Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
January 24, 2006
Probabilistic Model of Range, 2005, Second Basemen

Update 1/25/2006: I discovered a data error that will likely change the values in these tables. Look for a new post with new data soon.

Here are the tables for second basemen in 2005. I'll do the full model in this post, and just ground balls in another.

Probabilistic Model of Range, Second Basemen, 2005, Original Model
PlayerInPlayActual OutsPredicted OutsDERPredicted DERDifference
Orlando Hudson3318488 412.37 0.147 0.124 0.02279
Alex Cora1006125 105.10 0.124 0.104 0.01978
Nick Punto1742228 198.86 0.131 0.114 0.01673
Chase Utley3490448 402.41 0.128 0.115 0.01306
Ryan Freel1216151 141.56 0.124 0.116 0.00776
Craig Counsell3908488 457.89 0.125 0.117 0.00771
Jose C Lopez1406184 173.83 0.131 0.124 0.00723
Junior Spivey1767207 196.22 0.117 0.111 0.00610
Rich Aurilia1792201 190.12 0.112 0.106 0.00607
Mark Ellis2880372 354.87 0.129 0.123 0.00595
Adam Kennedy3277401 387.19 0.122 0.118 0.00422
Placido Polanco3001333 321.62 0.111 0.107 0.00379
Ronnie Belliard3772460 445.89 0.122 0.118 0.00374
Tony Graffanino1907209 202.97 0.110 0.106 0.00316
Brian Roberts3693448 436.85 0.121 0.118 0.00302
Luis Castillo3068377 368.15 0.123 0.120 0.00289
Marcus Giles4038496 487.73 0.123 0.121 0.00205
Mark Grudzielanek3525433 428.40 0.123 0.122 0.00131
Luis Rivas1073123 121.95 0.115 0.114 0.00098
Jeff Kent3693441 439.06 0.119 0.119 0.00053
Ruben A Gotay2185270 269.61 0.124 0.123 0.00018
Freddy Sanchez1189126 125.96 0.106 0.106 0.00003
Mark Loretta2772312 314.82 0.113 0.114 -0.00102
Aaron Miles1946234 235.98 0.120 0.121 -0.00102
Jose Castillo2662303 305.71 0.114 0.115 -0.00102
Omar Infante1810190 192.47 0.105 0.106 -0.00137
Jamey Carroll1350153 154.85 0.113 0.115 -0.00137
Craig Biggio3464424 430.44 0.122 0.124 -0.00186
Tadahito Iguchi3533417 423.67 0.118 0.120 -0.00189
Ray Durham3575377 383.87 0.105 0.107 -0.00192
Miguel Cairo2035242 247.85 0.119 0.122 -0.00287
Kazuo Matsui1683215 219.93 0.128 0.131 -0.00293
Jose Vidro2062227 236.43 0.110 0.115 -0.00457
Nick Green2327233 243.90 0.100 0.105 -0.00469
Todd Walker2276271 284.36 0.119 0.125 -0.00587
Mark Bellhorn2341281 300.77 0.120 0.128 -0.00845
Bret Boone2505269 291.21 0.107 0.116 -0.00887
Rickie Weeks2532271 294.57 0.107 0.116 -0.00931
Alfonso Soriano4411471 514.25 0.107 0.117 -0.00980
Luis A Gonzalez1831210 229.03 0.115 0.125 -0.01040
Jorge L Cantu2169201 226.94 0.093 0.105 -0.01196
Robinson Cano3555420 475.02 0.118 0.134 -0.01548
Deivi Cruz1046104 121.39 0.099 0.116 -0.01663
Chone Figgins1001110 128.09 0.110 0.128 -0.01807

