More defensive numbers

Myron Logan of Baseball Analysts has come up with another fielding metric. This one combines the balls hit into a player's zone, the number of times he turned them into outs, and the plays he made outside of his zone. With this, you come up with a number of plays, plus or minus, compared to an average fielder, and can convert this into a number of runs saved or allowed.

I was going to write about these when, by coincidence, I saw that shoewizard had just posted Fielding Bible stats for our primary and backups at each position. So I thought it would be interesting to see how the two stats compare. They don't cover exactly the same period - the Bible stats appear to be right up-to-date, with maybe half a dozen more games - and the scales are obviously different for the two systems. But it should still give us an idea of whether or not the metrics view the Diamondbacks in the same way.

Just as shoe did, we also mention utility man Chris Burke, who has played all over the place, without enough innings at any specific location to merit inclusion above. His rating are as follows:

63 Innings @ 1B:  -1 Bible vs. +0.26 Analysts
37 innings @ 2B: +2 vs. +1.46
20 innings @ 3B: -1 vs. -0.90
13 innings @ SS: 0 vs. +0.78
114 innings @ LF: +3 vs. +3.01
44 innings @ RF: 0 vs. +0.10

Here are some points to ponder.

1. Chris Young is - by quite some distance - the best fielder on the team. Analysts ranks him the sixth best CF in the majors; Bible is even happier, rating him second.
   
2. Jackson (at first-base) and Reynolds are vying for the position of most deficient. CoJack is 2nd worst at 1B and Reynolds 6th worst, by the Analysts figures.
   
3. Augie Ojeda is at least average with the glove, and usually better, regardless of where he plays. His figures as SS are stunningly goof, given he has less than a hundred innings there.
   
4. Orlando Hudson = below average. Breaking down the Analysts stat, he makes significantly fewer plays in his zone than he should, though is above-average out of zone.

It's interesting that the two approaches - entirely stats-based for the Analysts, with more subjective, observer-based elements for the Bible - generally concur on their assessments of the Diamondbacks' abilities. The one where they don't, is Conor Jackson in left-field. The Bible rates him tied for second-best among our fielders; the Anaylysts is much less impressed.

Specifically, Jackson is fine on balls hit into his zone. Of the 52 there, he has made the play on 48, a couple above the expected value of 45.97. However, he should have made 11.23 plays out of his zone, and has only made seven. All told, that leaves him 2.2 plays short of the average, which equates to 1.94 runs allowed. I should point out that this approach does have its limitations. It doesn't take into account Jackson's outfield arm - which may work either way - but I don't think the Bible does either. Odd to see them come to different conclusions on his abilities.