
Fielding Bible
Ultimate Zone Rating
Fan Fielding Survey versus range measures
Outfield arms
Ranking the second basemen
Ranking the shortstops
Ranking the third basemen
Ranking the first baseman
Ranking the center fielders
Ranking the right fielders
Ranking the left fielders
What about catchers?

Today, I am going to rank the left fielders. As with the other outfield positions, columns 4-8 of the table below give the runs saved per 150 game estimates for 5 different range metrics, column 9 is the estimate for the fan fielding survey and column 10 (ARS) is the average of columns 4-8. The 11th column (Arm) lists the runs saved per 200 opportunities as defined in John Walsh's article on outfielder arms. The final column (Total) is the sum of columns 10 and 11 or total runs saved per 150 games.

Craig Monroe had an ARS of 1.3 and Arm rating of 4.3 for a total of 5.6 runs saved above average per 150 games in 2007. He will be replaced by Jacques Jones who had nearly 36 runs saved above average per 150 games in limited innings as a center fielder last year. jones' numbers (ARS=22.2, Arm=13.7) might have been a bit fluky because of a relatively small sample (645 innings) but I would expect him to be an upgrade over Monroe nevertheless. Highlights for the rest of baseball's left fielders are listed below:

Best Range: Eric Byrnes 19.7
Best Arm: Alfonso Soriano 17.0
Best Overall: Soriano 23.8, Byrnes 19.3

Worst Range: Manny Ramirez -35.2
Worst Arm: Shannon Stewart -11.6
Worst Overall: Manny Ramirez -36.7, Pat Burrell -24.6


Table 1: Runs Saved Above Average (per 150 games) for left fielders in 2007

player	team	inn	ZR	RZR	PMR	+/-	UZR	FFS	ARS	Arm	Total
Soriano	ChC	1,064	7	3	1	N/A	16	25	6.8	17.0	23.8
Byrnes	Ari	970	15	29	2	32	N/A	18	19.7	-0.4	19.3
Jenkins	Mil	974	9	12	10	22	N/A	18	13.0	-0.6	12.4
Church	Was	719	13	12	11	18	N/A	4	13.6	-4.3	9.3
Holliday	Col	1,384	15	7	-6	7	13	7	7.3	0.5	7.8
Crawford	TB	1,186	21	-4	9	N/A	N/A	34	8.6	-2.0	6.6
Monroe	Det/ChC	806	7	9	-12	N/A	N/A	3	1.3	4.3	5.6
Payton	Bal	904	2	-15	20	N/A	N/A	8	2.4	-1.5	0.9
Matsui	NYY	980	-9	-3	8	N/A	-15	-3	-4.6	2.9	-1.7
Bay	Pit	1,237	-7	-2	-5	N/A	N/A	-3	-4.6	1.4	-3.2
Alou	NYM	703	-14	2	-8	N/A	N/A	-9	-6.5	3.2	-3.3
Anderson	LAA	724	2	-18	-12	N/A	N/A	8	-9.1	3.2	-5.9
Gonzalez	LA	996	5	-6	-5	N/A	11	-15	1.2	-9.6	-8.4
Stewart	Oak	1,154	4	3	-10	8	N/A	12	1.2	-11.6	-10.4
Willingham	Fla	1,176	-7	-20	-12	-26	N/A	-1	-16.2	3.4	-12.8
Lee	Hou	1,369	-18	-15	-6	N/A	-18	-18	-14.5	-0.7	-15.2
Kubel	Min	700	-2	-6	-21	N/A	N/A	-12	-9.7	-6.4	-16.1
Duncan	StL	747	-5	-24	-26	N/A	N/A	-12	-18.4	0.7	-17.7
Bonds	SF	842	-11	-4	-16	N/A	-23	11	-13.4	-6.6	-20.0
Ibanez	Sea	1,114	-25	-8	-20	-23	-30	-19	-21.1	0.4	-20.7
Dunn	Cin	1,190	-2	-20	-14	-27	N/A	-20	-15.9	-5.0	-20.9
Burrell	Phi	1,028	-11	-25	-24	-26	-34	-21	-23.9	-0.7	-24.6
Ramirez	Bos	995	-38	-44	-19	-42	-33	-12	-35.2	-1.5	-36.7