Team Defense

[Fike85]

I was looking over some stats at Baseballprospectus.com and I noticed that some of the baseballers on the Milwaukee Brewers are really, really bad on defense. Here's what I found using FRAA (fielding runs about average, on the left) and FRAR (fielding runs about replacement, on the right):

Prince Fielder: -13, -5
Rickie Weeks: -3, 9
Ryan Braun: -15, -8
Bill Hall: -12, 0
Kevin Mench: -4, 0
Johnny Estrada: -4, 12
Total: -51, 8

Jenkins, Counsellino, Hardy, Miller, and Hart are all at least average.

If my calculations are correct, the Brewers would be about 5 wins better right now if the top group played average defense. I'm sure that will in no way haunt the club for the rest of the season.

[danzig6767]

Hall is better than early in the year,but he still takes some ugly angles on balls hit to him.I'm curious if the team keeps him in CF next year.If he plays there next year without improving by alot and we have Weeks/Braun/Fielder/Estrada back in the same spots,it's hard to see where any big improvement can come.

[Fatter than Joey]

Ennder had a great thread about this -- In short, I think it is silly to think that pulling Cappy/Suppan/Bush/Vargas from the rotation will lead to our WOAHS SOLVDD, w/oour defense stepping up.

[Thurston Fluff]

Hall is better than early in the year,but he still takes some ugly angles on balls hit to him.I'm curious if the team keeps him in CF next year.If he plays there next year without improving by alot and we have Weeks/Braun/Fielder/Estrada back in the same spots,it's hard to see where any big improvement can come.

 

I don't see why Hall, Fielder, Braun and Weeks couldn't improve. In fact I'd be very disappointed if they didn't improve. Braun has not played third all that long and I would expect improvement. Same with Hall. Weeks has made steady improvement at second. There is no reason to believe he won't as well. Especially when you take into account how relativly few pro games he's actually played. The stats do explain why the team has been so brutal pitching wise considering the starters all have a solid history. Hardy has disappointed me some with his defense. He was supposed to be a great defender but really looks average to me.

[clancyphile]

If Weeks were hitting .312 instead of .212, and Hall was at 24 homers, not 12 homers, we'd not be hearing a lot of complaints.

 

Face it, we needed our players to improve offensively to overcome a lack of defense, and they didn't (albeit much of this seems due to injuries).