Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Ranking the shortstops - 2008

This is the fourth part of my series on fielding in 2008. The table of contents for the rest of the series is listed below:

Intro to series and ranking of first basemen
Second basemen
Third basemen
Left fielders
Center fielders
Right fielders

Adding Arms to the outfield


Today, I'll look at fielding statistics for shortstops in 2008. These are the measures:

They are discussed in detail in the Fielding Glossary.

Table 1 lists the shortstops with over 700 innings in 2008. The results are highlighted below:

The good: There was no clear cut winner here. Mike Aviles (+15 runs scored above average per 150 games) finished first on PMR and UZR and tied first with Jimmy Rollins on the +/- system. However, he played only 747 innings and the fans gave him below average marks so I'm little skeptical about his high ranking. Cesar Izturis (+14), Jimmy Rollins (+12) and Erick Aybar (+11) got high ratings across the board.

The bad: Jeff Keppinger (-18) and Yuniesky Betancourt (-14) did poorly on all fielding measures.

The Tiger: The departed Edgar Renteria (-11 overall) was right around average (+1) on UZR but was well below average on every other system. Adam Everett did not play enough to qualify but it's already been documented that he is an outstanding defender when healthy.

The disagreements: Possibly because of small sample sizes, Troy Tulowitzki (exactly average overall) and Khalil Greene (-1) were all over the place on the different measures.


Table 1: Range statistics for third basemen in 2008



Player

Team

inn

ZR

RZR

PMR

+/-

UZR

Fans

ARS

Aviles

KC

747

6

15

25

20

29

-6

15

Izturis

StL

1,001

7

31

12

19

13

6

14

Rollins

Phi

1,168

9

17

7

20

13

10

12

Aybar

LAA

784

9

7

12

N/A

13

13

11

Escobar

Atl

1,105

2

19

5

19

7

7

10

Hardy

Mil

1,268

-7

18

13

15

12

6

10

Cabrera

CWS

1,389

-0

4

4

N/A

13

4

5

Tejada

Hou

1,354

9

10

2

N/A

5

-2

5

Bartlett

TB

1,097

-2

1

7

N/A

2

11

4

Ramirez

Fla

1,302

1

5

7

N/A

-1

1

3

Guzman

Was

1,174

-1

6

-7

13

-2

-6

1

Tulowitzki

Col

863

6

-3

-13

N/A

-4

14

-0

Greene

SD

934

7

5

-20

N/A

-9

10

-1

Crosby

Oak

1,263

-2

-5

9

-10

0

-4

-2

Theriot

ChC

1,266

-5

-6

1

N/A

-1

-6

-3

Reyes

NYM

1,420

-7

-6

-17

N/A

-2

12

-4

Young

Tex

1,289

-5

-3

1

N/A

-4

-9

-4

Jeter

NYY

1,258

-1

-8

-3

-10

-1

-6

-5

Drew

Ari

1,294

-10

-7

-6

N/A

-15

1

-7

Peralta

Cle

1,271

-9

-13

1

N/A

-4

-15

-8

Renteria

Det

1,173

-8

-12

-18

N/A

1

-18

-11

Betancourt

Sea

1,325

-6

-20

-11

-14

-15

-16

-14

Keppinger

Cin

880

-17

-12

-26

-16

-21

-13

-18

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