New York Yankees: 8 Headlines You Dont Want To
See In 2012

post from Lady Loves Pinstripes on 12 January 2012 11:46:23 PM. © Lady Loves Pinstripes

Whether you read it in the local newspaper; watch it on ESPN?s Sportscenter or MLB Network?s Quick Pitch; or hear it on Mad Dog Radio, there are certain words like setback, injury, slump, suspension that a fan immediately knows means trouble. Not one of[...]

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Zambrano happy with trade to Marlins (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 11:08:31 PM. © MLB News Blog

Carlos Zambrano is excited about the trade that sent him from the Chicago Cubs to the Miami Marlins, expressing confidence that it will rejuvenate his career. The hot-tempered pitcher was a three-time All-Star with the Cubs, but he feuded with teammates, management and umpires. Miami is hoping he will get back on track while pitching [...]

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Texas Ryan confident of signing Darvish (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 09:16:30 PM. © MLB News Blog

Texas Rangers President Nolan Ryan says he’s confident of signing Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish by a Wednesday deadline. Ryan expressed his feelings to reporters Thursday at the Rangers’ annual winter banquet, one week after Darvish visited the North Texas area where he would be pitching.

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Rays sign Scott for $6M to be likely DH (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 06:50:29 PM. © MLB News Blog

Luke Scott is looking forward to life in the AL East without having to face Tampa Bay’s young, talented pitching staff. The power-hitting free agent first baseman-outfielder was added to the middle of the Rays lineup Thursday after agreeing to a $6 million,.one-year contract. He will receive $5 million this season, and the deal includes [...]

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Reader James Sends Over Four Dwight Gooden Cards
For The Collection!!!

post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 12 January 2012 05:59:41 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard

Reader James Sends Over Four Dwight Gooden Cards For The Collection!!! James, Thank you for the very kind donation. I will gladly accept them into my Dwight Gooden collection. But first, let me show them off to the great readers … Continue reading →

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oden-cards-for-the-collection/

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Mets Santana unsure about timetable (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 05:06:25 PM. © MLB News Blog

Sixteen months after shoulder surgery, Johan Santana hopes to be back on the mound for the New York Mets when the season starts. He just doesn’t want to commit to it. “It’s going to be tough for me to guess, because I don’t know how I’m going to be in two months,” the injured left-hander [...]

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Brewers re-sign OF Gomez, LHP Parra (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 05:00:28 PM. © MLB News Blog

Outfielder Carlos Gomez and left-hander Manny Parra have agreed to 1-year deals with the Milwaukee Brewers, avoiding salary arbitration. Gomez’s deal is worth $1,962,500, up from $1.5 million. In addition to Gomez’s base salary, he can earn $25,000 each for 450, 475, 500 and 525 plate appearances.

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MLB working on As desired San Jose move (AP)

post from MLB News Blog on 12 January 2012 04:30:30 PM. © MLB News Blog

Commissioner Bud Selig says Major League Baseball is working “at a rather quick pace” to resolve the proposed move the Oakland Athletics to a proposed new ballpark in San Jose. Selig says there was a comprehensive presentation on the situation to the owners’ executive council on Wednesday.

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Reyes, Ramirez, and Defensive Value

post from Fish Stripes on 12 January 2012 04:01:11 PM. © Fish Stripes

Will Marlins fans see fewer moments like these with Ramirez now at Third Base?

Much has been made since the signing of Jose Reyes to be the Shortstop of the future for the Marlins. For his part Reyes has said he is excited to play along side friend and countryman Hanley Ramirez on the left side of the Marlins infield in 2012 and beyond. Ramirez, on the other hand, as has been well documented, has been less receptive, finally accepting the move after an early showing of disapproval toward being forced to shift positions.

Now with everyone apparently on the same page the Marlins possess one of the top Third Base Shortstop combinations in the league. With a rebound year from Ramirez on the offensive side of the game and continued success from Reyes the Fish can expect to see offensive fireworks ignited by two of the top players at their respective positions in the game. However Ozzie structures the lineup both players should benefit from having the other batting around them. Obviously being surrounded by better players makes for better production up and down the lineup. The offensive affect of adding Reyes and moving Ramirez to Third Base will no doubt provide an offensive boost to the Marlins in 2012.

Having upgraded the offensive side of the ball is something Marlins fans can look forward to in the coming season. But scoring runs is only half of the game. The other half, preventing them from being scored against you, is just as important. How does the addition of Reyes at Shortstop and Ramirez manning Third affect the Marlins defense? Lets take a look at the numbers to find out.

