There is little doubt that the 2010 Red Sox are going to allow fewer runs this year than in previous years.

This team, on paper, looks outstanding. Upgrading at 3rd base to Adrian Beltre from Mike Lowell and at Short with Marco Scutaro over a group of players that included noted sack of crap Julio Lugo means this team is going to stop a lot more balls from getting through the left side of the infield. Also, giving Kevin Youkilis a (more or less) permanent home at first base means this team will be outstanding all around the diamond. Add to the fact that John Lackey induces a lot of ground balls (as opposed to John Smoltz and Brad Penny who induced a lot of home runs) and this team is set to hold a lot of teams below their season average in runs scored.

But this positive news doesn’t sit well with some members of the Red Sox.

“It’s a way to put something negative on this team, to say that we won’t score that many runs,” first baseman Kevin Youkilis says. Adds second baseman Dustin Pedroia, “No one here listens to that stuff. We’re baseball players. That’s for the computer guys up in the scorebooth who care about that. They say that because those guys are some of the best at their position defensively, so that’s the first thing that comes to mind.”

Let’s take a minute to analyze Dustin Pedroia’s quote:

No one here listens to that stuff.

Read the rest of this entry »

But I can’t stop myself.

I don’t know why I was reading The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* but they  ran an article this weekend talking about how the Pirates defense next year might not be as good as it was last year because they got rid of Jack Wilson and Adam LaRoche, etc.  He even opens with this:

If the optimistic view about the 2010 Pirates is that there is nowhere to go but up, then this also should be noted: There is nowhere for their defense to go but down.

Unless it finishes No. 1 again.

That was the Pirates’ ranking among all of Major League Baseball last season, despite 99 losses, despite midseason trades of some of their best gloves. The .988 fielding percentage was the best, and the total of 73 errors the lowest.

It’s always funny to see an advocate for a team that lost 99 games last year brag about an aspect of their team.  It’s even funnier when they’re not even correct.

• Of the defensive metrics that consider range, put outs, assists, etc: The Pirates had the 7th best defense in baseball (Mariners and Rays were 1st and 2nd).
• Of the 30 baseball teams, fewer than half of them had fielding percentages below .985, which is only 3 points lower than the Pirates
• Of the 30 baseball teams, 5 had between 73 and 78 errors.  The worst team in the league had 143.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks committed 124 errors last year.  They were the 10th best defensive squad in all of baseball.

The point?  Even when the Pirates receive praise it’s done poorly.

Listen, I know Pittsburgh isn’t really a baseball town anymore because their teams sucks so bad and hasn’t been even sorta good since 1992 when they won their last division but that doesn’t excuse their sports writers from still not realizing that fielding percentage should not be anybody’s primary metric for determining how good a team is at defense.  Nor should errors be the second.  What these two things show is that, of the balls that were hit into play that a Pittsburgh player was able to get to, they made few errors in the act of fielding them.

Consider the Blue Jays and Twins who each  had 76 errors, tying them for second in all of baseball–FPs of .987 and .988.  These teams are two of the worst defensive squads in the league.  The fact they committed so few errors means only that they weren’t fast enough to get to the balls they would have misplayed.  Just imagine, if they were slightly quicker, they could have committed dozens more errors!

Its a goddamn wonder why Derek Jeter has so many Gold Gloves.

*Yes I do.  It’s because Roman sent me a link to something about Bryce Harper which I couldn’t care less about.  There are two types of people in the world: those who get really excited about the MLB draft and those who realize that 99% of draft picks are never going to see a big league game from field level.  I fall into the latter category.

The Red Sox, in the wake of both the Jason Bay/Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre deals, have demonstrated to the world that they’re going to sacrifice scoring runs in favor of preventing runs.  Yes, there’s no denying that exchanging Mike Cameron’s superior glove for Jason Bay’s subpar one improves the outfield dramatically.  Yet there’s also no denying that Jason Bay’s bat, though due for a decline, is still vastly superior to Cameron’s which began it’s decline a few years ago.  There’s also no denying that the move from the NL to the superior AL won’t be easy on the almost 37 year old hitter.

Likewise, with Beltre, the Sox are exchanging one of the worst defensive third basemen for one of the best.  Last year, Fangraphs had Beltre ranked as the best defensive third basemen in the AL.  His injuries prevented him from getting more credit.  Last place on that list?  You guessed it, Frank Stallone Mike Lowell. But like Bay, Lowell had the far better year at the plate.  Though it must be mentioned that Beltre hit in Safeco which does not favor right handed hitters whereas Fenway is a righties dream park.

The point?  I’m guessing Boston wins the same amount of games last year but spends the whole year dealing with assholes at ESPN talking about how this isn’t the same Boston club of year’s past.  It also might shut up that sumbitch Clown about how pearly white the Red Sox lineup is.  That Clown sure is a racist.

There’s this guy in my office who really knows how to look busy.  Whenever he walks around to have a smoke or grab some coffee he always carries a clipboard with him and never looks any of his superiors directly in the eye when he’s walking through the hall.  He’s mastered the art of looking like he’s solving complex problems in his head simply by maintaining this expression on his face which looks like he’s trying hold in a fart.  If he knows I’m staying late he’ll leave a pair of old glasses on his keyboard and leave his lamp on and bail early.  By leaving his desk like that it looks like he just stepped out and will be right back, that way if anyone pops their head in looking for him, they’ll think he’s also burning the midnight oil.  I, of course, turn out the light for him when I leave.

He’s also good at doing enough work for the right people to make it look like he’s getting a lot done.  His favorite projects are the ones that are long with ambiguous results that aren’t easily quantified.  And he’s great at corporate speak to the point where he can hold one of those long conversations that mean nothing but last hours.  When it comes time to make layoffs, his name never gets mentioned, that’s how valuable people think he is despite his complete and total lack of ability.

I bring all this up because Derek Jeter just won another Gold Glove award yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »