EDIT: blah. stupid post.

I saw a stat that purported to be park adjusted defensive efficiency, and it lowered the Red Sox from 2nd to around mid pack in the league, which made absolutely zero sense to me. Playing half of your games in Fenway should inflate BABIP (and lower DefEff), not the other way around, right? All the balls that hit the monster are "in play", and the other 2 fields are pretty big, leaving plenty of room for balls to drop in for hits. Plus there's next to no foul territory, so it's hard to put a ball in play for a foul out.

What am I missing, or was this stat as full of #### as it seemed to me?

After a brutal start, Salty has really come around to being a passable defensive catcher. He's looked a lot better behind the plate blocking pitches and throwing runners out.

Reddick's been a pleasure to watch, too. His UZR/150 is crazy right now, but he looks pretty good out there, and aside from the occasional lapse in judgment or overthrown cutoff man which I'll chalk up to being young, he's been a plus fielder. Youkilis and Scutaro are really the only below average fielders on the team, and neither of them are terrible. Makes you wonder how they'd be doing with a healthy Buchholz and a non-awful Lackey.

Has Crawford been better than average? I'm not seeing it. I'd say Youk is a tad above average, Scoots and Lowrie are below but not horribly. As for Ellsbury, while he hasn't made lots of blunders or taken bad routes...I also haven't seen any game-winning catchs, ala' Coco circa 2007. Of course those are a matter of opportunity.

As someone else said, Crawford continues to act like the walls are electrified.

I get the Fenway BABIP park factor over the last five years at about 1.08. It's always been one of the best batting average parks in the game.

Dan, this is the most updated description of PADE (park adjusted defensive efficiency) that BPro seems to have.

I'm out of my depth trying to parse how good or bad it is.

After a brutal start, Salty has really come around to being a passable defensive catcher. He's looked a lot better behind the plate blocking pitches and throwing runners out.

He's looked a lot better as a hitter, too. I wonder how much of all this was just re-developing self-confidence as a major leaguer. Nice move getting him for three minor leaguers and cash, when the best of those three minor leaguers is a 20-year old A-ball pitcher who might eventually make it to the majors.

The 2004 article that BGG cites gives Fenway a typically poor park factor - that is, it finds that Fenway is one of the tougher places to prevent hits on balls in play.

The current "Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency" stats at BPro adjust the Red Sox well above average raw DefEff to a below average park-adjusted DefEff. Based on Click's article, the cause of this must be that they have an very different park factor for Fenway now, one which considers Fenway an easy park in which to prevent hits on balls in play. Whatever that park factor is, it doesn't mesh well with the actually observed splits in BABIP for games in and outside of Fenway.

I was really really really wrong about Jarrod Saltalamacchia. I am hoping to be proven similarly incorrect about Jed Lowrie.

Ellsbury is a different defensive player this year. He is getting a MUCH better read on the ball off the bat. Dale's right, there haven't been a lot of spectacular catches but I think some of that is a function of Crawford alongside him and some of it is a function of him being in better position to get to the ball without any histrionics by virtue of better jumps.

I like Ellsbury a lot, and he is a fine defensive CF. However, the best center fielder on the team is in RF - Reddick. Gets a great jump on the ball, has the best arm on the team...at Fenway, it's OK if your best OF is in RF, because of the unique size of the ground they have to cover out there. Reddick's bat has been very good...but his glove has truly been outstanding.

It seems to me that Ellsbury is playing a little deeper this year. Since his problem was always going back on balls more than anything else there's reason to believe the improvement is sustainable.

Reddick already has 5 assists, an 18 assist pace for a full season (with most of them coming in the last few weeks)-runners are challenging him and paying the price (well, except when his catcher drops his throws that is).

I'm glad the PADE thing came up. I have been totally confused by it. Everything about this team suggests that it's great defensively, and PADE just doesn't jibe.

In re Crawford's D: He hasn't looked good, it's just that he's an elite defender not looking good, making him merely above average so far this year, rather than one of the best in the league. At least, that's how it squares to me.