Sabermetric Fielding: 2010 Los Angeles Dodgers
Posted by Neil Paine on May 11, 2010
(Note: All of the data in this post was obtained from the new Baseball-Reference Fielding Stats.)
A month and a half into the 2010 season, the L.A. Dodgers' defense has been one of the biggest disappointments in baseball. Among NL teams, they current rank a distant last in both Fielding +/- and TotalZone Runs Above Average, and they're quite a bit below average in Defensive Efficiency as well:
| Tm | #Fld | DefEff | G | Inn | Rtot | Rdrs ▾ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDP | 30 | .720 | 31 | 2550.0 | 14 | 25 |
| COL | 30 | .695 | 32 | 2595.0 | -4 | 22 |
| STL | 28 | .711 | 32 | 2625.0 | 11 | 21 |
| ARI | 31 | .676 | 33 | 2628.0 | -5 | 18 |
| PHI | 29 | .694 | 32 | 2574.0 | 4 | 16 |
| SFG | 28 | .728 | 30 | 2478.0 | 14 | 14 |
| CIN | 28 | .676 | 32 | 2595.0 | -8 | 13 |
| WSN | 32 | .695 | 32 | 2595.0 | 1 | 11 |
| HOU | 29 | .663 | 31 | 2484.0 | -11 | 3 |
| NYM | 30 | .691 | 32 | 2649.0 | 6 | 3 |
| ATL | 28 | .696 | 32 | 2499.0 | 3 | 1 |
| FLA | 30 | .680 | 32 | 2583.0 | 1 | 0 |
| PIT | 31 | .668 | 32 | 2547.0 | -21 | -10 |
| CHC | 28 | .670 | 33 | 2583.0 | -12 | -11 |
| MIL | 26 | .662 | 32 | 2568.0 | -14 | -14 |
| LAD | 32 | .673 | 32 | 2571.0 | -31 | -21 |
| 470 | .687 | 510 | 41124.0 | -53 |
This a major departure from L.A.'s 2009 effort -- last year, the Dodgers led the NL in Defensive Efficiency and were well above average in both Fielding +/- and TotalZone:
| Tm | #Fld | DefEff | G | Inn | Rtot | Rdrs ▾ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIN | 45 | .704 | 162 | 13125.0 | 53 | 52 |
| ARI | 45 | .683 | 162 | 13029.0 | 8 | 34 |
| SFG | 44 | .706 | 162 | 13014.0 | 60 | 34 |
| PIT | 49 | .690 | 161 | 12765.0 | -24 | 31 |
| STL | 42 | .694 | 162 | 12966.0 | 36 | 31 |
| LAD | 46 | .713 | 162 | 13260.0 | 17 | 30 |
| NYM | 51 | .693 | 162 | 12834.0 | -20 | 20 |
| PHI | 41 | .693 | 162 | 13101.0 | 2 | 16 |
| CHC | 45 | .698 | 161 | 13008.0 | 5 | 16 |
| COL | 45 | .688 | 162 | 12945.0 | -9 | 12 |
| ATL | 45 | .686 | 162 | 13164.0 | 28 | 8 |
| WSN | 55 | .683 | 162 | 12819.0 | -34 | 7 |
| SDP | 54 | .692 | 162 | 13056.0 | -47 | -1 |
| HOU | 42 | .677 | 162 | 12870.0 | -52 | -2 |
| MIL | 45 | .689 | 162 | 12915.0 | -5 | -22 |
| FLA | 44 | .686 | 162 | 13017.0 | 0 | -28 |
| 704 | .692 | 2590 | 207888.0 | 18 |
What changed for this year's version of the Dodger D? Let's look at the contributions they've received from their primary players at each position this year vs. last year (bold columns indicate runs saved above/below average from TotalZone and Defensive +/- Runs Saved):
| Catcher | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rctch | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | RsbC | RerC | CS% |
| Russell Martin | 2010 | 27 | 28 | 27 | 242.2 | -1 | -4 | -1 | -2 | -10 | 0 | -2 | 30% |
| Russell Martin | 2009 | 26 | 137 | 133 | 1201.0 | -6 | -6 | -6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 31% |
| First Base | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rdp | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rbnt |
| James Loney | 2010 | 26 | 32 | 31 | 271.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | -4 | -1 | 0 |
| James Loney | 2009 | 25 | 155 | 147 | 1341.0 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Second Base | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rdp | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rdp |
| Blake DeWitt | 2010 | 24 | 26 | 25 | 205.2 | -5 | -31 | -4 | -1 | -1 | -6 | 0 | -1 |
| Orlando Hudson | 2009 | 31 | 145 | 143 | 1272.1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | -2 |
| Third Base | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rdp | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rbnt |
| Casey Blake | 2010 | 36 | 27 | 26 | 237.2 | -2 | -9 | -2 | -2 | -10 | -2 | 0 | |
| Casey Blake | 2009 | 35 | 134 | 131 | 1161.0 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 2 |
| Shortstop | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rdp | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rdp |
| Rafael Furcal | 2010 | 32 | 18 | 18 | 161.2 | -1 | -6 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 30 | 4 | 0 |
| Jamey Carroll | 2010 | 36 | 14 | 14 | 122.0 | 0 | -4 | 0 | 0 | -3 | -30 | -2 | -1 |
| Rafael Furcal | 2009 | 31 | 149 | 141 | 1282.1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| Left Field | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rof | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rof |
