Groom was a pretty solid left-handed pitcher who carved out a career in middle relief. Fielders who can cover a large area on defense are able to make plays that most players would not have the chance to make. Teams: Toronto Blue Jays (198991), Cleveland Indians (199193), Chicago Cubs (199394, 1998-2000), San Francisco Giants (199597), Seattle Mariners (1998), New York Yankees (2000), Anaheim Angels (2001), Stats: 1,586 chances, 1,488 putouts, 41 assists, 57 errors. In his 11-year career, seven with the Cincinnati Reds, Taubensee was literally brutal behind the plate. It was because Thomas, a former tight end at Auburn, said he didn't feel involved with the game and focused on hitting when he was DH. Johnnie LeMaster seemed to sum up Giants fans' feelings toward him and his fielding when he took the field at Candlestick Park during a July game in 1979 with "BOO" on the back of his jersey instead of his name. UZR includes errors as part of its calculation, too. He made his lone All-Star appearance in 2016 and parlayed that into a six-year, $83 million extension in 2017. The tradeoff? Answer (1 of 8): Yes. . Kids, this is what happens when you don't work on your defense in practice. Hobson's 1978 season was a legendary blunder. For example, if your pitching staff leads the league in strikeouts, every fielder is at a disadvantag. Sheffield was only marginally better in terms of numbers in the outfield, and considering where he was numbers-wise before he got there, that's not saying much either. The infield has been a problem, and the outfield has been a problem, and when the both of those are problems, it can be a lot to overcome. Theres no reason for them to have a bias. His fielding got worse as his career progressed, and his caught stealing percentage was usually about 10 points below the league average. 5. Early in his career with the Texas Rangers, Sierra quickly fell out of favor when he concentrated solely on hitting, completely ignoring any effort to even practice defensively. Probably not. Become a Stathead today and run queries with our, Most Unique Players by Age by Similarity Scores, Most Games without a World Series Appearance, Most Games without a Postseason Appearance, Highest Career and Single-Season Salaries, Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. During late innings of many games, Vaughn would often be seen playing just two steps off the bag, and even then balls hit down the line would get by him. Many regard defense to be the most important attribute for the catcher position, and that certainly can't be argued. In a way it feels similar to Devers struggleshe has the tools but the execution is lacking. Michael Barrett's caught stealing percentage is pretty horrendous only 22 percent thrown out over his entire career. He started over 300 games at three different positions and came up just six starts short of 100 at shortstop. Sean Murphy. However, Madlock's prowess at the plate did not transfer to the field very well at all. In 2006, Dunn led the NL in errors as well, that time as an outfielder. We hate to put Frank Thomas on this list. He also was among the league leaders in passed balls and errors committed by a catcher on a regular basis. The Phillies gambled on a suboptimal alignment. For 13 seasons, Pete Browning toiled in the old American Association and National League, playing five positions overall and none of them with any skill whatsoever. Orioles fielders have combined for negative-84 runs of defensive value compared with the average team, per the advanced stat defensive runs saved. A third defensive metric that I'll mention in the piece below is ultimate zone rating, available at FanGraphs. Fielding the ball was not their strength. Teams: Philadelphia Phillies (1983-89), New York Mets (1989), Los Angeles Dodgers (1990-92), Kansas City Royals (1992, 1995), Cincinnati Reds (1993), Detroit Tigers (1994-95), Toronto Blue Jays (1996-98), Stats: 7,048 chances, 3,572 putouts, 3,288 assists, 188 errors. Teams: Rockford Forest Citys (1871), Philadelphia Athletics (187275), Chicago White Stockings/Colts (187697), Stats: 25,160 chances, 22,572 putouts, 1,612 assists, 976 errors. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. It's a good thing they don't look at defense. "Please, God, don't hit it to (second baseman) Steve Sax.". Real or Not? How did Duane Kuiper play 10 seasons in the majors? However, only 7-time All-Star Salvador Prez and first-time All-Star Omar Narvez are in the Top 6 in Total Runs for catchers. Vaughn's range was so bad that the Anaheim Angels often had Vaughn playing behind the baserunner, so that he could get to a ball quicker. http://www.claydavenport.com/ht/TORRES19961213A.shtml. He committed 76 errors over his career and had a career average of -29 total zone runs allowed. Slow of foot, Kingman was simply awful in the outfield, posting a lifetime .957 fielding percentage and -32 Rtot. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of his defensive prowess. He made 658 of those errors playing first base, which is the major league record for first basemen. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. You just had to hope and pray that the other team didn't hit the ball back to him. As for his range, BIS graded him particularly weak going to his right. Many thanks to him. What's worse? Shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt certainly presents an interesting case this year. By most defensive metrics used, McLouth was regarded as one of the worst defensive center fielders that year, which proves our point once again that voters are completely out of touch as to the significance of a Gold Glove Award. His defensive WAR (-17.0) and total zone runs allowed (-67) are among the worst in MLB history. Gary Sheffield, 3B, 1993 Padres/Marlins (minus-31). Statistic Description: Defensive Wins Above Replacement for position players A defensive measure of wins above replacement, but given only the defensive stats of the player and