One thing PMR can measure is the luck of pitchers by looking at the predicted DER and actual DER behind them. The following table rates pitchers with at least 300 balls in play against them:

Chien-Ming Wang comes out on top by far, not surprising given the Yankees overall defensive rating. What bothers me about Wang, however, is the low level of his predicted DER. You would think that someone who gets a lot of ground balls would be somewhat higher. The following chart breaks down Wang by ball in play type:

Notice that the defense behind Wang caught a lot more line drives than predicted. Line drives tend to fall for hits, so by adding thirteen extra outs with liners, the Yankees really helped Wang. So Chien-Ming got a bit lucky that way. The grounders, however, is where the defense really shined. They picked up about twenty one more outs than expected on ground balls. How did they do that? The Yankees made a lot of plays on low probability vectors:

The vectors go from a low of 28 at the third base line to a high of 44 at the first base line. By looking at the Predicted DER column, you can see where the holes are in the infield. Vector 30 represents the hole between third and short, vectors 34-37 the area around second base where ground balls go into centerfield, and vector 41, the hole between first and second. Note that Wang does well in the holes, as if the defense were shifted a bit toward first base. Both the line drive and ground ball data make me wonder if someone was doing a very good job of positioning the Yankees fielders. I don't know who was in charge of that, but in the case of Wang, they did a very good job.

That brings up a point I haven't made in a while. Range is probably a poor word for the ability measured here. Range implies that the fielder can move a long way to get a ball. But sometimes anticipating where the ball gets hit is just as important. So the ability to move and the ability to position are two factors in what the model means by range.

On the other end of the spectrum, Matt Cain not only received no run support, he didn't get much defensive support either. And the defense behind Kazmir was just ridiculous. Here's a pitcher who keeps balls in play to a minimum, and his defense can't turn the few hit to them into outs.

I'll start on individual positions tomorrow.