Zone Rating Question

[DougJones43]

So, I've never been real familiar with most defensive metrics, but I've become somewhat interested in getting more aquainted with them.

 

There was a post regarding Billy Hall in which an assumption was made that Prince's inability to dig out low throws has cost Hall defensive rating points on all fronts (including ZR). I thought that wouldn't be accurate, because what I've read about ZR is that it measures the number of balls fielded within the player's "zone." If that is the case, it shouldn't matter if a throw was converted into an out or not, as long as the defender fielded the ball.

 

Does a ball-in-play need to be converted into an out to help a player's Zone Rating?

 

Also, I was wondering what everybody here considers to be the best defensive metrics (preferably ones that are easily accessible by looking on the internet). Thanks.

[rluzinski]

ZR = PO / (BIZ + BOZ)

 

where:

 

PO = putouts

BIZ = ball in zone

BOZ = ball out of zone

 

For infielder, PO are only put outs on ground balls. Prince is most likely hurting all the infielders' zone ratings as a result of his poor ability to dig balls out.

[DougJones43]

Thanks, Russ. After reading the blog link you posted regarding ZR in another thread, I'd agree that it's not a very good metric.

 

Seems like simply removing BOZ from the denominator (while still keeping the BOZ PO in the numerator) might make it a more telling, albeit still flawed, statistic?

 

That way, getting to a ball outside of your zone would count almost as "extra credit" in a sense, rather than being treated as an out the player should have recorded. It still wouldn't account for shifts, but it might help improve the statistic somewhat.