Highs and Lows of UZR 2007-9: Utley
As explained in the overview post, here, this is part of a series looking at the best and worst defensive performers over the past three combined seasons. Rankings are done by adding a player’s UZR with his aggregate positional adjustment so as to level the playing field with regards to difficulty. Essentially, it’s removing the grading curve.
Previously covered:
5th, Ryan Zimmerman 43.7 runs above average.
4th, Omar Vizquel 45.8 runs above average.
3rd, J.J. Hardy 48.7 runs above average.
2nd, Franklin Gutierrez 51.4 runs above average.
Tonight, the best player from 2007-9: 2B Chase Utley.
Consistent greatness is Chase Utley’s calling card. His wOBAs from 2005 through 2009 have all been inside the range of .389 to .420. His UZRs during that stretch vary only from +9.8 to +20.5. In the last five seasons, Chase Utley’s worst season, 2006, had him as a 6.8 WAR player. His best, 2008, he was an 8.1 WAR player.
For five seasons Chase Utley (38 total wins) has been just a smidgen less valuable than Albert Pujols (40.4 total wins) has been. Thank goodness that he is losing his mind in this World Series because hopefully now he’ll start getting more credit. He’s been close to the best player in baseball over the last half-decade and how many people would have included him in the top ten?
Utley’s 54.8 runs above average came in nearly equal portions each season. His 17.6 runs was 11th best in 2007, his 22.8 runs was the overall best in 2008 and his 14.4 runs was 18th best this past year.
By the way, with the pretty big caveat that the 2009 awards have yet to be announced, I find it worth pointing out that none of the top five players for the period of 2007-9 have won a Gold Glove in that period. Hopefully the 2009 slate rectifies that.
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Good break down, Carruth.
Even if you add in the $11M he earned in 2009, Utley has been worth, oh, about $140M more than he’s been paid. Ridiculous.
Hold on, I have to go put more stickers on the letter I wrote him…
“Dear Chase. I feel like I can call you Chase because you and me are so much alike. I would love to meet you someday. We could have a catch.”
Easy, Mac.
Too lazy to go look back at the “award”, but off the top of anybodys head, who won the NL 2nd base GG in 2008?
Orlando Hudson IIRC
Brandon Phillips
Chase Utley: The most under-appreciated player of the past 3 years, or the most under-appreciated player EVER?
hes not even in the top 10 of underappriciated in the last 3 years… this guy is the second best player or maybe 3rd after albert and mauer
what?
I think the term you’re looking for is misunderappreciated.
Gold Glove awards are a joke; case in point-Derek Jeter.
Rolaids Relief awards have more merit.
I wish Ellis didn’t have a major injury record. Really really do.
* Mark Ellis
Two questions:
1) Isn’t Utley generally considered to be an average to below average defender amongst old-school commentators and the like?
2) Are those WAR figures for Utley and Pujols position-adjusted?
Actually, here in Philly most commentators/Sports Radio hosts tend to think of him as subpar defensively. I think part of that perception comes from how incredibly awkward his throws look.
Utley is underappreciated?
He is among traditional fans and the media.
Yes, other than Keith Law, have you heard any other fans or media members outside of Philly claim that he’s the best or 2nd best player in the game? Outside of Philly and those with some knowledge of sabremetrics, people don’t even think he’s the best player on his own team.
That is not true.
People who don’t pay attention may not realize just how good he is and it may take advanced defensive metrics to demonstrate just how good he has become defensively but only a person who is extremely ignorant would truly believe that he is not the best player on his own team.
The outside perception of Utley is that he is a top 10-15 player in baseball, IMO. In reality he is one of the top 5 best players in baseball. He is under-appreciated, sure, but only complete buffoons fails to realize that he is one of the games elite players.
“truly ignorant person”
like all the baseball writers? Have you seen the MVP voting for the last few years?
I’m not saying they aren’t “truly ignorant”, I’m just saying that a pretty large percentage of the population believe them.
There are a lot of complete buffoons out there.
philly announcers think that he’s below averge defensively. And charlie manuel has played him at first base when he DHs Howard and plays eric bruntlett at second base. Also, most (90% or so) of people think that howard is a better hitter.
Since 2006, Utley has played a grand total of 5 games at first.
Hey, platooning Howard against tough lefties isn’t all that bad an idea – provided the other pieces fit nicely into place. Gimme Howard’s .320/.395/.693 against righties and let the .207/.298/.356 against lefties ride the pine.
There is truly no bigger Utley fan than me (I’ve spent thousands of dollars on items and countless hours researching and reading about him) and in my time defending him, I have noticed that people I consider to have at least a reasonable view on sports, know Utley is the best player on the Phillies.
But the majority of people, “the casual fan” just say Howard because he has the MVP, and the ROY, and hits over 40 HRs and 130 RBIs. And just completely ignore the K’s and incredibly low OBP for a player of his ilk.
As for the defense, I have told about 15 people since yesterday that he was named the best defensive player over the last 3 years by UZR, and all of them assumed Pedro, Jimmy, and even Shane would be way higher than Chase.
On the national, everyday man level, Chase is under-appreciated like no other. But around die hard baseball fans, he’s recognized for who he is.
The big reason Utley’s defense is a bit underappreciated is mainly the “web gem” factor. Utley doesn’t make a ton of pretty plays, he just positions himself extremely well and gets to a ton of balls without making it look really difficult.
Whenever we talk about best players in the game you always have to add Mauer’s name with an *. The fact that he had a Ted Williams-like season at catcher this year can’t be understated. The defensive metrics are also pretty bad for catchers and it happens to be the toughest position to play on the field.
Yes, and tango just did some work showing that catchers switching positions become better hitters. This is just evidence backing up what most people believe, that catchers’ offensive stats suffer because of the beating they take behind the plate.
Utley is both underappreciated and overappreciated in Philadelphia.
There are many Phillies fans in Philadelphia who do not believe he is the best player on the team. Not necessarily a majority, but a lot.
On the other hand, he is clearly loved more than any other player on the team, and by a wide, wide margin. This is true even of most fans who do not consider him to be the best player on the team. It has to do with his image as a “clutch” “scrappy” “intense” “dirtbag”-type player. It probably also has something to do with race.
Well, white people are easier to love.
It also probably has to do with Ryan Howard striking out 200 times a year and Jimmy Rollins having a sub 300 OBP, if that’s what you are getting at.
Guess his two botched double play balls in this years NLCS didn’t help to impress the casual fan.
Five dingers in the WS helped though.
PS – Zero chance all 5 of these guys wins a gold glove… Hardy / Vizquel will not. Zimmerman probably will given the web gem factor and getting a little more press. Gutierrez has a shot, Utley should but still might not.
Pretty nuts a guy who was the best overall defender from 2007-2009 might not have a single gold glove in that period.
Chase Utley is still amazingly underrated.
Good post.
fat albert mauer utley. 3 best players in the game.
plus the fact that he plays one of the most demanding defensive positions in the diamond.
underrated? he was the second leading vote getter in NL all star balloting last year (behind Puljos). The masses have voted him the All Star starter for four straight seasons. And he was the second baseman on the Sports Illustrated all-decade team. who exactly do we believe underrates him?