Inge is still a plus defender at the hot corner, but does not have the range he had in his prime. Based on three popular range metrics - Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Total Zone (TZ) - shown in the table below, he peaked in 2006-2007. All of the figures are runs saved above the average third baseman. The final column is the average of the three measures. During 2006-2007, he was one of the elite third basemen in baseball. For the past three years, he has been a little better than average.
Table 1: Brandon Inge - Runs Saved Above Average, 2006-2010
He is going to be 34-years old next year, so further regression is likely in the near future. I won't say it's a great move but I don't think they had a lot of options. They have a lot of holes to fill and they won't be able to fill all of them. It will probably be easier to upgrade at designated hitter and corner outfield than in the infield.
Information for this post was gathered from FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.
Lee,
ReplyDeleteI really wish more people would take the averages of the three defensive metrics. I'd feel a lot better about the results. I agree with you about the contract as well.
Nicker, I've been told that taking the average doesn't give you a more predictive result, but I still like to do it. I think it's good to at least look at the different numbers. When I have time this winter, I'm going to look at averages for all the players position by position.
ReplyDeleteLee