In 2011 the Marlins had three players log significant time at Shortstop (excluding the 21 innings by Osvaldo Martinez) : Hanley Ramirez, Emilio Bonifacio, and Donnie Murphy, along with Reyes, who will be manning the position for the Marlins this season. Here is a sample of their defensive contributions (or lack thereof) in 2011:

player

innings

DPR

RngR

ErrR

UZR/150

Hanley Ramirez

754 2/3

-0.8

-0.9

-4.8

-10.2

Emilio Bonifacio

543 2/3

0.2

-3.3

-5.0

-13.6

Donnie Murphy

140 1/3

0.0

0.5

1.1

14.4

Jose Reyes

1,087

-0.4

-2.4

-0.3

-3.6

The Marlins saw many more players man the Hot Corner in 2011. In total seven players logged at least one inning of work at Third Base. Both Jose Lopez and Wes Helms are no longer with the team and Osvaldo Martinez only had 1.0 inning at the position leaving the bulk of the time to Greg Dobbs, Emilio Bonifacio, Matt Dominguez, and Donnie Murphy. Here is how they performed at Third Base:

player

innings

DPR

RngR

ErrR

UZR/150

Greg Dobbs

755

0.0

-2.6

-2.2

-10.0

Emilio Bonifacio

245 2/3

0.8

-0.6

-0.3

-2.6

Matt Dominguez

122

-0.1

-0.2

-0.6

-13.0

Donnie Murphy

79 2/3

-0.1

1.2

0.0

15.0

Wes Helms

179

0.0

-2.5

-0.3

-25.3

Jose Lopez

77 1/3

0.1

-2.0

-0.2

-42.4

The stats in the tables above are the components that make up UZR and are explained here. I chose to use UZR because it is the system I am most familiar with and also because it is one of the most, if not the most, reliable system for evaluating a players defensive capabilities. That being said there are a few caveats that need to be pointed out about the information it provides us.

First, as mentioned, there are numerous systems out there, such as UZR, Dewan +/-, Fan Scouting Report, and Total Zone, among others. The calculations that go into producing the final results are different for each system and, therefore, produce differing results, which can be quite significant.

Even though I added a UZR/150 column to account for the vast difference in innings played among the four players, the sample size is admittedly extremely limited. In general, at least three years of data is necessary to draw any reliable conclusions. When analyzing defensive numbers it's important to keep in mind larger sample sizes will produce more reliable results.

Finally, and most importantly, when evaluating defense, because fielding metrics are more volatile than those for hitting and pitching, the conclusions drawn from the data needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

An example that illustrates the shortcomings of using defensive metrics to analyze player performance can be seen in the numbers of Matt Dominguez. His glove is what will carry him in the Majors, not the bat. Looking at this example we see the issue of small sample size come up. 122 innings is not enough to reliably evaluate his true defensive abilities.

With all this in mind, taking into consideration all that is lacking in defensive metrics, if we go strictly by these numbers we see that Reyes was 6.6 runs better than Ramirez defensively at Shortstop in 2011. How about over their careers?

player

innings

DPR

RngR

ErrR

UZR/150

Reyes

8,803

1.7

11.3

0.5

2.1

Ramirez

7,163 2/3

-1.1

-25.5

-17.4

-9.1

The trend continues. Over the course of their careers, Reyes has proven to be the better defensive Shortstop by a significant margin, a full 11 runs better according to UZR/150. Based on these career numbers it's safe to say that Reyes is the superior defensive Shortstop.

What does this mean for Ramirez at Third Base? As we have seen reliable data for analyzing defensive performance isn't as reliable as the metrics we have available for hitting and pitching. Predicting future defensive performance is even more of a crapshoot.

What we can expect from Ramirez at Third Base is an improvement in defensive value, assuming he really does embrace the move and adapts well to his new position. Using data from Baseball Prospectus a player who moves from Shortstop to Third Base will be 1.9 runs better at Third than he was at Shortstop. Add to this the better defense at Short by Reyes and the Marlins should have better defense on the left side of the infield.

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Selig hopeful for added wild card in 12 (AP)

Commissioner Bud Selig is “very hopeful” another wild card team from each league will be added this season. Selig says that a committee formed to work out details of expanding the playoffs from eight teams to 10 is dealing with scheduling issues. Addition of a second wild card in each league would add a one-game [...]

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