GOOD BAD AND UGLY

Recently, Fangraphs published a couple articles on the best defensive players at each position in the Major Leagues.  Applying new methodology they are trying to quantify the defensive part of the game and produce something besides the eye test and the traditional errors and fielding percentage. It's far from perfect now, but a step in the right direction and should improve over time. Two defensive metrics, (UZR- Ultimate Zone Rating and DRS- Defensive Runs Saved) are used as a base for the calculations.  For catchers, it's a little bit different.

Sometimes these ratings coincide with the Gold Glove given out by MLB for the best defensive players, sometimes they don't. The list presents the top 3 and bottom 3 at each position.  I'll just make a few comments based on this information.

CF Juan Lagares  best defensive player in MLB 2014

The top 3 defensive players with the highest scores in the AL belong to the Kansas City Royals.  Outfielders Jarrod Dyson (23.4), Alex Gordon (18.9) and Lorenzo Cain ( 16.7) all roam the spacious outfield at Kauffman Stadium.  We saw how great they are in the recently finalized post season.  The top rated defensive player in all of baseball was CF Juan Lagares of the New York Mets with 24.7.  The 25 year old Dominican is a super defensive player.  

Defensive whiz Juan Lagares at Citi Field.

The best defensive infielder was Andrelton Simmons, SS of the Atlanta Braves with 17.0.  The 25 year old native from Curacao was the best overall defender in MLB last year, so the consistency is there.  3B Chase Headley of SD Padres and NY Yankees did very well in 2nd place with 15.7 and 2B Dustin Pedroia of the Bosox was 3rd with 14.9.  

Andrelton Simmons with some help from Freddie Freeman

The Miami Marlins had the worst defensive catcher (Jarrod Saltalamacchia ) in MLB with an ugly -29.9, the 2nd worst first baseman  in the NL ( Garrett Jones) with -3.5 and the 2nd worst SS in the NL ( Adeiny Hechavarria) with -4.6.  There is a lot of defensive shakiness on the Marlins. On the other hand, Christian Yelich  was rated the best LF in the NL with 10.9.  Hechavarria, the 25 year old Cuban, passes the eye test and some people ( especially Marlins people) think the advanced defensive metrics doesn't capture his true value and think he is a Gold Glove quality defender despite very poor ratings.  He might be improving but he's still around the bottom.  His fielding percentage went from  .976 to .979, his errors from 15 to 14 and his Defensive Runs Saved remained the same at -3.  The Zone Rating is not kind to Hechavarria, meaning a lot of balls hit in his area are not converted to outs.  This might be due to defensive positioning.

Marlins Adeiny Hechavarria improving but still rating low.

There is a small but growing pool of Cuban players in MLB and a few of them showed up on these lists.  Yoenis Cespedes, has shown improvement his 3 years going from bad in 2012 to average in 2013 to pretty good in 2014. He is now only behind Alex Gordon in LF with 10.1 in the AL.  On the negative side we have SS Yunel Escobar of the Tampa Bay Rays with an ugly -17.3, the worst figures of his career and of his position in MLB this year.  The above mentioned Adeiny Hechavarria with a -4.6 , the 2nd worst mark in the NL only behind Hanley Ramirez of the Dodgers with -10.5.  The Chicago White Sox sport a pair of bad fielders in Jose Abreu ( -7.0) the worst defensive first baseman in MLB and Dayan Viciedo with -12.3, the 3rd worst RF in the AL.