his position adjustment. The division was already more or less decided, but an unlikely Phillies sweep couldve at least brought it down to the wire. Teams: Texas Rangers (1973), Chicago Cubs (1974-76), San Francisco Giants (1977-79), Pittsburgh Pirates (1979-85), Los Angeles Dodgers (1985-87), Detroit Tigers (1987), Stats: 4,941 chances, 1,694 putouts, 3,025 assists, 222 errors. However, he does hold the all-time record for most errors lifetime with 1,080, and once committed 86 errors while playing for the Chicago Colts in 1895. The Phillies might just land Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, and then theyll have a better lineup. Anyway, Young had come up as a second baseman and moved to shortstop in 2004 and in 2005 he made 4.41 plays per nine innings versus the MLB average of 4.60 (his fielding percentage was about league average). The AL East is setting up as a race for the ages, Albert Pujols' push for 3,000 powered by dominant decade, 'Ich-i-ro! '", Teams: Cleveland Indians (197481), San Francisco Giants (198285), Stats: 4,542 chances, 2,000 putouts, 2,466 assists, 76 errors. The phenomena became known as the "Steve Sax Syndrome." Escobar, who signed with the Mets with a reputation as a decent defensive third baseman, finished with a career-worst -11 Defensive Runs Saved at third base in 2022. He was a five-time World Series champion. In any worthwhile article about defense, be it about individuals or teams, one has to mention the caveats. Knoblauch makes the list for throwing problems that dogged his career starting in 1998, where he inexplicably came down with one of the more famous cases of the "yips" or "Steve Sax Syndrome" in baseball history. The DH is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Meanwhile I NEVER hear ANY ringing endorsements for DRS or UZR. In other words, theyve been even worse than just Outs Above Average would indicate. Dahlen still holds the record for total chances by a shortstop, and oftentimes led the league in putouts and double plays as well. It would be interesting to see how many of New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter's Total Zone Runs allowed occurred while playing next to Alfonso Soriano, a terrible defensive second baseman for the ages. Snow's worst defensive season by defensive WAR coincided with the first of six gold gloves he won as a member of the California Angels and San Francisco Giants. And not in a good way. Buster Olney ranked his top 10 team defenses in his blog post Thursday, which got me thinking about bad defense. Outs Above Average (OAA) is the cumulative effect of all individual plays a fielder has been credited or debited with, making it a range-based metric of fielding skill that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of them. Sandwiched around this all-time bad season are two Gold Glove honors in 2009 and 2011. "You are going to see Mark start out at third base in the spring. I'm not sure if he played through an injury or if they used quicksand for infield dirt that year at Miller Park, but in the past five years, the second-lowest range factor for a regular-season second baseman was 4.31 plays per nine innings -- by Weeks in 2011. 8. Wil Myers won American League Rookie of the Year in 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays, then was traded to the San Diego Padres after the 2014 season. In fact, in the early 1990s, many would argue that the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield of Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke and Bonilla was one of the best in baseball at the time. Teams: San Francisco Giants (1975-85), Cleveland Indians (1985), Pittsburgh Pirates (1985), Oakland Athletics (1987), Stats: 4,535 chances, 1,545 putouts, 2,811 assists, 179 errors. But Gleyber, at least, gets to balls for the most part. Fielding Runs Fielding measures obviously have a lot of controversy surrounding them. He was bad wherever teams tried to put him, and that's most evident when you look at his eye-popping 330 career errors. Through the end of the 2021 MLB season, the highest cumulative DRS for a career is 200, by third baseman Adrin Beltr, while the lowest DRS for a career is -165 by shortstop Derek Jeter. [fn]John Dewan, The Fielding Bible, Volume II (Skokie, Ill.: ACTA Sports, 2009), 11-4. Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers (1992-98), Florida Marlins (1998), New York Mets (1998-2005), San Diego Padres (2006), Oakland Athletics (2007), Stats: 12,247 chances, 11,347 putouts, 768 assists, 132 errors. In the November 1992 issue of the Baseball Digest, writer Glenn Liebman quoted a teammate of Herman, who said of him, "Babe wore a glove for only one reason. Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. Weeks has never had a good defensive reputation and in 2012 he started 152 games at second base and made just 4.08 plays per nine innings compared to the league-average range factor of 4.77. I didnt say Andujar was better, I was just establishing 1) they are comparable yet seymour singled out Andujar, 2) thats intellectually dishonest. The team has acknowledged it time and time again. Theyd be exceptionally slim if the Phillies had a good defense, and, well, they dont. And teams have done a really good job at that. Glenallen Hill's defensive struggles were infamous. If you've ever had the pleasure of watching Edwin Encarnacion play, you know the three-time All-Star will make you hold your breath when he's in the field. In retrospect, you could say the story of the 2018 Phillies is represented by the acquisition of Carlos Santana. Adrin Beltr recorded the most defensive runs saved in Major League Baseball during the 2003-2021 seasons. Which isn't totally fair because he was a decent hitter most of the time and had a .253 batting average. Dunn recently confirmed his retirement and I'll miss a guy who had a unique career in major league history. He's the guy you definitely don't want the ball hit to when your team is pitching.