Some Defensive Numbers

These are based on the revised zone rating data published by Hardball Times. There are no park adjustments. I've said before that outside of Fenway's left field, you can probably get away without park adjsting defensive stats. I did notice earlier this year that Manny Ramirez wasn't as ridiculously below average in rzr, and I think John Dewan may have removed balls hit off the monster from the zone data. If so, hats off to him.

The way it used to work, nobody could manage a good zr in that field, and a poor fielder like Manny would have an figure so bad as to boggle the mind. This year Manny is -13 runs, while a speedy CF like Ellsbury is able to post an excellent +7 figure in limited time in left.

Second base: Chase Utley (+24) and Mark Ellis (+19) dominate here. Mets are getting killed here as the worst 2 are Luis Castillo and Damion Easley, at -12 each.

3rd: Scott Rolen leads at +20, no surprise. Chone Figgins does not usually rate highly, but is +7 this year. With his speed Figgins has as much range as anyone at the position, but his hands and arm have been somewhat erratic. Not this year, he's only made 2 errors.

Center: Carlos Gomez has done the job in the field (+16). Beltran (+13) leads the NL. Torii Hunter right now is dead average, but that's no knock on him. Just about everybody in center has speed, so Hunter is average among the elite defenders of the game.

Carl Crawford (+12) leads in left, Randy Winn (+13) and Endy Chavez (+12) in right. No surprise, these are guys with CF speed playing in the corners. Vlad and GA are +1 each, seemingly motivated not to be cast as the fulltime DH.

There are some truly awful numbers in right field, Bobby Abreu (-26), Brad Hawpe (-22), and Ken Griffey Jr. (-18). If Griffey costs 18 runs in 2/3 of a season in right, what will he cost the White Sox if they play him in center? My guess is a division title.

Our old buddy Orlando Cabrera (+16) leads at short, by Mairick Ayzturis have combined for a +16 figure as well. Derek Jeter leads MLB in rzr, but makes few out of zone plays, so his overall rating (+3) is just a bit above average. He's having a great year by his standards, making all the plays hit at him, but his range still shows as limited and I would expect him to return to form next year, especially since he'll be 35. I was surprised to see Jose Reyes (-15) at the bottom, here's a young shortstop with great speed, a strong arm, who has put up good defensive numbers in the past. I wonder what gives? Is this a fluke? Does he look bad out there? A scoring issue (do the Mets scorers call more balls in zone as opposed to out of zone?)