May 19
Defensive Efficiency (DEF EFF) measures the percentage of balls put into play against a pitching staff and how many are turned into outs (without including home runs) by their team. It’s a percentage that represents just how productive a team is at creating outs with respect to the opportunities given its defenders. Via Baseball Prospectus, here’s how the teams in the A.L. stack up in terms of DEF EFF coming into today’s action:
# TEAM PA DEF EFF 1 BAL 1,683 .729 2 TBA 1,657 .720 3 TOR 1,744 .718 4 CLE 1,633 .715 5 BOS 1,752 .711 6 OAK 1,660 .709 7 DET 1,706 .703 8 KCA 1,608 .702 9 MIN 1,628 .700 10 NYA 1,642 .699 11 CHA 1,633 .698 12 ANA 1,734 .698 13 TEX 1,809 .693 14 SEA 1,753 .687
As you can see, the Yankees are not very good in this area – and close to being near the bottom in the league. Given the “pitching to contact” nature of the Yankees rotation (Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Rasner and Kennedy) this does not bode well for New York this season.
9 Responses to “Yanks Leather Deficiency”
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May 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Given the “pitching to contact” nature of the Yankees rotation…this does not bode well for New York this season.
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What was the Yanks rank in this metric since 2005?
May 19th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
How is Baltimore first in this? They have Millar at 1B and Mora at 3B. I guess Roberts is good at 2B and their revolving door SS must be doing well. I’m assuming their OF has to help with this stat.
It would be interesting to see the breakout of the percentage of plays made by the outfield vs the percentage made by the infield by team.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
~~What was the Yanks rank in this metric since 2005?~~
2005: 22nd out of 30 in MLB
2006: 4th out of 30 in MLB
2007: 14th out of 30 in MLB
May 19th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I think the defense was better player for player last year than in 2006 (M to Z at 1B, Melky in CF, Damon in LF), so I’m not sure that the metric is all that valid an indicator.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Revised Zone Rating (RZR) is the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that he successfully converted into an out.
RZR for Jeter:
2005: .792
2006: .805
2007: .777
That’s part of the reason why the Yankees were better in 2006.
Part of the reason why they were terrible in 2005 was the OF of Matsui, Williams and Sheffield.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Jeter’s 2008 RZR .846 is while his ZR is .796. Can anyone reconcile that disparity?
May 20th, 2008 at 8:00 am
The revision is for him being the Captain?
Maybe you get extra credit if you’ve got a few less-than-deserved GGs on the mantle?
May 20th, 2008 at 8:56 am
~~Jeter’s 2008 RZR .846 is while his ZR is .796. Can anyone reconcile that disparity?~~
What’s his Fielding Bible +/- mark? Use that as a tie-breaker.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[...] can think about…watching those “plays” by Jeter, Damon and Abreu in the field is something that I wrote about yesterday…and, seeing that seven-run first inning by Baltimore on the line-score, reminds me of [...]