In 2007, Johnny Damon’s UZR
in left was 7.5. In 2008, his UZR was 6.7 and his range, which is one of three defensive components included in one’s UZR, was actually better than it was in 2007. However, this season the valuable defensive player that Damon was only a year ago has failed to materialize. Damon’s UZR is -9.4 and his range is non-existent. He has suddenly become a liability rather than an asset to the team. In fact, Damon’s UZR has him ranked as the worst defensive left fielder in all of baseball (with regular playing time).
This development is strange considering his strong play there in past seasons and I’m not sure why there has been such a dramatic shift in Damon’s rating. Could he simply be having a bad year or is he feeling the effects of age and injury, specifically leg problems, in 2009? Also, while I’m not sure as to how accurate the following thought may be since I’m not the biggest statistical guy, I wonder if this year’s UZR in LF is measured differently when compared to last year’s figures.
UZR is defined as the “number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs, outfield arm runs, double play runs and error runs combined.” This year, with defensive whiz kids like Nyjer Morgan, David DeJesus, Juan Rivera, and Juan Pierre playing LF—none of them were there much in 2008—the defense at that position has improved considerably (plus, guys like Dunn, Burrell and Manny haven’t played there much this season). Therefore, maybe what was once average in 2008 is no longer average in 2009 and Damon is being held to a higher standard. Of course, I don’t think this shift in “average-ness” would entirely account for his poor 2009 as he probably has regressed a good amount out in LF, but I do think it helps to understand the dramatic drop-off that has been captured in his UZR.
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What do you think? And for the stat-heads, does that UZR theory make any sense or am I way off base (I apologize if that’s the case)?
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15 Responses to What happened to Damon's defense?
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That rating matches up with my eyes this year. He looks like he’s fighting every ball that comes his way. Sometimes you just get old real fast.
Yea, he has looked pretty terrible out there. To be honest, I’ve always thought Damon has looked poor in LF, but the UZR numbers have said otherwise for the past two season.
I thought he used to get to a lot of balls in the gap. You don’t see that this year. Its the end of for him.
The UZR calculation is no different this year from last, but it is a relative statistic, meaning if the other players at the position all improved, the “bar” would rise.
That said, my eyes (us statheads use them sometimes too) suggest that Damon’s jumps on the ball have gotten screwed up. He’s no longer getting good breaks, often going the exact wrong direction off the bat, before correcting. That has a large affect on range.
Oh, definitely, I never meant that the actual UZR calculation was different from year to year, I just meant what you said, that it’s a relative measurement and that it could vary if defensive improvements are made across the board. In terms of Damon’s jumps, it could definitely be that. I’ve always thought that Damon has bad jumps, though, even when his UZR was good, so I’m not sure if there has been a notable change from last year to this year. Have any other readers noticed this problem?
First off, Damon was never a good fielder (at least when the Yankees have had him).
And second, I’m sick of this UZR talk. On July 10th I read a post about how Tex’s defense isn’t that good according to UZR, but if you watch the games you can see his defense has been nothing short of amazing. He has made numerous scoops and diving plays that any “average” first baseman would not have made. Plus, he only has one error on the year, which was a throwing error if I remember correctly. He might not be the best, but is definitely better than Ryan Howard, Carlos Delgado, and many others despite what the UZR states.
Teixeira’s defense isn’t as good as many Yankee fans think simply because many Yankee fans have an unrealistic expectation regarding his defense. He’s definitely not a poor fielder and is a tick below average, however, he’s not the amazing glove everyone thinks he is at first. Sure, you can watch the games and think he’s amazing the same way people can watch Derek Jeter at SS and think he’s amazing yet that doesn’t necessarily mean what you’re seeing is the whole story. What about plays that aren’t made—not necessarily errors, but plays that should have been made but weren’t because of poor range? These aren’t explicit demonstrations of poor defense that you notice while watching a game, rather they are subtle instances. Also, defensive measurements are effective when they are being compared to what others in the league are doing at a particular position and UZR does that (as Will noted, it’s relative).
I understand the dislike expressed regarding UZR, but it still stands as one of the better defensive rating systems available (plus it’s based on a lot of data).
I do agree that Jeter is below average, but I still think Tex is above the average first baseman
I’m also quite impressed you keep up with the blog this late.
Ha, I’m a night owl. I don’t know how I do it.
UZR is a crock of shit….tex is an awesome defender
HA… UZR gets people riled up, which I like.
Yeah, I do not like it either. At the heart of it is subjective judgements by human beings, whose qualifications to judge a player’s defense in no way exceed my own. Being that it is not the same person judging each play, you are bound to have plenty of noise from different stringers judging similar plays differently. Hopefully, with this new tracker technology that the NY Times wrote about this weekend, we can graph every play and come closer to a standardized statistic that can judge similar play equally, based on objective measures of ball trajectory, distance covered, etc.
I don’t need UZR to tell me that Damon is terrible in the field. Seems like he hardly gets a good jump on the ball and when he does get balls he is always making a late adjustment twisting himself around to find the ball at the last moment. I think the best linup is when Damon is dh and Matsui is on the bench. By the way, is anyone else sick of seeing Swish in the 2 hole when Damon is out of the lineup? To me, a 240 hitter shouldn’t be batting highter than 5th on a routine basis. I know he sees a lot of pitches and gets a lot of walks but so did Giambi and I never had to look at him batting 2nd.
How often a guy gets on base is much more important that his batting average. Swisher is a very good number 2 hitter.
Very good number 2 hitter? Have to totally disagree. Swish strikes out way too much and his RISP is terrible. He is a very good 4th outfielder getting exposed by being played too much.