I think they’ve pretty much decided that Moody is a 2B, he’s just not athletic enough to play SS as a pro.

I’ve always thought Schafer’s defense is a few ticks better than Gorkys’, but you’re right, he’s looked very awkward at times in the majors. He been taking some funny routes, which he never did in the minors. Hopefully it’s just a nerves thing or something and he’ll get back on track.

While Heyward’s doesn’t?

Heyward was perfect, and had a 2B and a HR just like Canizares. While Canizares made a couple outs last night. Can’t really blame Heyward for not having the RBI, because it’s not like he left any RBI opportunities on the table. If anything it’s just an indication that Frederick’s pitchers weren’t giving away hits and walks in the same way that Buffalo’s were. Comparing the two lines, I’ll take Heyward’s every time.

in two games now he’s gone from a .240/.318/.432- .750 OPS line, to a .270/.362/.520- .882 line.

I’ve never trusted pretty much any defensive metric because none of them can measure enough information.

1) Range Factor simply counts the number of outs you participate in. This is basically the same as evaluating pitchers by IP-it might have uses, but as an encompassing tool, it basically sucks. It measures more where outs are made, not whether it’s done adeptly, and pitching has much to do with this as anything.

For example, if Derek Lowe, who is a groundball pitcher, throws a complete game, he might get 20 ground ball outs, 4 strike outs, and 3 fly outs, while allowing 5 hits on ground balls. Yunel Escobar might cleanly field 15 balls that are cleanly hit at him, so his RF for the game is 15, and Jordan Schafer could sprint into left field to get to a ball that GA lost in the lights, but his RF is only 1.

Extreme example: The opposing team hits 40 lazy fly balls to center and your CF, Mr. Needs-Glasses, only catches only 20 of them because he sucks. But his RF for the game is 20, which is damned ridiculous because he looks good. Additionally, those balls are counted usually as hits, which really discredits FP% as well.

2) Zone Rating-it’s better, and it also sucks.

This one makes sense at first-you look at the number of balls hit in a man’s zone, and see how many he got to. And it also includes balls hit out of zone, so guys with outstanding range get more credit. Well, that seems to make sense.

However, I have multiple huge issues. Zones are defined as the areas around the position where 50% of batted balls are outs. Zones are not defined based on where the fielder is actually positioned. If there’s a runner at third and the infield is in, a groundball up the middle normally handled by the shortstop becomes a near impossibility. If there’s a runner at first, the first baseman’s zone is not shifted forward to account for holding the runner.

To my knowledge, it hasn’t even yet been adjusted to account for the hitter. Ryan Howard, for example, makes the vast majority of his outs on the right side of the infield, and hence teams use the overshift when he bats. But with Zone rating, the third baseman’s zone is still over on the line, even if he’s playing right next to second base. A 12 hopper up the line counts as a ball the third baseman should have fielded, even though he was 80 feet from it.

Finally, and most importantly, there’s no account for ball trajectory and velocity. Catching a mile high pop-up in your zone counts exactly the same as diving forward to catch a low, screaming line drive. A softly hit groundball to short is a tough out when there’s a fast runner, while a hard hit ball up the middle can be easier with a catcher running.

The speed of the man running is an extremely important factor for the man fielding the ball, but is never accounted for in any metric.

I don’t know all the defensive metrics that being used, and some teams, like Tampa, have top-secret performance measurements for defense, but I doubt that all my issues are addressed because there’s no way to track all the trajectories for every batted ball. Perhaps some day, when technology becomes a bigger part of the game.