May 27, 200521 yr We have a groundball staff! ........... '05 - '04 Beckett 1.57 1.24 Burnett 2.05 1.51 Leiter .. 0.98 1.00 Moehler 1.26 ...... Willis ... 1.98 1.25 Team .. 1.57 1.18 NL Avg. 1.26 1.25 (these are based on balls in play as found at ESPN and B.I.S., not the outs recorded you see in the box scores) Is high heat, strikeouts and deep flies out? This comes at a very fortunate time, because our outfield defense is very poor. Cabrera ranks near the bottom among leftfielders (duh) in zone rating. Perhaps surprising to most who are ignoring this thread, would be that so does Juan Pierre. 3rd worst among major league CFers and not much better in fielding percentage. The lone bright spot is Encarnacion who ranks above average among RFers in zone rating and fielding percentage, but plays a position where very few balls are hit to. As for the other fielders, Delgado is the 4th worst 1B in the MLB in Stats' zone rating and lower in fielding percentage. Castillo the 2nd best 2B among those who have played as many innings (213) as he has. Easley the worst 2B using the same standard. Lowell, the 5th best 3B and among the best in fielding percentage. Gonzalez the 3rd best SS, but not the most steady.
May 27, 200521 yr Can't Pierre's low rating be caused by tons of line drives up the middle the no one can catch anyways?
May 27, 200521 yr That would be true for all centerfielders (and rightfielders) though. 785091[/snapback] Maybe our staff gives them up up-the-middle more often then other teams.
May 27, 200521 yr Author Maybe, but I'm willing to bet that's not by design and due to balance out. Do you have any reason to believe that's true? FWIW, the Marlins pitchers are giving up fewer line drives (to all fields, mind you) than league average. And that Pierre has ranked below-average in STATS' Zone Rating in every year of his career.
May 27, 200521 yr There has got to be a reason why he ranks so low. I just don't see how a CFer with so much speed can rank so low. Can the ballpark be a factor? JP has played in two huge ballparks.
May 27, 200521 yr Author Lonnie Smith had great speed and was among the worst leftfielders ever. Jeff Conine isn't the fastest Marlin, but he gets great reads on balls and covers a lot of ground. The ballparks shouldn't matter. The way Zone rating is calculated, a fielder is not expected to reach every ball in the zones assigned to him, such as hard hit balls into the gap. IIRC, there are many dead zones and he ones that they do, they are given extra credit for. Don't quote me on that though. I guess a player who plays his position oddly, shifted to one side or another or in or deep might be put at disadvantage, but that's also the player's fault for placing themselves in a position to get to fewer balls.
May 27, 200521 yr We have a great catcher behind the plate in Lo Duca, the best DP combo with Gonzo and Castillo, a great sure handed 3b in Lowell, and a great RFer in Encarnacion. Everyone else isn't so good on defense. But we still have a great defense. Our starting rotation has been so successful because they've been going deep into games by not throwing so many pitches and getting our defense involved. If not for our great defense, our starting rotation wouldn't be so successful like its been thus far this season.
May 27, 200521 yr JP has good speed but at times doesn't take great routes or get good jumps. He usually does, but not always... and I think that accounts for some of his shortcoming as a center fielder. And then there's the arm problem, but that's for another thread. But shhhh, don't let the rest of the site hear that JP's not a gold glove CF.
May 27, 200521 yr JP has good speed but at times doesn't take great routes or get good jumps. He usually does, but not always... and I think that accounts for some of his shortcoming as a center fielder. And then there's the arm problem, but that's for another thread. But shhhh, don't let the rest of the site hear that JP's not a gold glove CF. 785443[/snapback] I never thought he was a GG CFer. I just didn't think he would be ranked so low.
May 27, 200521 yr Anybody see how stupid our "better" OFer defensive man called Enc looked tonight in the field? He got embarrased to say the least, and almost caused yet another inside the parker. It was near hiliarious watching him chase balls all around the RF corner and then around the wall.
May 27, 200521 yr Anybody see how stupid our "better" OFer defensive man called Enc looked tonight in the field? He got embarrased to say the least, and almost caused yet another inside the parker. It was near hiliarious watching him chase balls all around the RF corner and then around the wall. 785716[/snapback] Water + artificial warning track= Dangerous situation.
May 27, 200521 yr I've always thought he was below average defensively. Especially when you factor in his noodle arm.
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