worst defensive runs saved all time

Nimble is one thing; actually being able to field is another matter entirely. Sheffield was only marginally better in terms of numbers in the outfield, and considering where he was numbers-wise before he got there, that's not saying much either. Except for catchers, Plus/Minus represents the majority of a player's DRS. Because of his potent hitting abilities, teams shuffled him from position to position, but he was bad at all of them. In calculating DRS, points are either added or subtracted to a fielder's rating depending on whether or not they make a play on a ball that is hit towards them. It would be years before Sax finally figured out his mechanical issues, but the damage had already been done. Which is bad. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. Theyd be exceptionally slim if the Phillies had a good defense, and, well, they dont. Rank Team P C 1B 2B 3B SS LF . That's just the first two pages of searches. No list regarding defense in baseball, especially bad defense, would be complete without the name of Dick Stuart, aka Dr. Strangeglove. No, we cant measure defense precisely. Barrett's career became known much more for his scraps: two fights with pitcher Roy Oswalt in 2004, a legendary brawl with White Sox catcher A.J. Willie Mays, on the other hand, was arguably the best defensive outfielder ever. Johnnie LeMaster seemed to sum up Giants fans' feelings toward him and his fielding when he took the field at Candlestick Park during a July game in 1979 with "BOO" on the back of his jersey instead of his name. Robinson Cano made 26 errors in his first two seasons, and he too was a positively-regarded shortstop in the minors. Teams: Boston Red Sox (1975-80), California Angels (1981), New York Yankees (1982), Stats: 1,918 chances, 595 putouts, 1,183 assists, 140 errors. Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers (1992-98), Florida Marlins (1998), New York Mets (1998-2005), San Diego Padres (2006), Oakland Athletics (2007), Stats: 12,247 chances, 11,347 putouts, 768 assists, 132 errors. Much like Derek Jeter, there has been a lot of divisiveness over the years about Kemp's defense. By any reliable metric, to say nothing of the old-fashioned eye test, the Phillies have the majors' worst defense. Defensive Runs Saved - Wikipedia The Tragedy of Derek Jeter's Defense - Grantland Thanks for setting me straight. Yet theres a chance that doesnt happen, and, even if it does, there are defensive improvements worth thinking about. 6. In both 2013 and 2015, Burnett had -5 defensive runs saved, but ironically, those were arguably his best. His errors doubled to 26 in 1999, and in 2000, his continued struggles ultimately forced his move to left field. Smith had great speed and would often get a great jump on the ball, only to bobble it several times once he actually got there. His longevity definitely wasn't tied to his ability to field the ball. The official scorer of the game took pity on Jolley, actually only giving him two errors. Its something for them to figure out moving forward, assuming they dont figure Hoskins range will improve. The headline mentions DRS. He played for 13 teams (12 franchises), more than any position player in MLB history, even winning a World Series with the Phillies in 2008. [/fn] They're the mirror image of Runs Created, the metric Bill James developed . For those of you who dont know, DRS stands for Defensive Runs Saved. Now signed to a minor league deal with his hometown Texas Rangers, Hawpe is hoping to return to full form, although even with the surgery, it may not do much to help his porous defense. Doesnt mean its a death sentence; sometimes teams happily concede defense for offense. On the other hand, the Braves arrived a year or so ahead of time. Picciolo, who was the Angels' bench coach for four seasons, died in 2018 at 64 years old. The really strange thing about Bill Madlock's career is teams didn't try to fit him into an easier position to play, like right field. Even this article gives a huge nod to the great caveat that must be uttered when serious people meet to discuss these advanced metrics. In the great history of Major League Baseball, there were guys who were born to hit, guys who were born to run, guys who were born to throw a baseball with dazzling accuracy and power, and guys who were born to perform every skill with magnificent ease. Rdef. Is Derek Jeter the worst shortstop of all time? He won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957-68, tying Roberto Clemente for the most by an outfielder. No, the formulas havent remained consistent and identical over the past decade and a half. It's sort of unbelievable that Nate McLouth won a Gold Glove in 2008, because it wasn't even close to his best season as a center fielder. He made 658 of those errors playing first base, which is the major league record for first basemen. Ryan was simply abysmal as a fielder, once committing 30 errors in four seasons while with the California Angels. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of his defensive prowess. He ended up there because it lined up more with his offensive production than putting him at one of the corner outfield spots or at first base. The Worst A.J. Stuart was in the on-deck circle when teammate Bill Mazeroski hit the game-winning home run for the Pirates in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Jose Lima was one of the more entertaining players in the major leagues throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. His -180 total zone runs allowed is second only to Derek Jeter in MLB history. Since 2002, the site uses defensive runs saved; prior to that, it uses total zone. And not in a good way. Known as much for his flamboyant style on the mound and his singing (he was into merengue), Lima also was an awful fielder. Thats what the table is showing you. His career fielding percentage of .895 is comically low, but for most of his career, he was probably just surprised anyone was able to actually connect with one of his pitches. San Diego Padres (2011), Los Angeles Angels (2013), Stats: 1,816 chances, 1,695 putouts, 87 assists, 34 errors. Nothing has been catastrophic. Other accounts suggest that Browning's raging alcoholism also contributed to his faulty fielding as well. As you can see, the Royals are, quite literally, at the bottom of this list. Kansas City lacks an above-average position anywhere on the infield . It speaks more to the talented teammates he had around him that his total zone runs allowed isn't higher, but his -16.7 defensive wins above replacement seem to tell the real story. His Rtot and dWAR numbers certainly suggest that a minor league replacement player would have put up a better defense at first than Giambi, known to have limited range and mobility, and hands that were not exactly soft in nature. Spahn still holds the MLB career record for wins for a left-handed pitcher with 363, was a 17-time All-Star and led the National League in wins eight times. [1][2] Any positive number is above average, and the best fielders typically have a DRS figure of 15 to 20 for a season. Is Derek Jeter overrated? Actually, he might be underrated. Theres broad consensus that errors are not a reasonable method of measuring a players complete defensive contribution and DRS and UZR (for any of their failings) are superior methods of measuring overall defensive contribution, particularly when reviewed together. In today's statistical world, every single player in baseball is measured in terms of different metrics. He won four World Series titles, was a four-time All-Star, American League Rookie of the Year and even won a Gold Glove award in 1997. Youll recall they were the team that, in spring training, experimented with swapping left and right fielders based on the handedness of the hitter. 3. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Plus, don't you want to read about the worst defender ever? ), 10. It may be no wonder why Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland has a conundrum concerning where to play Ryan Raburnhe simply doesn't play well defensively anywhere. And his career fielding percentage of .964 is atrocious. Flynn makes the list not for being stunningly bad but for being stunningly below average at three different infield positions shortstop, second base and third base. Theres not nearly enough evidence to say the Phillies have absolutely had the worst team defense in a very long time. Aside from his horrible play on the basepaths, where he stole just 52 bases in 123 attempts, or at the plate, where he hit just one home run in 3,754 at-bats, Kuiper was also bad in the field. Doug Flynn's 1980 Gold Glove is one of those times. Copyright 2000-2023 Sports Reference LLC. Kemp also had just three assists in 2010 compared to 14 in 2009 and 11 in 2011. But he got worse at framing pitches and is costing his team more in that area. The glove would last him a minimum of six years because it rarely made contact with the ball. Gomez's range factor was actually higher than the MLB average, 4.63 to 4.58, and his fielding percentage was fine, so I'm not quite sure why he rates so poorly. While Nolan Ryan may be in the Hall of Fame, have seven no-hitters to his credit and be the all-time strikeout king, he will never be compared to either Jim Kaat or Greg Maddux in terms of defense. The Phillies team defense has let them down, and as the headline suggests, theyre on the verge of establishing a new record. Meanwhile I NEVER hear ANY ringing endorsements for DRS or UZR. However, during the opportunities when he did play first base, it became clear why Thomas was a DH. In his first few seasons with the Yankees, Gary Sanchez was as bad at blocking pitches behind the plate as almost anyone in the modern history of baseball. These are the worst glovemen of all time at every position. 