Comments on: Toronto’s Catcher Bonanza: Buck, Castro, Chavez

By: Ryan P

Ryan P — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:20:40 +0000

Wallace is a better fit than Taylor for the organization in both the short and long-term.

By: Johnny Tuttle

Johnny Tuttle — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:45:44 +0000

Castro has been convicted of indecent assault, no? I’m having a hard time with that as a fan of the team even if there’d been no C on the 40 this time a week ago.

By: Daniel B

Daniel B — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:39:23 +0000

I’ve found Anthopoulos’s moves to be interesting if nothing else so far. I liked the Halladay coup especially considering it was for one year. Didn’t so much like the Taylor for Wallace deal, but the Jays have coveted Wallace for a long time.

By: Brian Cartwright

Brian Cartwright — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:32:46 +0000

My Oliver projections have Damon +7 in LF, +3 in CF.

By year, the last 3 seasons ratings (not projections) are +3, +5, +9 in LF, and from 2006 to 2008 -1, +7, +1 in CF

In LF, the Marcel weighted mean of the past 3 seasons has Damon allowing 13 fewer hits and 19 fewer TB than expected, 1 fewer hits and 10 fewer TB in CF.

By: glassSheets

glassSheets — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:17:51 +0000

“I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you’re gonna hear about it!”

By: Matt Klaassen

Matt Klaassen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:54:07 +0000

oops… here’s a link to Jeff’s UZR projections

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/11/14/1157186/2010-uzr-projections

By: Matt Klaassen

Matt Klaassen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:53:37 +0000

I can’t speak for Sean/Rally (and if he or someone else more knowledgeable about these things is reading feel free to jump in), but TotalZone is sometimes going to differ from UZR significantly, especially in the case of outfield defense. Damon has only seen recently significant time in left starting in 2008, and only full-time in 2009. I don’t know if Rally incorporates other OF position in his projections (I think he has in the past when he did ZR/RZR-based projections), or what the past TotalZone data says. For 2008, TotalZone has Damon’s range at +14 (-2 arm), for 2009 it’s +6 (average arm). Now, the Fans Scouting Report and UZR for those years obviously disagree, and that why one should look at multiple sources.

Jeff Zimmerman’s UZR-based projections have Damon as -1 in LF — they’re regressed and age-adjusted. One cool thing Jeff (and Rally, I guess) could add would be something like a Marcels relibillity score, it’s pretty easy, when I was messing with defensive projections, I did it.

Anyway, keep in mind, everyone that this is very different than measuring catcher defense (each has their challenges), and also that (as I understand it) outfield range ratings tend to have larger error bars than for the infield… I haven’t done a study, but just in browsing in the past, I’ve noticed more variance between TotalZone and UZR in the OF than in IF positions. But again, I defer to others.

By: Scottwood

Scottwood — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:38:18 +0000

Off topic, but why is Damon given a +7 defensive rating on CHONE? That has to be a misprint. That should read -7.

By: CircleChange11

CircleChange11 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:31:27 +0000

“Although I’m personally excited that I might to get to see John Buck play in-person, many Royals fans hate him for being part of the return for Carlos Beltran in 2004 and for his numerous strikeouts and poor defense.”

You’re excited to see a high strikeout, poor defense catcher in person? *grin*

Hey, we all have our favorites. I’m just kidding around.

By: Gopherballs

Gopherballs — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:31:26 +0000

This kind of proves Matt’s point, huh?