Balls in Zone

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 2, 2008 11:55 AM CDT

I was reading "5 Questions: Colorado Rockies" at THT the other day, and the author talked about a stat I've never heard of before - balls in zone (BIZ). BIZ is the number of balls hit into a particular zone. By itself, only tells you where the ball is going once it has been put into play. I was curious as to what the breakdown would look like for the Rangers with respect to BIZ by position. THT only has the stat going back to the 2004 season. Here are my findings:

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Since the Rangers are putting an emphasis on an improved defense, I thought it would interesting to see where the hits have been falling over the past few years. It does not come as much of a surprise that most of the hits go up the middle. I was surprised, however, to see RF get almost as many balls as CF. So if the Rangers want to improve defensively, then they need to have better fielders at (in order of importance) SS, 2B, CF, RF, and LF. After LF, there is a significant drop in BIZ (below an average of 400), so they are not as important as the aforementioned positions.

Young is who he is with the glove, and unless he agrees to change positions again, he will be the regular SS for some time. Kinsler did improve defensively at the end of last season. Assuming that he has not forgotten everything he and Washington worked on last season, this should be considered an upgrade. Hamilton, as shown last night, is a huge upgrade, and so will Bradley when healthy. Cat is a defensively limited player (in large part because of his arm). Should Murphy get lots of playing time in LF, this will certainly be an upgrade. So, it seems as though Daniels did address the defense of the positions that have been seeing most of the balls hit their direction. Still, SS, the most important defensive position for the Rangers over the last four years, is a defensive liability, as well as LF when Cat starts there.

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Comments

Cool analysis...

thanks for posting it...

I sort of expected LF to get more BIZ than RF.

"that suzuki guy should go back to making cars" - My girlfriend after C.J.'s close in game 2

by tdi1985 on Apr 2, 2008 12:16 PM CDT reply actions

I wonder if that has more to do

with our pitching staff being stacked with right-handers and us seeing more lefty-heavy lineups???

by corbsclinton on Apr 2, 2008 12:25 PM CDT up reply actions

B-R.com team season splits:

for some reason the 2007 splits aren't available, but...

2006:
vRHB: 3545 PAs
vLHB: 2692 PAs

2005:
vRHB: 3446 PAs
vLHB: 2925 PAs

2004:
vRHB: 3437 PAs
vLHB: 2908 PAs

Instinctualy, you're suggestion seemed reasonable.

I'd be curious to see how league average RF and LF BIZ compare.

"that suzuki guy should go back to making cars" - My girlfriend after C.J.'s close in game 2

by tdi1985 on Apr 2, 2008 12:46 PM CDT up reply actions

Yep...

league average would be awesome or the team with the highest LF and look at who was on their pitching staff. Thanks for the #'s and that was some funny shit about your GF last night. Opening day I had mine ask me if Japanese ball players knew english when they get here. Weird question to ask during the game (she was wondering how coaches talk to them) but I'm just glad shes watching and asking questions.

by corbsclinton on Apr 2, 2008 1:11 PM CDT up reply actions

League Averages

I can't seem to find a site that has league averages. Just for the Rangers, I had to add up the BIZ for all the players who played a particular position. Do that for each of the teams in the AL would take forever.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 2, 2008 1:13 PM CDT up reply actions

OOZ

OOZ is a stat that measures how many balls were caught by a player out of their zone. Here is a breakdown of the Rangers as compared to the AL average:

Total
Tex - 405
AL Avg. - 357

INF
Tex - 215
AL Avg. - 200

OF
Tex - 190
AL Avg. - 158

I was surprised to see Texas was better than the league average. In fact, they were the best in the AL in making plays on balls out of a player's zone (no other team had 400). The only thing I know about zones is that they change with regards to the type of hit. For example, a line drive has a smaller zone than a fly ball as the player has less time to react.

by Excel Hearts Choi on Apr 2, 2008 1:32 PM CDT up reply actions

Here's a cursory glance...

I took a look at the site, and pulled up the 2007 numbers, listing only LF'ers and then only RF'ers and then only CF'ers (as a point of reference).

In 2007:
Total LF BIZ: 9373
Total RF BIZ: 9597
Total CF BIZ: 12264

"that suzuki guy should go back to making cars" - My girlfriend after C.J.'s close in game 2

by tdi1985 on Apr 2, 2008 1:31 PM CDT up reply actions

It's really telling that the OF BIZ has dropped from 2004 to 2006.

Here's hoping that Andrus is the second coming of Ozzie Smith.

by rooster on Apr 2, 2008 12:42 PM CDT reply actions

I still think a good defensive 1B is needed

Mainly because almost any ball hit to 3B, SS, 2B, or the pitcher will end up being throw over to 1st. So, you better have a guy that can be a pickin machine like RonWash says (too bad BB whiffed on his one pick attempt last night).

by Dirk Diggler on Apr 2, 2008 12:57 PM CDT reply actions

Interesting

thanks.

A working class hero is something to be.

by t ball on Apr 2, 2008 2:04 PM CDT reply actions

adam mentioned this a long time ago

that he was talking to someone who suggested the rangers should get FB prone pitchers because their IF defense sucks so much. there are some problems with this thinking (more prone to HR's and XBH's) but I think it is equally troubling that so many hits get hit to people who aren't very good at defense. and, given the constraints at SS, and looking at our OF defense, its much easier for us to get OF defense squared away. at points, we can have 3 CF'ers playing OF this year (though two of them would not be very good).

New Troll Script for 2.0

by ab03 on Apr 2, 2008 2:36 PM CDT reply actions