Well … here you go.
With the caveats that this is still just three months of date, here’s a snapshot into the way the infields of the Pacific Division have been operating. To do this, I took the script data for each zone (and sub-zone of shallow, mid, and deep), and compiled a look-see. Which teams are strong and weak? And where? And if so, how strong or weak are they?
I split that last up into five bands.
If a team was more than two plays better than league average in any particular zone, they scored Dark Green (Very Good). Between 1 and 2 plays above average was Green, while anything else positive was a light green. Sub-zero performances were likewise graded, with anything sub -1 being a dark/burnt orange, anything between zero and -1 being light orange.
One final note here, a majority of ground balls fall in the Mid zones.
| BBA | 3L | 3 | 34 | 4 | 4M | 6M | 6 | 56 | 5 | 5L | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SHALLOW | 0 | 349 | 1451 | 631 | 276 | 317 | 739 | 1708 | 410 | 0 | 5881 |
| MID | 694 | 1170 | 2346 | 4348 | 945 | 1008 | 5257 | 3218 | 911 | 764 | 20661 |
| DEEP | 0 | 207 | 1824 | 529 | 1549 | 1610 | 306 | 617 | 154 | 0 | 6796 |
Another final note here is that defensive metrics are a field in which more sample size is really important. Three months is probably not particularly significant, but we’ve got what we’ve got, and the concepts herein are still easy to follow.
All said, here are the grades:
With this we can see, for example, that the right side of Hawaii’s defense, though a little rangy, has been pretty ugly. The left side has been much better, with shortstop essentially league average at the basic “6” hole (very gently below is easily within the error margin at this point, I would guess), but very strong relative to the league in all the gaps.
Similarly, San Fernando’s infield performance is quite intriguing. Second base has been a true force—and, this shows the impact of Custello and Corbet’s combined +11 ZR. The combined second base zones add up to something north of 20 plays above average at that position alone. The left side of the Bear’s infield is not quite as impressive.
Add it up and you get some 30 plays above average, which puts the San Fernando infield as about the third best in baseball.
Reminder here: sample size is very small relative to the decisions one might make.
So the certainty value associated with said statement like “third best” should be considered very low.
Regardless, you get the idea.
A quick glance here can say some things, though. Things like: Portland has seen some very good shortstopping, but holy mother of God, the rest has been porous. Long Beach is solid everywhere, and quite rangy on he left side. Seattle has been a classicly “good up the middle” team, not so much at the corner. Hawaii is solid enough on the left side, weak on the right. Sacramento has been respectable at 1B, but has a bit of a blocky right side because Dallas Dixon is sure-handed, but his “6” range at second leaves holes. Vancouver. Yikes. That combined -18 Plays above average is pretty much a team effort, I’d say—though third base has been at least workable.
So, anyway. There’s that.
It will be fun to see how things look next year when I can grab all the data.