| Manny Ramirez | 2010 | 38 | 14 | 14 | 108.1 | -3 | -29 | -1 | -1 | -4 | -44 | -3 | -1 |
| Reed Johnson | 2010 | 33 | 16 | 7 | 79.1 | 0 | 3 | -1 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 1 |
| Xavier Paul | 2010 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 55.0 | -4 | -79 | -3 | -1 | -2 | -44 | -2 | 0 |
| Garret Anderson | 2010 | 38 | 6 | 5 | 43.0 | -2 | -56 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 1 | 0 |
| Manny Ramirez | 2009 | 37 | 101 | 99 | 812.0 | -7 | -11 | -4 | -3 | -8 | -12 | -4 | -4 |
| Juan Pierre | 2009 | 31 | 94 | 63 | 653.1 | 4 | 8 | 5 | -1 | 3 | 6 | 4 | -1 |
| Center Field | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rof | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rof |
| Matt Kemp | 2010 | 25 | 32 | 32 | 283.0 | -6 | -25 | -3 | -3 | -13 | -55 | -11 | -2 |
| Matt Kemp | 2009 | 24 | 158 | 148 | 1355.1 | 5 | 4 | -1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | -7 | 9 |
| Right Field | Year | Age | G | GS | Inn | Rtot | Rtot/yr | Rtz | Rof | Rdrs | Rdrs/yr | Rpm | Rof |
| Andre Ethier | 2010 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 235.1 | -7 | -36 | -8 | 0 | -5 | -25 | -6 | 1 |
| Andre Ethier | 2009 | 27 | 158 | 150 | 1365.1 | -4 | -3 | -3 | -1 | -2 | -2 | -1 | -1 |
It would be easy to point to the loss of 2B Orlando Hudson as the chief reason for the Dodgers' 2010 defensive decline, but the truth is that almost all of the holdovers from 2009 have slipped as well. +/- estimates that Casey Blake is already 10 runs worse than he was in '09, Russell Martin is 7 runs worse, and Matt Kemp is a full 15 runs below his '09 output. Throw in Blake DeWitt's 5 runs below Hudson's '09, and a variety of other small declines, and it's not hard to see why the Dodgers have fallen so far on defense. The only positive? Their pitchers are +7 runs above average on defense, after finishing with 0 in 2009.
May 11th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Total Zone currently shows the major leagues as a whole are 8 runs below average (AL is +45, compared to the -53 for the NL shown above). Maybe that's just a bunch of rounding errors adding up, but it doesn't look right. By definition, the total HAS to be 0. That discrepancy won't help convert the many people who have no faith in modern defensive stats.
May 11th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
And yet, despite its flaws, it's still more useful that fielding percentage and "watching with your eyes".
May 11th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
how did u make that chart comparing the 2 seasons? simply by a bunch of copy/pastes?
May 12th, 2010 at 1:51 am
Another factor could be LF. With Ramirez suspended 50 games last year. They got to have pierre out there. Now that hurt offensively, but Manny is scary (in a bad way) out there in LF.
May 12th, 2010 at 7:19 am
[...] Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Sabermetric Fielding: 2010 Los Angeles Dodgers [...]
May 12th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Re: #3 (Cubbies), yes, I just copied and pasted from the two yearly team fielding pages. I could have used the SHARE function on each table, but I was in a hurry. If I had used SHARE, the table would definitely look nicer.
As far as LF, I agree that Pierre was really good for them in '09. However, Manny has missed games this year as well, and he was just as bad last year as he's been this year... The big difference is in Manny's replacements -- like you said, Pierre was a good defender (+3 by +/-, +4 by TotalZone) in Manny's stead last year, but this year his understudies have been Reed Johnson, Xavier Paul, and Garret Anderson, who have been somewhere between average (+0 by +/-) and really bad (-6 TotalZone). So that's another factor you can point to for why the Dodgers are so much worse defensively this year than in '09.
May 12th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
[...] reduction in the quality of play has been plain to see. Now, our bad defense has been quantified by Baseball-Reference. Check it out. It’s not only Blake DeWitt’s or Matt Kemp’s [...]
May 13th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
[...] Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Sabermetric Fielding … [...]
May 13th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
[...] Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Sabermetric Fielding: 2010 Los Angeles Dodgers [...]