10 Most Overrated Defenders in Baseball History While his fielding improved over the course of his career, you can point directly to his early struggles in the outfield as one of the reasons the Oakland A's traded him after three seasons and an average of approximately -20 total zone runs allowed in that span. DRS was created to take range into account when measuring a player's defensive ability. Note that DRS statistics are only available from the 2003 MLB season through the present. Such was the case with the "Steve Sax Syndrome" after the Los Angeles Dodgers' second baseman inexplicably couldn't throw to first base properly from 1983 to 1988. worst defensive runs saved all time [fn]John Dewan, The Fielding Bible, Volume II (Skokie, Ill.: ACTA Sports, 2009), 11-4. Nobody talks about errors. During late innings of many games, Vaughn would often be seen playing just two steps off the bag, and even then balls hit down the line would get by him. Gerrit Cole's approach bringing Cy Young results, Mookie Betts vs. Bryce Harper -- and other pressing baseball debates, Real or not? Sanchez, who relies on unbelievable power at the plate to change games, improved on blocking pitches in 2019. The table shows that only two players appear on both lists (Simmons and Hardy), exemplifying that there is a difference in what the two statistics measure. But wait, there has to be a logical explanation for this. It's never good to make a list like this early in your career, but Jorge Polanco has done just enough in six seasons to make the cut. Fielding Bible And yet, Phillies pitchers have ranked 26th in baseball in actual wOBA allowed, while Braves pitchers have ranked third. What's worse? worst defensive runs saved all time. Manager Buck Showalter told Britt Ghiroli of MLB.com that they had every intention of sticking with Reynolds at third. But while he looks bad Devers is definitely the better fielder, and it isnt even close. He was an All-American forward at Ohio State selected by the Philadelphia Warriors in the fifth round of the 1958 NBA draft. Mookies BA will not be considered in his MVP, assuming he beats JDM. Sanchez made 15 errors behind the plate in 2019. What's strange is the lowest of his per position totals was at third base, where it was -12. The point should really be that Andujars not all that close to having the worst DRS of the last five yearshes not even in the top five. Teams: New York Yankees (1999-2003, 2013-2014), Texas Rangers (2004-05), Washington Nationals (2006), Chicago Cubs (2007-13), Stats: 5,823 chances, 3,456 putouts, 2,198 assists, 169 errors. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. The 1965 American League Rookie of the Year and 1966 World Series champion with the Baltimore Orioles earned the nickname "Clank" from teammate Frank Robinson for his struggles fielding the ball. The DH is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Red Sox bullpen's tightrope act will wear thin, Real or not? Young did seem to improve after that, perhaps with better positioning. Only two third basemen finished worse in the stat than he did. I didnt say Andujar was better, I was just establishing 1) they are comparable yet seymour singled out Andujar, 2) thats intellectually dishonest. Do you have a blog? As an outfielder, Incaviglia's play could certainly be described as hit-or-miss as well. It's also interesting that all 10 seasons here occurred since 1990, which is a reflection of more data available to grade defense. And teams have done a really good job at that. First baseman/outfielder Brad Hawpe went down last year in June and required Tommy John surgery. Lasorda asked what else he was thinking. From there out, he would post. While Vaughn once uttered "it ain't about the money" during contract negotiations with the Boston Red Sox, for Vaughn, it wasn't about the defense, either. Note: We used a combination of metrics such as Defensive Wins Above Replacement (dWAR), Total Zone Runs (an estimate of runs saved or given up in the field), errors and fielding percentage to produce this lineup. So hes always been considered a plus defender, but Davenports numbers have never loved him. For this calculation, we use a replacement level on defense is the league average. We present them here for purely educational purposes. But over the last . Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates (200511), Minnesota Twins (201213), Atlanta Braves (2014), Stats: 3,234 chances, 2,907 putouts, 285 assists, 42 errors. Teams: Tampa Bay Rays (2013-14), San Diego Padres (2015-present), Stats: 3,955 chances, 3,695 putouts, 231 assists, 29 errors. Range is the most important component, absolutely, but arms matter, too, and the Phillies outfield arms, collectively, rank in the bottom five by both DRS and UZR. His defensive WAR and total zone runs allowed are bad, but not as bad as they probably should be. Im older than him, and I can barely catch the TV remote when my roommate tosses it to me (from a couple of feet away mind you lol). It was a league custom. One of the more fascinating parts of Michael Lewis' seminal book on baseball, "MoneyBall", is the breakdown of what Terrence Long cost the Oakland Athletics by putting him in center field instead of Johnny Damon and if it was worth the risk of having him out there. As a hitter, Babe Herman had an outstanding career, hitting .324 in 13 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers. This blend of rage-judging isnt welcome here. Most notably, the Astros traded Kenny Lofton for Taubensee, straight up, after the 1991 season. He made his lone All-Star appearance in 2016 and parlayed that into a six-year, $83 million extension in 2017. Freddy Peralta thrills family with dazzling debut, Real or Not? Yet they have just seven games left, and theyre already nine runs worse than the 2005 Yankees. Boston Herald reporter Sean McAdam once said of Lugo, "The next base hit Lugo takes away will be the first. Stuart also had another great nickname "Moby Dick" when he finished the last few years of his career in Japan. Teams: Milwaukee Brewers (1988-91), San Diego Padres (1992-93), Florida Marlins (1993-98), Los Angeles Dodgers (1998-2001), Atlanta Braves (2002-03), New York Yankees (2004-06), Detroit Tigers (2007-08), New York Mets (2009), Stats: 4,686 chances, 3,275 putouts, 1,240 assists, 171 errors. And on that note, he wasn't getting paid for his glovework. He started over 300 games at three different positions and came up just six starts short of 100 at shortstop. Join our linker program. So let's take a look at his undoing. Yes, folks, there is a reason that the Chicago White Sox signed Adam Dunn strictly as a designated hitter, and they had better hope he snaps out of his slump this coming season. Hall of Famer Warren Spahn is tied with another player on our list, Hippo Vaughn, as the only two pitchers to have led the league in errors five different seasons. 48. While early pro baseball was plagued by errors (just look at the career lists for MLB), Browning's 414 errors in 13 seasons still stand out. 8. His defensive WAR is one of the highest you'll find in this lineup. 2023 Defender To Watch: Eduardo Escobar All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, However, he does hold the all-time record for most errors lifetime with 1,080, and once committed 86 errors while playing for the Chicago Colts in 1895. To what extent can we confirm some impressions regarding the Phillies defense? In my terms, it basically means a whole bunch of guys who couldn't field if their life depended on it. Teams: Oakland Athletics (1995-2001), New York Yankees (2002-08), Oakland Athletics (2009), Colorado Rockies (2009-12), Cleveland Indians (2013-14), Stats: 11,742 chances, 10,989 putouts, 649 assists, 104 errors. ), 9. Buster Olney ranked his top 10 team defenses in his blog post Thursday, which got me thinking about bad defense. Chris Gomez, SS, 1997 Padres (minus-33). worst defensive runs saved all timefee concession letter due to covid 19. world record of blood donation by single person. Mookie Betts is playing like an MVP again, Real or Not? Grieve's -76 total zone runs allowed for his career is truly horrendous. In left field, he made 1.80 plays per game while teammate Josh Willingham -- hardly known as a plus fielder himself -- made 2.17. Could Mike Trout outproduce a tanking team's entire lineup? Hobson's 1978 season was a legendary blunder. Ranking MLB Catchers by Total Runs - Bill James Online My next thought was 'I hope they don't hit it to Sax. His overall defense has suffered as well. However, the managers and coaches who vote for Gold Glove Award players each year routinely ignore analytics. Wil Myers won American League Rookie of the Year in 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays, then was traded to the San Diego Padres after the 2014 season. Many thanks to him. There is DRS. After seven seasons at shortstop for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals, enough was enough, and the Royals finally moved Jose Offerman to second base. Santana looked to be a fine hitter, and so the Phillies made room by bumping Rhys Hoskins to the corner outfield. For many years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators, Frank Howard was one of the premier power hitters in the game, leading the league twice in home runs and swatting 382 during his 16-year career. Braun fielded just .895, making 26 errors in 112 games, and made .57 fewer plays per nine innings than the average third baseman. But Santana hasnt quite been that effective at the plate, while Hoskins, in the field, has been a massive liability. Pretty sure theyre mentioned in this article. Stat to the Future: Defending and dissecting Defensive Runs Saved In fact, in the early 1990s, many would argue that the Pittsburgh Pirates outfield of Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke and Bonilla was one of the best in baseball at the time. He was better than the average shortstop during his day, and his dWAR number certainly indicates he was not exactly a liability on the field. Adrin Beltr recorded the most defensive runs saved in Major League Baseball during the 2003-2021 seasons. Officially, the Braves have sewn up the NL East, after having completed a four-game weekend sweep of the Phillies. UZR thinks this years Phillies have been very bad, but not exactly record-level bad. Honestly, in looking at the career of shortstop Johnnie LeMaster, it's hard to believe that he actually enjoyed a 12-year career. Many regard defense to be the most important attribute for the catcher position, and that certainly can't be argued. On the one hand, the Phillies cant be too disappointed they wouldve been arriving a year or so ahead of time. UZR includes errors as part of its calculation, too. Matt Kemp, CF, 2010 Dodgers (minus-37). Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted In 2009 while playing for an awful Nationals team that lost 103 games, Dunn started 83 games in the outfield and 66 at first base. Now imagine if Stairs would've been able to field? Mike Zunino*. He's also the source of one of the greatest quotes on fielding in the history of baseball. [3] The statistic was developed by Baseball Info Solutions and the data used in calculating it first became available for Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2003.[4][5]. But Anson could hit (.334 lifetime batting average), and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Howard spent the last year of his career as a DH in 1973, the first year the DH was in place. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Baseball Savant makes it so easy to do. These are the worst glovemen of all time at every position. At the time, the Phillies told themselves Santana was too good of a deal to pass up. His defensive WAR of -19.7 is stunningly bad, and one can't help but wonder if years of rampant steroid use and performance-enhancing drugs contributed to Giambi's lack of mobility. Jose Offerman secured his place on this list with an atrocious run through the early 1990s, when he led the National League in errors three times in four years from 1992 to 1995. Nowhere was his awful defense more pronounced than when he played second base, where he started over 1,000 games, and his total zone runs allowed went to -89. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. Hobson committed a whopping 43 errors at the hot corner in 1978, finishing the season with an .899 fielding percentage, one of the lowest at any position for a full-time player in the modern era. Doumit's struggles came with pitch framing, where he cost his team about -7.3 runs per 1,000 innings, and with trying to throw out baserunners, where he had a caught stealing rate of 24 percent. In 2010, his ratio of good fielding plays to misplays fell to 26-28, which combined with poor range gave him minus-37 defensive runs saved. That's where we would like for him to play," Showalter said. Adam Dunn, 1B/LF/RF, 2009 Nationals (minus-43). Previously, Baseball-Reference used Sean Smith's Total Zone Rating for all seasons. Check. Weeks has never had a good defensive reputation and in 2012 he started 152 games at second base and made just 4.08 plays per nine innings compared to the league-average range factor of 4.77. His fielding got worse as his career progressed, and his caught stealing percentage was usually about 10 points below the league average. For 13 seasons, Pete Browning toiled in the old American Association and National League, playing five positions overall and none of them with any skill whatsoever. Every Sports Reference Social Media Account, Site Last Updated: Friday, March 3, 1:04PM. His 11 defensive runs saved in the past three seasons are tied with J.T. I think he's going to come in [to camp] lighter and little more nimble.". In 2009, he did make a high number of good fielding plays (48), according to Baseball Info Solutions, although that was countered by 33 misplays. Why is Eduardo Escobar a defender to watch in 2023? Make a guess now (Note: Baseball-Reference uses fielding runs below average, which can be drawn from two different sources depending on the year. Kiermaier set the record for most defensive runs saved (DRS) in a season -- which BIS has calculated going back to 2003 -- when he saved the Rays 42 . Jeter is the worst defensive player of all time by advanced defensive metrics, with a career Defensive Runs Saved total of -155. Rickie Weeks, 2B, 2012 Brewers (minus-30). Shaky Red Sox infield defense is a problem with no easy solutions Fielding Runs Fielding measures obviously have a lot of controversy surrounding them. It's no surprise that he rated poorly in the outfield -- minus-20 runs -- but he also rated minus-23 runs at first base in just 540 innings.