The 2007 Calphalon Awards – Outfielders

The outfield always has some real doozies for defensive numbers.  The Green Monster epitomizes a park effect for outfielder defensive ratings.  However, any park with a high wall will affect outfielder ratings.  This will include the Marlins left field, the Baltimore right field and the Crawford boxes in Houston.  Remember that when you see a really poor number for a fielder on those fields.

These ratings do not include anything for “holds” or throwing runners out.  I do calculate those, but it is tricky – it’s hard to normalize for a play like that.

Left Field

It’s not easy to move beyond average without being a really good, or bad, fielder.  For the AL left field, there is just one good fielder above +7 DRS.  There are just three below –7 DRS.  And one is Manny Ramirez, who is twisted into a –30 DRS here, but we’ve seen other research indicate the Monster’s effect would lower that to about –17 DRS.  Hideki Matsui of the Yankees posted a –8 DRS.  The Cast Iron Skillet goes to Seattle’s Raul Ibanez at –23 DRS. 

In the National League, the NL puts their DHs in LF, so we can get some idea of what would happen if the AL didn’t have a DH, or if those DHs had to play in the field.  We see more hitters giving the business to their teams in the outfield.  Carlos Lee is a butcher.  He posted the worst mark at –23 DRS.  I am certain some of that is Crawford boxes, but even giving him a Manny-like improvement, he’s probably still the worst.  Also stinking up left field was Pat Burrell at –11 DRS, and a three-way tie for third at –9 DRS with Florida’s Josh Willingham, Barry Bonds and Moises Alou.  Willingham has some park effect, but he isn’t good.  Bonds and Alou are old and have leg injuries.  They might both need to DH from here on in.

Center Field

Ichiro Suzuki moved to center field, and did not do as well as many would hope.  Even in the Plus/Minus system, Ichiro was only +4 in 1339.3 innings.  He rated a bit worse in LWZR marks with –7 DRS.  That wasn’t good, but it wasn’t Gary Matthews, Jr.  Matthews posted a –11 DRS.  Normally, I would award him the hardware, but there was someone or something worse.  That was the character known as “Tampa Bay Centerfielder”.  I mean, goodness.  You may be saying, I thought Rocko Baldelli was a decent fielder.  He is, but he didn’t play very much CF for the Rays in 2007.  BJ Upton, Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, three troubled Durham Bulls teammates combined for 1242 innings, and a remarkably poor –16 DRS.  This Rays three-headed monster was about as good as the other Bulls three-headed monster, Will Perdue, Luc Longley and Bill Wennington, would have been.  Upton/Dukes/Young can share the award.  Delmon can call Dmitri and they can congratulate each other.

The National League wasn’t as entertaining.  Willy Taveras roaming the Colorado outfield posted a poor –10 DRS, but was “beaten out” by an infielder moved to center field, the Brewers’ Bill Hall.  The Brewers might consider moving Hall back to the infield.  That whole team couldn’t catch this season.  These were the only two CFs that poked their head more than six runs below average.

Right Field

It was mentioned this week that the Twins were considering Michael Cuddyer as a center field candidate to replace Torii Hunter.  I’m certain Aaron Gleeman got a migraine over that one.  Cuddyer stunk up right field for the Twins in 2007, despite throwing the ball really well.  It could be that he plays so shallow to throw these runners out or hold them to singles, while sacrificing base hits over his head.  Maybe that works out for him.  Cuddyer posted a –13 DRS for the Twins.  The worst right fielder was Jose Guillen for the Mariners with a –20 DRS.  And he wasn’t throwing out runners like Cuddyer.

So looking at that, Ibanez, Suxuki and Guillen were all quite poor in LWZR rankings.  Whenever that happens I have to consider that there’s a possible issue with Safeco or the way these players were scored or some other factor.  It’s just hard to get that poor of a collection of outfielders at once.  It’s possible there’s something else at work here *coughagecough*, but it’s also possible they aren’t good outfielders.  Guillen was fine in 2006, so the roof or background may be an issue.  It warrants more research.

Ken Griffey had posted some of the worst seasons of defense in center the last couple of years, so moving him to right field may help.  It did.  Griffey was just a –3 DRS with six other right fielders - essentially average.  This season, though, nearly everyone was about average.  Right Field was played in Lake Wobegon.  The lowest RF was Xavier Nady of the Pirates at –4 DRS, albeit in just 750 IP.

Outfield Summary:
Calphalon Awards:

Pos   AL       NL
LF  Ibanez   Lee
CF  DRays   Hall
RF  Guillen  Nady