Chronicles of the Lads

HOW DO WE GLOVE?
Hey, how's the Angel defense doing?

Let's go through position-by-position ... I'll be using Zone Ratings as a guide, but remember that (1) defensive stats are unreliable relative to offensive stats and (2) two months is an exceptionally small sample size for anything.

CATCHER: To sum up:

Catcher  SB  CS   CS%  PB/9Inn  
BMolina   7   2  22.2   .193
JMolina   9  12  57.1   .000
Josh Paul 3   1  25.0   .000

The defensive fall of Bengie continues unabated, and this time there aren't that many Kelvim Escobar innings in the mix to cloud the picture.

FIRST BASE: The Punter is excellent, as always. His .931 zone rating thus far ranks second in the majors to Todd Helton (.939), and he is one of only two qualified MLB 1B to not make an error (take a bow, Mark Teixeira).

SECOND BASE: Adam Kennedy just got back, but after some opening-game jitters seems to have settled back into excellence. His .847 ZR is in the upper middle of MLB 2B, but it's early so that doesn't mean much; his .847 a year ago was good enough to give him the AL lead. He started a double play in the last game of the Chicago series that was nothing short of magical, and his defensive play is a pretty big improvement over The Legs at the keystone -- who had an .818 ZR in his time there this year, just up a bit from the .808 he had at 2B last season.

THIRD BASE: Here's something unexpected I just noticed today:

Player      EqA   ZR   FPct
McPherson  .257  .836  .934
Er. Chavez .204  .756  .934

EqA is the Baseball Prospectus hitting measure, and FPct is good ol' fielding percentage. So, yeah, Dallas can be error-prone with his throws; aside from occasional lapses, I think he's looked good with the glove. And that .836 ZR leads the AL, and is only two off of the MLB lead (Sean Burroughs at .838). I think we'll see some regression to the mean on his numbers, but I think he's looked good, and I don't see any reason why continued work with Alfredo Griffin shouldn't keep him sharp.

SHORTSTOP: Once again, my eyes agree with ZR here. The OC 8th out of the 26 MLB qualifiers at short in ZR, which is very good, though not amazing. That's how I'd describe Orlando's defense at this poing. He's solid fundamentally, a little flashy, and makes most of the plays: he's only made two errors all year. David Eckstein, however, seems to have struggled defensively; his ZR ranks third from the bottom, and he's already made 9 errors, which is just six short of his career high and already his third-hightest career error total. Of course, he's outhitting Cabrera pretty easily (.269-.235 in EqA, or by about 8 runs per BPro) to this point, but this post is about defense ...

LEFT FIELD: Garret looks much more at home in left than he did in center, but I am very surprised to see his high ZR of .910, which ranks 5th in the majors. I'm probably focusing a bit much on his four errors; he made only three in his last two seasons in LF combined. Is he turning into his one-time mentor Chili Davis as he ages? Probably not ... Chili fell apart as a defender at the age of 28 when he made 19 errors as the Angel right fielder. How the hell can a RF make 19 errors in a season? Chili found a way. But, no, I'm being glib ... Garret, despite the occasional ugly misplay and a bit of a weakness on balls hit over his head, is a solid defender on the corner.

CENTER FIELD: My visual impressions of Father Time: he is slow on balls hit in front of him and slow to the gaps. It sure seems like the middle infielders get deep for some of those popups, and Finley is never in the picture. Now maybe the man just plays deeper than most, making a trade-off; maybe he's the opposite of Jim Edmonds in that regard. Perhaps he knows he's lost a step, and would rather have a better angle at cutting off gappers before they get to the wall, and let the middle infielders deal with the tweeners. Can anyone who's been to games comment on his positioning? At any rate, his poor ZR (.828, ranking 19th of 21 in the majors) does not surprise me. Vex? Yes. Surprise? No.

RIGHT FIELD: Vlad was a pretty average defender last season, but to my eyes he's gimpily lost a step or two since then. His .859 ZR is closer to the bottom than to the top, and even his great arm doesn't always seem like it's put to the best use, though he does have three Baserunner Kills. The putative defensive replacement, Juan Rivera, hasn't looked all that great to me, either, and The Legs is completely lost out there -- which is no condemnation, he just has never been a RF, and it shows.

The only real surprise is Dallas McPherson. Otherwise, the Lads enjoy an excellent infield and an aging and progressively slower outfield. Jarrod Washburn: keep honing that two-seamer.