Team Defense

[sveumrules]

I don't think many people who throw around UZR numbers think it is the be all end all of defensive evaluation or anywhere near perfect for that matter, but it is the best publicly available defensive metric that I am aware of. Obviously there is some noise in there, there's noise in every stat.

 

For years and years all people talked about were Batting Average and ERA, they seemed so perfect so simple. I mean how could dividing the number of hits by the number of at bats not tell you who the best hitter was? Or dividing the number of Earned Runs allowed by Innings Pitched and multiplying by 9 not tell you who the best pitcher was? Noise, Noise, Noise.

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't know that I'd say that. I think that's a bit harsh.

 

It's the impression that I get.

[danzig6767]

And if you think that only two posters are calling Braun & Hart bad defenders, I think you need to read more threads on the ML forum. Those types of comments are all over the place.

Add me to the crowd who is calling Braun and Hart bad defenders.

 

There are very few people on this site who take UZR without a grain of salt. I largely agree with the methodology, and although it is not even close to perfect, it is getting better. My opinions on Braun and Hart are not simply copied from Fangraphs; I've watched them play the outfield all year, and quite frankly, I've yet to find many people who follow the game closely who consider them anything but bad defenders, especially Braun.

Add me to the list

 

I'm not really all that interested in all the wide variety of baseball stats out there today, including defensive ones which from my limited exposure to them struck me as far from being extremely reliable, unlike offensive stats tend to be.

 

That said, if the defensive stats do say that Braun and Hart range from bad to terrible defensively, it would just confirm what me eyes tell me when watching both try to play defense. Braun to me simply looks like a guy who has poor instincts in the outfield, especially at reading the ball off the bat. He's extra clueless at balls hit over his head. Hart also struggles reading balls of the bat, but to a lesser degree than Braun. Either way, both to often fail to get to and end up catching balls that more skilled corner outfielders do get to and catch. As for their arms, it's not their arm strength that fails them so often as much as both just aren't accurate throwers. I almost never watch AL baseball so i won't claim that Hart/Braun are the worst defensive corner outfield duo in baseball, but i can't envision how that many other duo's could be worse.

 

As for Prince and McGehee , nobody should need stats to realize that Prince a poor defensive player. Between his lack of height and ability to dig out throws, he does the rest of the infielders very few favors. McGehee i don't know what his defensive stats say, but to my eyes while he seems fundamentally sound in the field, he also offers very little range.