Mariners Sign Mat Olkin

[Gatts]

FP and RF are pretty usless stats.

Sexson is not worth his contract. He is a slightly above average 1B, and an aging one at that. Average 1Bs are cheap and readily available for a lot less than what he was paid. That money could be paid toward positions like CF, MIF, and 3B.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
FP and RF are pretty usless stats.


[/ QUOTE ]no there not, errors are uselss stats.

[Gatts]

and FP is simply the rate stat of errors, while RF is too heavily influenced by outside factors: pitcher tendencies, parks, etc.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
and FP is simply the rate stat of errors, while RF is too heavily influenced by outside factors: pitcher tendencies, parks, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]so is every stat, whats your point?

[Gatts]

It matters so much more for RF than for any other stat, though.

When it comes to offensive statistics, we can adjust for the quality of pitching faced, we can adjust for ballpark, we can adjust for league. These things are relatively simple to do.

When it comes to defense, we can't adjust very well for the pitcher's handedness, stadium, positioning of the players, etc. There's some usefull stuff hidden behind all the chaff, probably, but not much at all.

There are some useful defensive metrics. Oakland, LA, and St. Louis all have propietary defensive metrics that use Play by Play data to analyze defense, the most famous being Mitch Lichtman's Ultimate Zone Rating (the Cards have it locked up). Baseball Prospectus has a defensive metric, but I haven't looked at it closely because UZR is so good.

[ThaSaltCracka]

can I please have a link for UZR, I would like to look at it.

[Gatts]

[ QUOTE ]
can I please have a link for UZR, I would like to look at it.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's propietary, so no new figures leaguewide have been released since 2003 but you can see the 2000-2003 numbers here . This page shows 1999-2003 numbers that are adjust for position.

[DesertCat]

Richie's a minus three, but that's still much better than Thome and Konerko.

These USR numbers also explain why the Dodgers think their infield defense will be as good as ever with Jeff Kent and Jose Valentin.

[Gatts]

Yeah, Dodgers have a system that seems awfully similar to UZR