NewsIn defense, Giants rate in the Zone
New statistical metrics give fielders high marks
By Andrew Pentis / MLB.com
05/28/09 7:29 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO -- When a 14-year-old Travis Ishikawa was learning to scoop balls in the dirt and a Minor Leaguer named Aaron Rowand was taking heat from Chicago White Sox outfield coach Gary Pettis, most baseball observers measured defensive ability simply with a fielder's percentage and a scout's word. When Ishikawa's dad was telling his son not to rely on his bat, and Pettis was chiding Rowand for every poor throw, bad read and slow jump, there wasn't much discussion about Zone Rating. That's why the Giants players aren't so sure about the metrics everyone seems to be getting more comfortable using. "I've heard that one time," Ishikawa said of ZR, the percentage of balls fielded in typical defensive zone. "I had no idea what it meant." "I've never looked at that stuff," said Rowand, a Gold Glove Award winner in 2007. The guys in suits are, including Bobby Evans, the Giants' vice president of baseball operations. In his 16 years working in the organization, Evans said he has noticed a gradual shift in the use of more sophisticated tools, which make players comparable to Detroit Tigers infielder Adam Everett of legend. Fielding attributes like range and positioning have been in scouting reports for decades. Numbers nowadays offer a quantitative supplement. "We've always been a mix of stats and scouting," Evans said of the Giants' philosophy. "[Newer tools] give you another language to communicate [about] it." "We try to use a balance of all the information out there." Evans' counterparts throughout the league are doing the same. The Seattle Mariners' re-signing of Ken Griffey Jr. overshadowed the acquisitions of Endy Chavez and Franklin Gutierrez, who pair with Ichiro Suzuki to patrol the spacious confines at Safeco Field. Another American League West team, the Texas Rangers, moved Michael Young and his 2008 Gold Glove Award off shortstop in favor of a 20-year-old farmhand named Elvis Andrus who, like the original Elvis, can flat out pick it. Andrus is second best among AL shortstops in the Ultimate Zone Rating category, which estimates how many runs a player saves for his team by fielding his position. Whether they're aware of it or not, some Giants players grade out quite well on these new scales. Second baseman Emmanuel Burriss, shortstop Edgar Renteria and left fielder Fred Lewis are all among the top four at their positions in National League ZR, while Ishikawa is best among first basemen. Catcher Bengie Molina, who like Renteria won two Gold Glove Awards from 2002-03, is eighth among backstops. Randy Winn is 10th in ZR, but moves up to first among NL right fielders in Revised Zone Rating, which calculates differently balls fielded outside of a player's zone. Neither Evans nor Giants bench coach Ron Wotus believes these measurements are an end-all. Wotus works with the team's infielders on reading a swing, a ball off of the bat and a situation and learning a hitter's tendencies. He can see how the metrics would aid the evaluation of players. "What enters into that is your range and your positioning, and those are two things you're looking for in a player," Wotus said. "I know those two things are important to me as a coach on the field." Wotus added that the "little things" in baseball are regaining their significance. "I think the value [of fielding your position] is coming back [to] the way it was when I grew up playing the game," said Wotus, who played professionally for 11 seasons, starting in 1979. "If you were a middle infielder and you could catch the ball, you had value. You still have to hit playing this game, but I think it's coming back a little bit more than it certainly has in this [recent] home run era." It took Ishikawa 34 games before he hit his first home run in 2009, a drought magnified because he plays a corner infield position, one often linked with power production. He has depended a lot on his defense, and his fielding percentage (.993) agrees with his place in ZR. (He calls one of his two errors this season a "kind of cheap" official scorer's ruling.) "To be able to make the play on defense that might prevent a run or two from scoring ... at least, from my standpoint, that's how I contribute to the team winning," said Ishikawa, who takes 25 to 30 ground balls each day. While he need not take a gander at the numbers, Rowand entered the 2009 season with the highest career ZR (.897) among active center fielders. He's third best this season, trailing younger NL center fielders Shane Victorino of the Phillies and Chris Young of the Diamondbacks. "I'm not trying to be a one-dimensional player," Rowand said. "Making a great play in the outfield is probably more exciting than hitting a home run." Like Ishikawa, Rowand began his 2009 season in a rut offensively. Before a move to the leadoff spot coincided with a hot streak -- he has raised his batting average from .227 to .279 in his past 11 games -- Rowand was the overpaid player fans loved to call radio shows to berate. "When things aren't going good at the plate, you got to bring something to the table to try and help your team," he said. "I've always felt like if I'm not getting hits at the plate, I sure don't want anybody else getting hits at the plate, either."Andrew Pentis is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
