Baseball Statistics: Defensive Stats

Gold Gloves rarely go to the people who actually deserve them; otherwise Derek Jeter would never have won one. Fielding Percentage alone shows absolutely nothing about a player's defensive capabilities. All it shows is that a player cleanly fields a percentage of the balls you should be able to field. This is a problem because a player could sit in place, catch one ball, and then let balls go completely by him and his fielding percentage would never drop. Below are much better stats that will help show you the actual best defenders in the league, rather than whoever makes the flashiest plays to win a popularity contest, i.e. the gold glove award.

Range Factor (abbreviated RF)

Range Factor is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by number of innings or games played at a given defense position. This statistic is more relevant in evaluating defensive play than the conventional statistic, known as fielding percentage.

There are two variations of Range Factor

Range Factor = (Putouts + Assists) x Games played

And

Range Factor = (Putouts + Assists) x 9 / Innings Played

Gold Gloves rarely go to the people who actually deserve them; otherwise Derek Jeter would never have won one. Here are the best defensive players at each position, determined by Range Factor.

(Pitcher and Catcher have been excluded; minimum of 125 games played at position)

Range Factor / Game

American League

Pos Team Name Range Factor/G

1B LAA Mark Teixeira 9.8

2B TEX Ian Kinsler 5.6

3B 5-way tie Mike Lowell, Adrian Beltre, Joe Crede, Evan Longoria, and Melvin Mora 2.7

SS 3-way tie Michael Young, Jhonny Peralta, and Orlando Cabrera 4.4

OF TBR B.J. Upton 2.8

OF MIN Carlos Gomez 2.9

OF DET Curtis Granderson 2.7

National League

Pos Team Name Range Factor/G

1B STL Albert Pujols 9.9

2B PHI Chase Utley 5.1

3B WSN Ryan Zimmerman 2.8

SS ATL Yunel Escobar 4.7

OF WSN Lastings Milledge 2.6

OF SFG Aaron Rowand 2.9

OF NYM Carlos Beltran 2.7

Ranger Factor / 9 (minimum of 1000 innings played at position)

American League

Pos Team Name Range Factor/9

1B LAA Mark Teixeira 10.1

2B TEX Ian Kinsler 5.8

3B BAL Melvin Mora 2.9

SS CHW Orlando Cabrera 4.6

OF TBR B.J. Upton 2.8

OF MIN Carlos Gomez 3.2

OF DET Curtis Granderson 2.8

National League

Pos Team Name Range Factor/9

1B STL Albert Pujols 10.6

2B PHI Chase Utley 5.2

3B WSN Ryan Zimmerman 2.9

SS ATL Yunel Escobar 4.8

OF CIN Corey Patterson 2.8

OF SFG Aaron Rowand 2.9

OF NYM Carlos Beltran 2.7

UZR or Ultimate Zone Rating

UZR is the total number of outs per balls in a fielder's area of responsibility or zone. In other words, any ball that is hit into what constitutes as the shortstop's zone would be a shortstop's area of responsibility. UZR helps to address some of the short comings that are found in RF, specifically the problem that some players do not always play 9 innings at the same position. UZR is calculated as the number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs and error runs combined.

RngR (range runs): The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity.

ErrR (error runs): The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by the number of errors he makes as compared to an average fielder at that position given the same distribution of balls in play.

Here are the best defensive players at each position, determined by Ultimate Zone Rating.

(Pitcher and Catcher have been excluded)

American League

Pos Team Name UZR

1B LAA Mark Teixeira 11.7

2B OAK Mark Ellis 12.7

3B TBR Evan Longoria 12.9

3B SEA Adrian Beltre 12.9

SS CHW Orlando Cabrera 14.2

OF TBR Carl Crawford 21.5

OF TOR Alex Rios 18.2

OF BOS Jacoby Ellsbury 17.5

National League

Pos Team Name UZR

1B HOU Lance Berkman 11.2

2B PHI Chase Utley 18.7

3B STL Troy Glaus 3.3

SS MIL J.J. Hardy 11.6

OF SFG Randy Winn 18.0

OF PHI Jayson Werth 15.8

OF CIN Cody Ross 13.2

Here are the WORST defensive players at each position, determined by Ultimate Zone Rating.

