Prince Fielder, defensive asset

Lost in the shuffle of Prince's fantastic, MVP-worthy season is the fact that UZR actually has him as slightly above average with the glove. Granted, it was only half a run, and posted a basically average season with the glove probably isn't something worth getting too worked up about, but when it comes from a guy who is widely pegged as a future DH, and has never posted better than a -8.5 UZR, I think it's well worth noting.

Seriously. Don't believe me?

over 2 years ago Lefti 14 comments 0 recs |

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I've certainly noticed

Last time I checked, he was ranked higher than Teixeira. I thought he was supposed to be some defensive phenom at 1B, and supposedly that only added value to his bat. Imagine what this does to Fielder’s value.

I don’t have a category for "washed-up guys who may or may not be dominant big-league closers sometime soon."

~Jeff Sackmann

by Charlie Marlow on Oct 5, 2009 4:48 PM CDT reply actions

It opens the trade universe to the NL as well

I’m wondering if the Dodgers continue to flounder offensively, do they try to get Prince. It gets even more better if the Giants want to make the same move, for the same reason.

by Getting Yosted on Oct 5, 2009 5:13 PM CDT up reply actions

Fielder did finish the year ahead of Teixeira

Fielder at +0.5, Teix at -0.6, so Fielder was about a full run better.

Given the margin of error of a single season of UZR, that basically means they were both perfectly average, but still, it’s an accomplishment for Prince.

Brewers Baseball and other assorted nonsense (mostly the assorted nonsense) at my blog, What's a Tararrel?

by Lefti on Oct 5, 2009 10:39 PM CDT up reply actions

given the margin for error....

or Prince was 2 runs better!!

Cards Announcers On Gamel's First Career HR, "That’s all they need is another home run hitter".

by tcyoung on Oct 5, 2009 11:51 PM CDT up reply actions

Does Willie Randolph know anything about OF defense?

Because Ryan Braun could use some defensive tutelage. He was a better defender last year.

"my goodness"

by BrewHaHeather on Oct 5, 2009 5:17 PM CDT reply actions

I still think Fielder is in for a fall next year

I don’t know if this is part of the UZR calculation, but he’s going to have to field throws all over next year. McGamel/Escobar/Weeks is a lot more erratic to first than McHallsell/Hardy/Lopez.

You know me Al.

by TheJay on Oct 5, 2009 6:05 PM CDT reply actions

Obligatory buzzkill

Let’s remember that defensive stats need a bigger sample. This is kinda like getting excited about someone having a good two months at the plate. It’s legit, it isn’t meaningless, but…any marginal hitter will have two good months if you give them enough at-bats.

Basically, I’d guess it means that instead of a -10 or -12 UZR guy, we can now think of him as a -7 or -8 UZR guy. It’s nice, but it shouldn’t revise our estimate of his abilities that much.

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Oct 5, 2009 9:46 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah, I know

I kind of think of it like breaking the RBI record—it doesn’t really mean that much, but it’s still cool to look at and appreciate. That said, there definitely does seem to be a sense, or at least there did anyway, that Prince is just a horrible defensive liability at first, and is going to have to start DH’ing before he’s 30, and the numbers seem to suggest that that just isn’t the case. He’ll never be a good defender, but he’s still far from Adam Dunn levels.

Brewers Baseball and other assorted nonsense (mostly the assorted nonsense) at my blog, What's a Tararrel?

by Lefti on Oct 5, 2009 10:38 PM CDT up reply actions

Think of it like 200 plate appearances.

Maybe the stat is just fine, but if most players only got 200 PAs per season, we would know a lot less about who is the best hitter. You’d get most of the best hitters atop the leaderboards, and a few maybe flukes.

E: George 4 (5, throw, throw, throw, throw).

by Jordan M on Oct 5, 2009 10:56 PM CDT up reply actions

Does UZR look at

throws to a 1B?

I guess my thought is that if a first baseman gets to a lot of balls in his zone thats not a bad thing, but the things a really good defensive first baseman does are recovering bad throws in the dirt, high, off line etc. Does UZR account for those types of things?

by backtocali on Oct 6, 2009 8:12 AM CDT up reply actions

If I recall correctly

and I may not, so take it with a grain of salt, but I believe UZR does not account for that, but Tango and MGL, et al (the guys who created UZR), did a study of that and found it accounts for, at most, about a run or so over the course of a season.

Brewers Baseball and other assorted nonsense (mostly the assorted nonsense) at my blog, What's a Tararrel?

by Lefti on Oct 6, 2009 3:15 PM CDT up reply actions

That seems like a rather pessimistic statement

(Who thought he was a -12 UZR guy?)

But nonetheless, even a 2-3 UZR improvement is a fair amount of value, no? Like you said, it’s not as though we should get excited that he’s suddenly an above average defender, but it still (considered with the rest of his career) means he’s has a fair bit more defensive value than he did at the end of 2008.

Ryan Braun: He loves it.

by SRB on Oct 6, 2009 5:03 PM CDT up reply actions

UZR never has had him that low

but I’ve seen defensive stats that push him below -10.

2-3 runs is something, but pretty negligible. FanGraphs has his overall value this year at 66 runs, so we’re talking less than 5% of his value…on the high side.

Also, cheese.

by Jeff Sackmann on Oct 7, 2009 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions

on the downside

his assist totals went from 87,99,89 to 66 this year which means he probably got to a lot fewer balls.

It is possible he was playing closer to the bag and so he had more putouts. The number of putouts did go up, but so did innings played. So there isn’t enough data to conclude anything for certain.

by jimf on Oct 6, 2009 1:04 PM CDT reply actions

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