Saturday, October 24, 2009
Top Fielders of 2009
Posted by Sean SmithAt least according to TotalZone. I ran these ratings from a different datasource than usual. Specifically, someone sent me files with data from MLBAM. Later in the offseason I'll compare it to the results from the source of all the other TotalZone ratings, the retrosheet files. Anyway, the top 15 runs saved for 2009:
1. Franklin Gutierrez, CF, +28
2. Nelson Cruz, RF, +23
3. Chone Figgins, 3B, +20
4. Evan Longoria, 3B, +18
5. Yunel Escobar, SS, +18
6. Casey Blake, 3B +17
7. Ichiro Suzuki, RF, +17
8. Brendan Ryan, SS, +17
9. Pedro Feliz, 3B, +16
10. Carlos Beltran, CF, +15
11. Willy Tavares, CF, +14
12. Carl Crawford, LF, +13
13. Brett Carroll, RF, +13
14. Colby Rasmus, CF, +13
15. Torii Hunter, CF, +13
To me Escobar is the biggest surprise on the list. UZR gives him a slight negative rating. The Fans scouting report looks like it rates him just above average. I would have expected Erick Aybar or Elvis Andrus to be on the list. They rated just a bit above average. I'm quite happy to see Figgins and Hunter on the list, though not as happy to see them continue playing baseball this weekend. Hunter has not rated highly in the last few years by the stats, it's nice to see the numbers confirm what the eyes can see for once.
Sean Smith is a lifelong Angels fan despite never visiting the west coast until April 2006. His work can also be found at baseballprojection.com and Anaheim Angels All the Way and he can be contacted by email.
<blockquote>Specifically, someone sent me files with data from MLBAM.</blockqoute>
So is this generated using Gameday, or something else?