FanPost

The Defense




Hello friends, facial hair-friendly or otherwise. I wrote this Fanpost as a supplement for Matt Lyon’s post about the biggest culprit for our troubles this year. I want this thread to be a place for dialogue, where we can dissect the numbers and try and determine the best way to fortify our team’s glovework. I thought it would be nice to have 2015 data right in front of us, as a reference. That way when we’re screaming at our TV’s, or the radio, or Gameday, we’ll a webpage to turn to. I apologize in advance for errors, as I posted this at work.

UZR/150 in 2015, Cleveland Indians:

Jason Kipnis: 2B 7.9

Carlos Santana: 1B -6.2 (Santana has had one positive year out of five at 1b, in 2012)

Michael Brantley: OF -27.7 (!!!)

Brandon Moss: OF 19.8 (?!)

Lonnie Chisenhall: 3B 8.7

Roberto Perez: C (not enough data compiled yet, but an awful lot of phantom wild pitches happen with him behind the dish we've noticed)

Jose Ramirez: SS -7.8, down for 18.9 last year. The biggest culprits are range (-1.4) and errors (-1.5).

Michael Bourn: CF -23.7

David Murphy: RF -196!!!!!!!!!!! (LOL)

Zach Walters: OF Not enough enough info, much like Perez and I'm assuming Swisher, but he rated terribly last year in the OF (-64)

Ryan Raburn: OF 6.6

Mike Aviles: LF 108.5 (!) CF -63.7 SS: -25.7

Notes: I think thetireswings had some really good points when saying the defense has been the culprit this year. The numbers I've posted show we have a real problem in the outfield. Michael Brantley's numbers may explained by his back problems early in the year (I remember in particular his throwing looking subpar, as if he couldn't get his legs under him). The best alignment appears to be Raburn, Brantley in CF, and Moss when we play a lefty. Michael Bourn clearly does not have the range for center field anymore and it may be worth considering trying him in left field and moving Brantley permanently to center. Ryan Raburn as appeared competitent… It may be worth considering a platoon of Bourn of Raburn (this assumes Bourn would play over David Murphy due to their respective contracts. Both have been hitting well lately, although Murphy should have more upside at the dish). Also, David Murphy’s UZR is hilarious.

One surprise (to me at least) looking over these numbers is that Aviles has been so bad at SS*. I was hoping he could be a better supplement for Ramirez, who I still believe can be a very good defensive player.

Santana is disappointing at 1B and there’s simply no where else for him to go with Swisher around and Moss has been a surprising positive in RF (according to the numbers we have), plus there’s no one to replace him

Not be Columbo, but ONE MORE THING… Remember that our pitchers have been very bad at fielding their position for us this year. I’m not looking into that right now, but there you go.

*I’m sorry I’m using UZR/150 as the end all, be all, but we won’t have much better resources for defensive metrics until the end of the year with this new system so I’m limited and don’t have a moment to compare UZR with other stats.

FanPosts are reader-generated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Covering the Corner or the Covering the Corner staff.