DownSwinging.com

Earlier this month I wrote an article on infielders defense this season, and now I’m going to do the same with outfielders. We’ll be evaluating them based on UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) courtesy of FanGraphs, which is a truly wonderful website. As I wrote in that post, UZR is a combination of statistics that measure range, outfielders arms, double-play ability, and costly errors to show how many runs the player has saved or cost his team in the field. So I’m going to break down the top defenders at each position, as well as the worst at each. The number in parentheses is their UZR score, the higher, the better.

Right fielders:

1. Nelson Cruz, Tex (11.7)
2. Jay Bruce, Cin (8.7)
3. Justin Upton, Ari (8.4)

And then the three worst…

1. Andre Ethier, LAD (-16.4)
2. Jermaine Dye, ChW (-13.4)
3. Brad Hawpe, Col (-13.1)

Clearly age is showing as somewhat of a factor here, as the three best are all youngins, though number four on the list is J.D. Drew. Important to note that Alex Rios, recently acquired by the White Sox is middle of the pack at (-0.7). So while Rios isn’t great, he sure is an upgrade from Dye in right.

Center fielders:

1. Franklin Gutierrez, Sea (15.1)
2. B.J. Upton, TB (7.7)
3. Matt Kemp, LAD (7.6)

And then the three worst…

1. Vernon Wells, Tor (-19.5)
2. Dexter Fowler, Col (-12.4)
3. Jacoby Ellsbury, Bos (-11.4)

Pretty big surprises in Fowler and Ellsbury. I would have thought that even if they didn’t have great arms or got good reads their speed would have made them average fielders at the least. Apparently not. Gutierrez’ defense is what is carrying to what some stat geeks say an MVP season. Glad to see the Upton Brothers are consistent.

Left fielders:

1. David DeJesus, KC (12.6)
2. Juan Rivera, LAA (11.3)
3. Carl Crawford, TB (7.5)

And then the three worst…

1. Jason Bay, Bos (-14.1)
2. Carlos Lee, Hou (-9.1)
3. Johnny Damon, NYY (-9.0)

Damon isn’t a surprise because he can’t throw more than ten feet, but other than that nothing really crazy going on here.