Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2017

Shortstops and Defense

It’s been a fun season watching a young star take his first swings in the majors.   Before injuring himself a few game-weeks ago, Leyson Molina was batting .285 with 16 home runs and 42 RBI in 78 games.   But, his bat was slow in arriving from AAA.   While I was waiting for him to go on the tear that brought his average up 80 points, I was really interested in his defense.   What’s he going to be like at the big league level?   Is he average?   Is his 90 range going to get him a Gold Glove some day when he’s done maturing?   For the first time in a long time, I found myself reading box scores and paying close attention to his defense particularly.   I've never been one to comb the box scores for fielding excellence, but Molina changed that.   When he wasn't hitting I started to notice his fielding too, and he started his career ignominiously with that rare .000 fielding game at short: no putouts, no assists, no errors on zero chances. He's since had several games

HBD Ballpark Factors

Ballpark effects are ranked on a scale from - 4 to + 4, based on their impact on hits (1B), doubles (2B), triples (3B), home runs to left field (HR LF) and home runs to right field (HR RF). The more negative or positive number, the more extreme the effect for that hit in that direction. These numbers are just indicators of the relative effect in the simulation engine. They are important for users and founded entirely on historical fact, but are meant for display purposes and not explicitly used in the simulation engine. City/State Ballpark Capacity 1B 2B 3B LF RF PF Division  Albuquerque (New Mexico) Isotopes Park 11,124 4 4 4 1 0 1.211 West  Anaheim (California) Angel Stadium 45,050 0 -2 -2 0 0 0.951 West  Atlanta (Georgia) Turner Field 50,062 -1 -1 0 1 1 0.950 South, East  Arizona (Arizo