THE BUTCHER'S BILL:

D-Fence! (David Gassko, June 14, 2007, Hardball Times)

For a long time, offense got more recognition than defense because while it is pretty easy to evaluate how many runs a player has contributed at the plate, it takes loads of careful data gathering to build a good fielding system. Luckily, we at The Hardball Times have been buying Baseball Info Solutions zone rating data; 2004 through 2006 numbers are up on the site already and daily 2007 updates soon will be.

Anyways, we just received our first batch of Zone Rating data, and rather than wait for the stats to go up on the site, I decided to immediately share them all with you. I have massaged them a little bit to make the numbers more intuitive; all ratings will be denominated in runs above or below average. We’ll take a look at the top-and-bottom three players at each position (except catcher and pitcher) thus far in 2007. Remember, two months of data does not a reliable sample size make. [...]

Shortstop

Adam Everett +15
Tony Pena +13
Troy Tulowitzki +11
---
Derek Jeter -14
Jimmy Rollins -13
Hanley Ramirez -12

Some things just never change: Adam Everett is at the top, Derek Jeter at the bottom, just like it has been for the past many years. As much as something in the baseball world can be a travesty, the fact that Jeter has multiple Gold Gloves and Everett has none is an absolute outrage.

Why waste this opportunity to move him to CF?

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 14, 2007 12:00 AM