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Wednesday, February 02, 2005 |
"Defensive Statistics... Are Still Suspect"
... defensive statistics, no matter how carefully interpreted, are still suspect. I have discovered ways to remove many biases from fielding statistics and correct for many illusions, but there may still be wrinkles in there that we don't understand.Prefaced with that quote, I present David Pinto's probabilistic fielding rankings for third basemen, which show Chone Figgins as baseball's fourth-best-fielding player at the hot corner, ahead of such likelies as Scott Rolen (5th), Adrian Beltre (7th), Eric Chavez (9th), and A-Rod (12th), yet behind Boston's Kevin "Greek God of Walks" Youkilis (2nd) and Pedro Feliz (1st). Measuring defensive ability is an arcane art; it is almost to the level of the chartists, yet at times it appears as retrograde as numerology. This is one such.-- Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, on Bill Mazeroski and Jackie Robinson
Comments:
"...which show Chone Figgins as baseball's fourth-best-fielding player at the hot corner..."
Not fouth-best fielding. Fourth-best range, which makes sense with the speedy Figgins.
I wouldn't put too much into Figgins ranking because of his small sample size. If you weed out the other small sample sizes at the top of that list, the order goes Rolen-Beltre-Chipper-Chavez, which I have no problem with.
Pinto's definitely onto something here. You are right, it is almost tot the level of the chartists, but I like what Pinto is doing, even more so than UZR.
Not fouth-best fielding. Fourth-best range, which makes sense with the speedy Figgins.
I wouldn't put too much into Figgins ranking because of his small sample size. If you weed out the other small sample sizes at the top of that list, the order goes Rolen-Beltre-Chipper-Chavez, which I have no problem with.
Pinto's definitely onto something here. You are right, it is almost tot the level of the chartists, but I like what Pinto is doing, even more so than UZR.
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