Probabilistic Model of Range, Second Baseman, 2005, Smoothed Visiting Player Model
PlayerInPlayActual OutsPredicted OutsDERPredicted DERDifference
Orlando Hudson3231482 398.69 0.149 0.123 0.02579
Nick Punto1708228 199.52 0.133 0.117 0.01668
Chase Utley3384444 393.82 0.131 0.116 0.01483
Jose C Lopez1374184 166.21 0.134 0.121 0.01294
Craig Counsell3848488 460.59 0.127 0.120 0.00712
Ryan Freel1169149 141.07 0.127 0.121 0.00679
Rich Aurilia1728201 189.96 0.116 0.110 0.00639
Mark Ellis2808367 350.26 0.131 0.125 0.00596
Brian Roberts3617444 423.49 0.123 0.117 0.00567
Placido Polanco2932332 317.45 0.113 0.108 0.00496
Junior Spivey1722206 197.59 0.120 0.115 0.00489
Tony Graffanino1865207 200.27 0.111 0.107 0.00361
Marcus Giles3925493 481.19 0.126 0.123 0.00301
Adam Kennedy3229401 391.41 0.124 0.121 0.00297
Luis Castillo2987374 366.95 0.125 0.123 0.00236
Mark Grudzielanek3477433 425.60 0.125 0.122 0.00213
Luis Rivas1049123 121.28 0.117 0.116 0.00164
Ronnie Belliard3705458 453.32 0.124 0.122 0.00126
Craig Biggio3326417 412.86 0.125 0.124 0.00124
Jeff Kent3647440 439.32 0.121 0.120 0.00019
Ruben A Gotay2145270 270.26 0.126 0.126 -0.00012
Omar Infante1754190 191.31 0.108 0.109 -0.00075
Jose Castillo2598300 302.53 0.115 0.116 -0.00097
Aaron Miles1915233 235.82 0.122 0.123 -0.00147
Mark Loretta2723311 316.51 0.114 0.116 -0.00202
Tadahito Iguchi3412415 422.02 0.122 0.124 -0.00206
Ray Durham3458374 384.45 0.108 0.111 -0.00302
Miguel Cairo1988239 246.05 0.120 0.124 -0.00354
Freddy Sanchez1158125 129.60 0.108 0.112 -0.00397
Jose Vidro1928218 229.16 0.113 0.119 -0.00579
Nick Green2270230 244.11 0.101 0.108 -0.00622
Todd Walker2239268 282.03 0.120 0.126 -0.00627
Jamey Carroll1269148 156.25 0.117 0.123 -0.00650
Kazuo Matsui1646212 223.34 0.129 0.136 -0.00689
Bret Boone2456269 289.91 0.110 0.118 -0.00851
Mark Bellhorn2287280 303.18 0.122 0.133 -0.01014
Rickie Weeks2471268 294.17 0.108 0.119 -0.01059
Jorge L Cantu2132200 222.99 0.094 0.105 -0.01078
Alfonso Soriano4314470 523.90 0.109 0.121 -0.01249
Luis A Gonzalez1800209 233.30 0.116 0.130 -0.01350
Robinson Cano3495417 471.84 0.119 0.135 -0.01569

The Arizona Diamondbacks picked up a defensive gem in Orlando Hudson. Counsell was fine at the position, too, which is why they're comfortable moving him back to shortstop. It will be "Death to ground balls up the middle" in Phoenix next year. I'm impressed again that Rich Aurilia does well. He ranked high on the shortstop list last year.

Not so in New York, where Robinson Cano ranks right near the bottom with Derek Jeter. And you can see why the Nationals would rather play Vidro at second than Soriano.


Comments

Alfonso Soriano had 400 more balls in play than the next highest second baseman? Holy crap. Is there any explanation for that?

Posted by: David Cameron at January 24, 2006 10:04 PM

Looks like Giles has the 2nd highest InPlay. Soriano played 1351 inn. at 2B, Giles only played 1276 inn. Soriano saw 3.193 balls in play per inn. Giles saw 3.076. Considering that Texas' stadium is know for high-scoring affairs, it's not surprising to me that'd Soriano would see a fraction more balls in play per inning...

Posted by: Jason at January 24, 2006 10:11 PM

It's pretty impressive that no matter what metric you use---whether it be win shares, ZR, B-Pro's stats or this ---Orlando Hudson always winds up on top. There aren't too many players that they ALL agree on like that.

Posted by: Pseudonym at January 24, 2006 10:16 PM

Soriano played 80 more innings than any other 2B.

Cano is a surprise. Him and Jeter combined cost the Yankees near 100 runs?

ZR had him around average.

Posted by: Rally Monkey at January 24, 2006 10:27 PM

Jeter and Cano are around -120 outs vs expected, though the Yankees almost exactly match expected outs. Who's giving them the +120? Matsui, Bernie, and Sheffield are terrible OF's. Is A-Rod a one man team>

I can't wait to find out.

Posted by: Rally Monkey at January 24, 2006 10:32 PM

How should the actual outs in this model match up with other stats? For example, the Yankees are listed as having 3087 acutal outs on balls in play. They have: 4292 PO, of which 985 are K, 50 are CS and 399 are DP. That leaves only 2858 first outs on balls in play. Where do the extra outs come from?

Posted by: bruce at January 25, 2006 10:12 AM

I can't find the right # at the moment, but the Yanks didn't turn anywhere close to 399 DP. And one out for each DP is a BIP-out.

Posted by: Guy at January 25, 2006 10:53 AM

Is it that the DPs on stats pages are double counted (i.e. you get two for a 6-4-3)? That would be most of the difference.

Posted by: bruce at January 25, 2006 11:09 AM

Looks like you have a few guys missing from the smoothed model: Alex Cora, Chone Figgins, and Deivi Cruz. Did that model make their opportunities drop below a certain threshold?

Posted by: BHW at January 25, 2006 12:43 PM

David:
What is your theory in leaving out FBs in the revised IF ratings? I understand your reason for excluding LDs, but why do you choose to exclude FB as well? (Don't necessarily disagree, just don't understand the rationale.)

Posted by: Guy at January 25, 2006 01:00 PM

Why do the number of balls in play and actual outs change between the original model and the smoothed one? For example, Hudson has 482 actual outs in the smoothed one and 488 in the original. This happens for 2b but did not happen on the ss version.

And thanks for doing all this work!! It is loads of fun to play around with.

Posted by: bruce at January 25, 2006 01:06 PM

I'll have to look at the 2B code. It's possible that going from one model to the other I made a change that wasn't correct. Actual outs should be the same.

Posted by: David Pinto at January 25, 2006 01:50 PM
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