Yankees much improved on defense.
Written by Joe Veno on May 31, 2009 – 10:47 AM -In 2008, the New York Yankees finished 25th in Defensive Efficiency and finished 3rd in the East, missing out on the postseason of course.
The season before, they finished 13th, and won 94 games qualifying for a playoff bid.
Do we see a trend?
Okay, two seasons of a teams play is far from conclusive evidence when it comes to setting a trend like that. But one thing that the Yankees teams from the late 90’s did well, was play defense. Between 1998-2000–three consecutive successful World Series visits for the Yanks–the defense as a whole was above-average each year.
It wasn’t a “deficiency” as it has been often during this decade. As Cashman and co have seemingly abandoned that aspect of the game, at least to an extent. They have gone out and signed their superstar players, but they don’t all excel on the defensive side of the ball.
Look at that roster of late and try to find an above-average defender–before this season I mean. Jeter? No. Damon? No. Matsui? No. All over the diamond there were average or below-average fielders. Not that it prevented the team from doing well enough, but it gave the Yankees what seemed to be a fatal flaw. And that fatal flaw caught up to them.
Well, this season is different.
The Yankees are currently 12th in “Defensive Efficiency” in all of baseball. Something that must bring joy to the fans of the team. Because most of them are aware that the squad has had some trouble fielding in recent years. And this season, they improved on defense, and are currently in first place in the most difficult division that we may ever witness.
Since the sum is made up of the “parts”–in the cliche, but accurate statement that is thrown around a lot. We shall break this down a little further.
Starting with Brett Gardner, who according to FanGraphs’ UZR/150, has been the Yankees most valuable defender thus far. His “Ultimate Zone Rating per/150 games” leads the team at 20.9. Having an up-the-middle defender play good defense is something that the Yankees have been sorely lacking for a long time. If everyone that handles the most balls in play is below-average, then filling the corner spots with good defenders would still not make up for it. Not in a way that really matters in order for the unit to have “success” as a whole anyway.
And Gardner has appeared in 37 games in center. But Melky has played his fair share of CF as well. 24 games roaming the middle of the outfield, and he too has been above-average in the department of UZR, saving another 20 runs per 150 games (keep in mind that it is calculated for what would happen over roughly a seasons worth of play, if the same quality continued).
Gardner is fast, Melky too. And both possess enough range to track down their share of balls out in center.
But the most surprising improvement, must be the one that Derek Jeter has made. Here is what I wrote in my analysis of Jeter just a few days ago:
“The most surprising thing may be that the Yankees SS, according to UZR/150 has actually made a positive impact defensively. Granted, a very small “positive” impact. And if you glance at the base UZR, he has a number of -0.1 next to his name. Meaning that he has been basically average.
That won’t continue. One does not improve upon their range this late in a career. And really, it is difficult to improve upon in the area of “Range” anyway. With age, comes experience, and an understanding of the game. So Jeter could, and probably has learned to position himself even better with time, but the range just gets worse with age.
The small sample may have a rather large impact upon this defensive metric anyway. But it is also conceivable that Jeter was ticked off by whispers of him needing to move off of the position, and made some slight improvements trying to hold onto the place he prefers to play for a little longer.
Or again, could be small sample size for a metric that probably isn’t all that all-knowing to begin with.”
And that is exactly the way I feel now, after a few days of reflection. Jeter can make very slight improvements or adjustments, trying to increase his range at this age. And maybe he succeeds just a tad. But realistically, how much extra range will he gain? Probably not much.
But he is getting smarter, as baseball players always get smarter with experience. And although I cannot see Jeter paying any more attention to detail then he already does, I can see slight adjustments paying off in a positive way.
But also understand the volatility that a defensive metric has this early in a year. It could just be statistical gibberish for all we know. I expect Jeter to finish below-average defensively, however, he did improve last season with the glove, so maybe he has taken another very small step.
But again, keep in mind that range just doesn’t improve as a player ages, not with any regularity.
As for Mark Teixeira, he has made some great plays, and has always been a great defender at first. But UZR doesn’t really like him, having him closer to average then good. And this is why we should only put so much faith in a defensive metric at this stage of the season. He’s a first baseman, so it is more difficult to help your team, when you impact the game less on that side of the ball. But his -3.1 runs “saved” is 12 runs lower than it was at the end of last year.
Even Robinson Cano has been getting in on the action. Cano, over the course of the season, would “save” about five runs per game playing the middle infield position that matters so much. A guy that has always needed help being motivated, has applied himself both offensively and defensively, and it is paying off on both sides of the ball.
The team’s overall defense is close to average. But that is much improved based on what we all saw last season. And because of this, they don’t have a real flaw. Above-average pitching, once it comes around completely. A very good offense when healthy. And now a decent enough defense too.
If they keep up the glove-work, which they should, it will be a great step in the right direction for Cashman and the rest of the organization. Because Cashman seeing their success coincide with an improvement on defense, will let him truly understand what he has been missing for some time now.
…Because defense matters.
Tags: Brett Gardner, Brian Cashman, Defensive Efficiency, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Melky Cabrera, New York Yankees, Robinson CanoPosted in Defense, New York Yankees, Team Analysis, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
May 31st, 2009 at 12:47 PM
well the yanks are on a franchise record of 16 consecutive games without an error. the sox have the best record set with 17 games in 2006. I know you guys probably think errors are “quaint”, but surely playing error free is something to be desired. Ive bgeen reading all your posts but have been quite busy here…
http://www.michaelfierman.net/_/Blog/Blog.html
May 31st, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Errors matter. They just have to be put into perspective. And the defense is getting to more balls than they used to, plus, they aren’t making errors. So it just makes it even more impressive. But DE takes that into account, as it is simply how often balls in play are turned into outs. Thanks for coming by even though your time right now is limited.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:46 PM
our days start off quite similarly–except for the fish oil…
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:13 AM
errors matter but it’s also a scoring thing. there were several plays during this “record” that could have gone as a error. the offical scores just didn’t rule it that. that’s the biggest problem with this. while there are obviously some errors that are dead obviously bad (like a normal groundball between your legs. or just throwing the ball into no man’s land etc) a lot of times it’s a lot more vague.
For example. if Carlos Gomez dove for 4 plays that say.. Bobby Abreu would have surely let drop, and he makes 2 of the plays but 2 other trickled off his glove. who’s the better fielder really? Gomez might get 2 E. but he clearly was more valuble because he made two plays Abreu wouldn’t have and the two Es would hits for Abreu anyway.
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Rollngwave,
Thanks for stopping by. Agree completely about that. The streak is cool and all, but the fact that the Yankees are getting to many more balls is most important.