how stats will you tell you one story when you swear you remember it a different way. The defense at many times this seasons felt like a liability but according to that sheet the Diamondbacks actually performed a little better than expected, and come in at #6 on the full list. Equally surprising is how low the Rockies were, considering how much some people crowed last year on their excellent defense. Now, a large part of that might be how many injuries they sustained, but even then I never thought they’d be that bad.

On the other hand, though I can see the logic in it, I’m not completely sure if merely subtracting Actual Outs from Predicted Outs gives a complete view. What are some of the other saying about the Diamondbacks defense this year?

the more I look at the full list (and I swear this will be the last post my sleep-deprived brain makes right now) the less I like the way they figure defense.

The range between best team (Jays at 102.22) and lowest (Royals at 98.76) isn’t very large. A difference of 3.76 percent isn’t all the significant, is it? Or does this just prove how little defense matters in comparison to other parts of the game?

I’m not too surprised here- Upton had a lot of really dumb plays last year, but he also had some sparkling brilliant ones. Usually they would follow each other in quick succession, it seemed. It seems fairly uncommon to see such an unbalanced player- his judgment on where a fly would fall was so poor, but his speed and his throwing arm were so good.

the analysis is that they only calculated these numbers for one player per team. I would like to be able to compare Romero, Salazar, and Upton based on their defensive performance in right field.

Also, the other positions have links at the very top of the article.

Upton’s tremendous range helped him convert more balls into outs than would be expected. From what I recall, most of his errors were not outs which weren’t made, but bobbles that allowed extra bases, or throws that missed the cut-off man. Those would not show in this statistic, which deals simply with outs converted or not. What happens after the ball reaches the fielder is entirely excluded and especially in the outfield, that’s likely almost as important.