tinycorkscrew wrote:vockins wrote:tinycorkscrew wrote:It seems that defense fluctuates, too, although perhaps not as frequently or to the same degree.
Joking aside, I'm honestly not a fan of RZR. Just looking at the shortstops - people are all over the place from year to year. I appreciate the effort, but those dudes have a shitload of work to do.
If you are familiar with the methodology Dewan uses for The Fielding Bible, it's pretty hard to argue with his results. They actually watch every play from every game when feeding data into the system. They track both range and throws, look at how well infielders turn double plays, measure how well players charge the ball or go back on balls hit over their heads, etc. It's miles ahead of every other defensive metric, and those that have developed other metrics will admit to it.
I'm familiar with the methodology, and I still have my doubts about it's ability to accurately measure defensive skill, especially for middle infielders.
I'll agree that it's better than other defensive metrics. That's a bit like me saying I'm a better drummer than 98% of the drummers on the eastern seaboard under age 12. (OK, 85%)
It's August, there's been a shit ton of baseball played, and this metric is telling me that Jeter and Tejada are the best SS in MLB in 2008? Come on, Fielding Bible guy. That's a very healthy sample size. Especially for Jeter. The guy plays behind notorious ground ball pitchers. Something's fucking broken in that computer.
That said, he's not been very good this year. It's pretty sad that he's making $21.6 million this year when one can argue that a lifetime scrub like Ryan Theriot is having a better season.
Well, Jeter's MLB leading defense makes up for it, right?
I'm just not buying it yet. Maybe one day I will, but not now. And if the guy Dewan has declared as the poster boy for substandard defense is out of the blue leading the league in his metric, I'd imagine he's going back to the drawing board, too.