January 26, 2009
Improving Defense
Via The Detroit Tigers Weblog, Lynn Henning does a good job of explaining the defensive statistics the Tigers are using to evaluate players and improve the left side fielders.
Dombrowski talked about defense as coverage during Saturday's TigerFest at Comerica Park.
"A lot of guys can make the stationary play, but they have no range to their left or right," Dombrowski said. "(Those balls) are base hits, not outs. Brandon Inge and Adam Everett get not only the stationary ball hit at them, but they have range."
Much more range, in fact, than their predecessors, Guillen and Renteria. In plus-minus rankings by Dewan that document how many more, or how many fewer, ground balls are gathered by a particular fielder, Renteria was 28th among shortstops in 2008.
Guillen, who was being asked to adjust to his second new position in one season, was 23rd among third basemen.
It's nice to see these statistics working their way into newspaper articles. However, I'd like to see something on the offensive tradeoffs here.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:36 AM
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Defense
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Inge has a career .958 FA at 3B indicating he can't play balls he has to move for or that are right at him. Has a career .304 OBP and .696 OPS. Maybe instead of playing 3-4 guys out of position they should try to find guys who can hit and field?
Actually, while Inge is league average in fldg % at 3b his range is 15% above average and that's significant. As a 3b he was also league average in OPS for 2004-06 so this move should be a definite plus.
At SS, Guillen was below average on both counts defensively for 2004-2007 (and declining) but his OPS was as much as 165 pts above league average. With Inge's range at 3b the Tigers might be able to play Guillen at SS using Everett as a defensive caddy, and get another bat in the line-up.
Bill
