Jeff Sullivan and I were looking around Baseball-Reference's team BABIP numbers a bit and, to paraphrase Jeff's words: Part of it has to do with the batted ball profile yielded by the pitching staff, but if the Rays keep up their current pace, their 2008 defense would be 248 plays better than their 2007 defense would be with the same pitching staff. Using Tango's number that 1 extra out ~ 0.8 runs saved, that’s nearly 200 runs, which is about 20 wins given the standard 8-10 runs per win theory.
Matthew Carruth is an editor for The Hardball Times. He welcomes any and all sorts of communication at his email.
