The offense, powered by the One Man Gang, is the only aspect of the team that rates evenly slightly above average. The pitching is middle of the road (with the bullpen ahead of the starters) and the defense is merely adequate.
Merely adequate isn't all bad, when the litany of injuries and Encarnacioning is considered. The Jays manage to put out a league-average defensive club at worst for most nights. Comically early as it is, I thought I'd take a look at how the advanced metrics view the Jays so far in 2011 with some commentary of my own to follow.

I cut off the innings played limit at 45 to, um, ensure John McDonald was included. Science!
Safe to say EE isn't a very good defender at third base. SHOCKING, I KNOW. Whoever could see that coming when the team shoehorned him in there with a week remaining in spring training? WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE?!?
Okay, with that out of our systems, we can move on. John McDonald, good at things! There is some slight disagreement regarding his play at third base but the sample is so tiny as if to render it useless. Short and second show his skills once again. Does that mesh with our collective view of John McDonald? I'd say so.
So Jose Bautista is good at baseball. Even baserunning! His legendary throwing arm is stuff of, err, legends. It also rates slightly behind Eeyore Rivera according to both Dewan and UZR. That is...less believable.
Both systems value Rivera's defense highly, mostly on the strength of his arm. His range might be negligible but his arm seems accurate and his release quick. Hard to ask more of a guy brought in to be Not Vernon Wells.
Both systems cast Yunel Escobar in a negative light with UZR fingering his lackluster range as the culprit. I can't say I disagree with this too strongly. He's fun to watch but I think we might see him at third base before all is said and done.
The Travis Snider number really distresses me. He looked so good out there this year, limiting extra bases and showing off the great work he put in during the offseason. Luckily, this is a tiny enough sample size from which I can cherry pick the numbers that suit my agenda.
On an unrelated note: Rajai Davis just isn't that good.
Any other thoughts on what you see here or the Jays defense in general? The Gordie Dougie crowd can rest easy in knowing that even if the Jays bring up Lawrie and he's terrible, he won't be worse than the alternative!
I'd like ot know your best (yet most realistic) defensive lineup if the Jays had a one-run lead to protect in the 9th. Do your worst.
C Molina (arm)
ReplyDelete1B Lind
2B Mac
SS Escobar
3B Nix
LF Thames/McCoy/Snider
RF Bautista
CF Davis
That was harder than I thought...pretty tough to fill out a Corey-less, Eddy-less lineup. I still like Escy more than Hill, and keeping him at his natural position shifts JMac over to 2nd. I can't find anyone on the active roster I want to see at 1st or LF...Rivera's beer league routes don't inspire confidence in the OF, even if some systems like his arm, and from what I've seen of him at 1B he's your typical outfielder.
According to your chart, a late game defensive lineup would have to be:
ReplyDeleteLF: Rivera
CF: Patterson
RF: Bautista
3B: Nix
SS: McDonald
2B: Hill
1B: Lind
and the catcher should always be Arencibia, although I have no idea what defensive metrics say about him and Molina. Ugh, with the exception of Escobar at SS, that should also be the starting lineup.
According to Matt Klaassen's quick and dirty numbers, JPA is among the worst defensively. It is still early, however.
ReplyDeleteI think I saw that as well on Arencibia. I still don't like Molina's defence, his tendency to backhand balls drives me crazy. Arencibia is young and working constantly with Wakamatsu, hopefully his numbers are better by the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteGold glove at first for Juan Rivera!
ReplyDelete1B: Lind
2B: Hill
3B: McDonald
C: Arencibia
LF: Rivera
CF: Patterson
RF: Bautista
Considering defensive metrics based on this sample are entirely without value, I don't feel too bad about ignoring them for this:
ReplyDeleteC: Molina (totally pulling a Cito and going for the veteran... and his arm)
1B: Lind (though I'm not sure how much better than Edwin he is there, when Edwin's actually playing to his ability)
2B: Hill
SS: McDonald
3B: Escobar (I mean, this is when we really, really need to win, right?)
LF: Patterson (loopy routes, but, well, he's fast-ish)
RF: Bautista
CF: Davis (perhaps the player on whom my opinion differs the most from the numbers)
Kinda weird, especially with Escobar at third, but with McDonald at short, I like keeping Escobar on the left side of the infield. Probably a good thing I don't fill out the line-up cards, though.