Small Sample Size Lulz: Rangers 2009 UZR
by philkid3 on Apr 12, 2009 7:27 PM CDT
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PrintIt's really worth almost nothing because it's six games, but just for some humor and maybe wishful thinking, since UZR came out today, lets look at the Rangers' UZR/150's.
Nelson Cruz: 58.9
Chris Davis: 34.0
Ian Kinsler: 27.8
Omar Vizquel: 37.3
Elvis Andrus: 4.9
David Murphy: -8.3
Marlon Byrd: -58.9
Josh Hamilton: -21.8
Michael Young: -51.4
Anecdotally, just today I was thinking (in six whole games), Crush has looked pretty nifty at first and I wanted to see how well he was performing in the numbers. 1.4 in a handful of games is pretty awesome. Nothing to Nellie's ridiculous 3.2, though. That leads all of baseball by half a run. Wouldn't it be awesome if he could be a Gold Glove-caliber guy this year? Also, I wishcasted a regression for Kinz's fielding, early on it's looking pretty good.
In the tiny sample of this season, the Rangers are 1.5 runs above average, 9th in baseball. Considering where we've been in the past, if they could actually sustain that over 162 games, I think we'd all be happy.
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Cruz is one of those guys that doesn’t look good running, but gets solid jumps and has a great arm.
Marcus Lemon is the Third Baseman/Leadoff Hitter of the future.
i don't get it
supposedly he’s supposed to be good there, but he’s not. He plays too deep because he knows he’s horrible at hot shots, he can’t go left or right, he flings his body to suggest it was a very hard hit ball when it isn’t, every bunt down the 3rd baseline will be a hit (and Detroit obviously learned that quickly). And, his arm is erratic, and we could tell that off the bat when he rather make the shorter throws to 2nd for close outs than the sure thing at 1st. I just never understood the fascination of him at 3rd with his skill set…
that Guillen hit, i really think most decent 3rd basemen make that play for a DP, inning over…
Stability is key, and JD is a Beast.
zywica for life...
Spring training and 6 games
it hasnt been good, but i think you’ve got to give him some time to learn the position.
the preceding post was a great success.
well, i was never onboard with him moving to 3rd
and hoped he would have been traded.
He’s not going to all of a sudden improve his range and his instincts, so, whatever…I’ll just hope he can do better.
Stability is key, and JD is a Beast.
zywica for life...
Well if you believe UZR he significantly improved his play at SS over time..
the preceding post was a great success.
I was hoping he would be traded
I was also hoping Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie would come over for a 3some. Neither happened, even though both were equally likely.
"The idea that the Rangers are going to be a solid contender for a number of years is a fantasy." - Adam J. Morris
i think if MY didn't give in
he’d have been traded to the Dodgers with us picking up some of the salary…
Stability is key, and JD is a Beast.
zywica for life...
Cahill
cracks me up on occasion. When he comes out of his Goth basement, and decides to not go on a mass killing spree that day he can make some funny comments!
Well done sir…..now don’t go crazy and cut someone’s head off
by Mike Simonek on Apr 12, 2009 10:35 PM CDT up reply actions
I think his skill set is better for short than third.
Even though third is an easier position, the skill set doesn’t always transfer well. I think it does for MY, but I agree with you that I never saw the reason to expect he’d be good there. I felt like average was kind of optimistic.
I remember game 1 he looked great.
And since then he’s looked pretty bad. I seriously doubt he’ll be anything approaching 20 runs below average, let alone 50. But one week in, I have no reason yet to surrender my expectations that he’ll be average at best.
The best thing
that can happen to this team is if Michael Young hits well enough to get a team lacking a 2B (like St. Louis or New York Mets or Chicago) to bite on it. I’d probably even pick up some of the tab for the deal to happen.
Marcus Lemon is the Third Baseman/Leadoff Hitter of the future.
All aboard the MY cant field 3rd base and needs to play left field ship, its leaving port soon
ive seen enough to know he charges the ball really well, can throw pretty damn well, and still wont dive and get his belly dirty for a hot grounder, and thats the problem, its always been the problem. So stick his ass in LF where he wont have to dive and find a 3rd baseman.
Before any1 starts, let me tell you how much i care what MY thinks about not wanting to play LF.
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
He doesn't hit well enough to play LF
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 12, 2009 8:31 PM CDT up reply actions
does it matter what he hits
if every hot shot within his diving range goes through for a hit. How many hits does he have to give up at 3rd before the hitting becomes secondary?
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
I think we need...
…more than 5 games worth of data.
by Adam J. Morris on Apr 12, 2009 9:04 PM CDT up reply actions
agree
its just my initial reaction to the hot shots he’s seeing. hopefully it improves or it isnt as bad as the season continues on
mormons stole me and held me against my will with Oklahoma beer and 12+ hour work days.
As Josey Points Out...
…Cal Ripken, Jr. estimates an adjustment time of 100 games for the different look at 3B than SS. Not sure if that is completely accurate, but 6 games is just too soon.
2008
Murphy: .275/.321/.465, 106 OPS+
Young: .284/.339/.402, 96 OPS+
Murphy: 3.3 UZR
Young: -5.8 UZR
I don’t know that there is an answer other than people think he is Rusty Greer.
Rangers need to hire Buechele
to work w/ Young. Bue made it an art form at the hot corner. Young doesn’t have his reflexes, but maybe he could teach him better positioning. It surprises me more and more that EChavez gave a GG to Wash. Then again, maybe he was a better listener that wanted to learn.
"I saw your act, just didn't make it for me. Just a lot of fluff."
Since we have defense, we now have WAR that includes fielding.
Cruz is already a .6 WAR player. Kinsler is already 0.3. No one else is about 0.1, but that’s not unreasonable. Cruz and Kinsler are just off to insane starts.
Kinsler
That diving stop he made the other night (Wednesday?) where his legs went up and torqued his back looked painful. Made the play and stayed in the game, though.
Cruz
He’s not going to stay that good, but its hard to see him start playing poorly enough where he isn’t putting up a great season defensively in RF.
By 2028, Mark Teixeira will be in the HOF.
-The Outlaw
Right, he's obviously not going to be a 6 win player in the field.
I definitely would not be surprised by about 1 1/2 to 2 wins, though.
Another interesting stat
Mariners have a UZR of 5.7, more than 1 run above the 2nd place team.
A large part due to a UZR of 1.8 in CF from Franklin Gutierrez and a UZR of 1.9 from Endy Chavez. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the outfield once Ichiro comes back. And just how good that outfield will be.
Now, that’s probably not sustainable, and if they keep wanting to play Griffey out there (-30 and -18 UZRs past two years in RF), we should see those numbers go down.
But Seattle looks like they could win some games due in large part to their defense.
R
I do think the Mariners could have one of the best defensive outfields ever this year, though.
It will regress from where it’s been so far, but still.
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