Comments on: Betancourt and Morgan Revisited

By: BobbyMac

BobbyMac — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:53:20 +0000

If it weren’t for the fact that Nyjer is really good, comparing him to previous Nats CF’s could be considered damning with faint praise.

By: BobbyMac

BobbyMac — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:51:33 +0000

He’s been so bad, he caused Poz to “sell out” and go to work for SI. Or something like that. :>

By: Joe R

Joe R — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:38:23 +0000

I’d love to see some chart or something to justify his ridiculous UZR. Because if it’s justifiable, Morgan’s having one of the best defensive seasons ever.

Of course we all know fielding metrics are fun for their noisiness and often times arbitary nature.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:23:35 +0000

Isn’t Morgan’s defensive numbers borderline ridiculous? He’s 67% better than the next closest defenders: Longoria and Zimmerman. He’s destroying the field.

By: Tom Au

Tom Au — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:21:10 +0000

The Pirates TOTALLY underestimated Morgan when they traded him for Milledge.

By: Detroit Michael

Detroit Michael — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:57:35 +0000

There is a kernel of truth to what Dayton Moore says. UZR in year 1 is not well correlated to UZR in year 2. UZR with BIS data is not well correlated with UZR with STATS data for the same year. UZR is that the well correlated with Fielding Bible ratings for the same year.

While I believe the statistical analysis of fielding has made great strides in recent years and is probably better than a scouting only analysis, we should recognize that our metrics don’t seem perfect. We should consult multiple fielding sources and regress to the mean, depending on how large our sample size is. In other words, don’t treat the fielding metrics with greater confidence than they deserve.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:40:40 +0000

Let’s explore that analogy.

Are you suggesting that if Ted Williams got traded to the NY Giants, and hit .400 for a week, that would serve as evidence that he was in no way aided by Fenway Park?

By: Benne

Benne — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:55:06 +0000

Wow, Yuni has already been worth -0.5 WAR in less than two weeks with KC. That is impressive. Oh, and to the few remaining Moore apologists left who claimed that he would be an upgrade over Tony Pena Jr.:

Yuni’s WAR in ’09: -1.5
Pena’s WAR in ’08 (the historically awful year): -1.4

Yikes.

By: joser

joser — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:05:11 +0000

Yes, because it’s the equivalent of Ted Williams hitting .400 for a week.

By: JH

JH — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:43:41 +0000

I don’t know why this article’s inspired 20 comments. Yuniesky Betancourt sucks at shortstop and it’s plainly obvious to anyone who’s watched him play and knows the slightest bit about baseball. Morgan’s a frickin highlight reel in the outfield. The best advanced defensive metric backs up what peoples’ eyes have told them. People, including the GM of the Kansas City Royals responded to this information derisively, and they were and are wrong. End of story.

Also, Yuni really, really sucks. God I’m glad he’s off my team.