Comments on: Abreu Overload

By: SleepyCA

SleepyCA — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:51:36 +0000

Actually, the comment in the article:

“while he’s 16th of 27 in range factor, Yankees pitchers had the second highest ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio in the AL”

Makes perfectly good sense, given the poor choice of stats that heyman chose to use. “Range factor” divides assists and putouts by innings played, and has no input for “opportunities”, so a right fielder on a ground-balling staff WILL see his “range” affected disproportionately.

OTOH, Range Factor is pretty much made obsolete by the play-by-play metrics available today. For some reason it’s still included on the B-R player pages, though, and it was invented by Bill James, so it’ll probably be around a while.

By: Wouter

Wouter — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:12:03 +0000

Nice work. Though I do think Heyman meant to say that Ibanez was “hidden” because of Abreu’s exposure playing in the New York market as opposed to being on the 2008 Seattle Mariners, rather than SafeCo’s park effects.

By: R.J. Anderson

R.J. Anderson — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:16:59 +0000

“Wouldn’t fewer oppurtunities cause every miss to effect his fielding percentage more? So having a high fielding percentage is still relevant. I think you were looking at this backwards in your attempt to prove a point.”

Remember, FP only takes errors and non-errors into account. If he got to it he usually caught it, but that’s not his problem, the “getting to” part is the problem.

“How many right fielders in baseball actually have better range than Abreu? Don’t right fielders (ie. players with good arms) with good range usually play center? Also, I was looking at that hardball times site, how do players have a higher Kill+ or Hold+ than oppurtunities?”

Well, considering that his UZR is compared to the average RFer, tons.

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:19:13 +0000

Hold+ and Kill+ are ratios of holds and kills relative to league average. A player with a 125 Kill+ has 25% more kills than average while a 75 Kill+ player kills 25% fewer runners than the average player kills.

Is it just me or is kill starting to not even sound like a real word anymore?

By: Tom B

Tom B — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:36:42 +0000

“This contradicts itself. Abreu’s pitching staff gives him fewer chances, so therefore we should hardly take a high fielding percentage as an indication of Abreu’s defensive wizardry”

Wouldn’t fewer oppurtunities cause every miss to effect his fielding percentage more? So having a high fielding percentage is still relevant. I think you were looking at this backwards in your attempt to prove a point.

How many right fielders in baseball actually have better range than Abreu? Don’t right fielders (ie. players with good arms) with good range usually play center? Also, I was looking at that hardball times site, how do players have a higher Kill+ or Hold+ than oppurtunities?

By: The Colonel

The Colonel — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:07:29 +0000

Ha, I love you calling out a national baseball writer. So many of them have such a limited knowledge of baseball, it’s frustrating. If only I could do this with the idiots that talk baseball on radio in Los Angeles. Ugh.

By: b_rider

b_rider — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:27:06 +0000

Nice analysis.

By: Scappy

Scappy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:01:36 +0000

Do I smell a little FireJoeMorgan?

Just because Amaro suffered a brain cramp and inked Ibanez to a poor deal does not mean another team should do the same with Abreau. Two wrongs do not make a right.