(Pitcher and Catcher have been excluded)

American League

Pos Team Name UZR

1B CLE Ryan Garko -4.6

2B NYY Robinson Cano -7.3

3B KC Alex Gordon -3.1

SS SEA Yuniesky Betancourt -14.5

OF NYY Bobby Abreu -25.2

OF MIN Delmon Young -18.4

OF CHW Jermaine Dye -15.1

National League

Pos Team Name UZR

1B FLA Mike Jacobs -11.6

2B ATL Kelly Johnson -8.3

3B CIN Edwin Encarnacion -9.3

SS ARI Stephen Drew -12.7

OF COL Brad Hawpe -37.2

OF CIN Adam Dunn -20.0

OF PIT Nate McLouth -14.7

UZR/150 is a variation of UZR and is one of the best summary stats in that it shows the number of runs above and below average that a given player is worth over a 150 game stretch. Every 8 runs translate into an additional win or loss, depending if it is positive or negative. Here are the best defensive players at each position, determined by Ultimate Zone Rating /150.

(Pitcher and Catcher have been excluded; minimum 1000 innings played at position.

American League

Pos Team Name UZR/150

1B LAA Mark Teixeira 10.1

2B OAK Mark Ellis 17.7

3B TBR Evan Longoria 17.7

SS CHW Orlando Cabrera 13.4

OF TBR Carl Crawford 28.5

OF CLE Franklin Gutierrez 22.5

OF TOR Alex Rios 20.8

National League

Pos Team Name UZR/150

1B HOU Lance Berkman 10.4

1B STL Albert Pujols 10.4

2B PHI Chase Utley 19.8

3B STL Troy Glaus 3.3

SS PHI Jimmy Rollins 13.4

OF PHI Jayson Werth 25.8

OF CIN Cody Ross 17.6

OF SFG Randy Winn 17.3

Here are the WORST defensive players at each position, determined by Ultimate Zone Rating /150.

(Pitcher and Catcher have been excluded)

American League

Pos Team Name UZR/150

1B CLE Ryan Garko -6.1

2B CHW Alexei Ramirez -9.2

3B KC Alex Gordon -3.8

SS SEA Yuniesky Betancourt -14.7

OF NYY Bobby Abreu -25.9

OF MIN Delmon Young -16.6

OF CHW Jermaine Dye -16.4

National League

Pos Team Name UZR/150

1B FLA Mike Jacobs -17.0

2B ARI Orlando Hudson -9.1

3B CIN Edwin Encarnacion -11.6

SS ARI Stephen Drew -14.5

OF COL Brad Hawpe -47.7

OF CIN Adam Dunn -22.6

OF STL Rick Ankiel -15.5

Here are the 2008 Gold Gloves

American League

1B: Carlos Pena, TB

2B: Dustin Pedroia, BOS

3B: Adrian Beltre, SEA

SS: Michael Young, TEX

OF: Grady Sizemore, CLE

OF: Torii Hunter, LAA

OF: Ichiro Suzuki, SEA

National League

1B: Adrian Gonzalez, SD

2B: Brandon Phillips, CIN

3B: David Wright, NYM,

SS: Jimmy Rollins, PHI

OF: Shane Victorino, PHI

OF: Carlos Beltran, NYM

OF: McLouth PIT

Here is what they should be, the ACTUAL 2008 Gold Gloves

American League

1B: Mark Teixeira, LAA

2B: Mark Ellis, OAK

3B: Evan Longoria, TBR

SS: Orlando Cabrera, CHW

OF: Alex Rios, TOR

OF: Carl Crawford, TBR

OF: Franklin Gutierrez, CLE

National League

1B: Albert Pujols, STL

2B: Chase Utley, PHI

3B: Troy Glaus, STL

SS: Jimmy Rollins, PHI

OF: Jayson Werth, PHI

OF: Cody Ross, CIN

OF: Randy Winn, SFG

All defensive stats taken from http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=fld&lg=all&qual=y&type=0&season=2008&month=0