Zuckerman on Nats fielding

[welch]

Zuckerman notes that some of the pitching problems came from bad fielding, especially after the deadline selloff.

(He leans on "Defensive Runs Saved". How is that made up, and how trustworthy is it?)

Quick summary: Kieboom was far worse than Castro. Alcidea was not as good as Trea. Schwarber was better than Yadiel. Bell was steady, and he improved over his play at Pittsburgh. The young catchers were much below Gomes and Avila. Soto improved on 2020. Neither Robles (-1 DRS) nor Thomas (-3 DRS) were gold glovers, but they were not terrible. Garcia might have been erratic, but he was OK.

https://www.masnsports.com/nationals-pastime/2021/10/defensive-drop-off-after-trade-deadline-hurt-nationals.html

The drop-off at third base was really evident. Starlin Castro rated 19th out of 41 major league players at the position with 2 Defensive Runs Saved before his season came to a screeching halt in July after an accusation of (and eventually suspension for) domestic violence. Carter Kieboom took over and finished with minus-8 DRS, ranking 37th out of 41 big league third basemen.

“Kieboom, adjusting to a new position, he’s got to get better,” general manager Mike Rizzo said Sunday. “I’ve seen improvement in his footwork and his throwing motion, so we’ll see if he takes the next step going forward.”

[Elvir Ovcina]

The Wikipedia explanation of DRS is actually pretty good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_Runs_Saved

Basically, zero is average, and it's a counting stat - meaning the more you play, the higher a number you'll have if you're good and the lower (more negative) if you're bad.  It's based around the concept of assigning point values for the probability of making a play: an error on an easy play is very bad for your rating; an error on a very difficult play matters a lot less, for example.

But for part-time players, you need to scale it up.  For example, -9 DRS (Yadiel) is bad for a full season but not murderously bad.  But for 48 games, it's horrendous.  Similarly, Zimmerman's 5 DRS at 1B is pretty impressive considering he didn't play that much out there.  (That's what the related "DRS/yr" stat does - scales it to a full season's worth of games to make comparisons easier.)

As for this team, the results seem to mostly match the eye test: Soto was about average, Thomas is a bad but not unplayably bad CF, and Kieboom is an absolute butcher, for example.

[welch]

The Wikipedia explanation of DRS is actually pretty good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_Runs_Saved

Basically, zero is average, and it's a counting stat - meaning the more you play, the higher a number you'll have if you're good and the lower (more negative) if you're bad.  It's based around the concept of assigning point values for the probability of making a play: an error on an easy play is very bad for your rating; an error on a very difficult play matters a lot less, for example.

But for part-time players, you need to scale it up.  For example, -9 DRS (Yadiel) is bad for a full season but not murderously bad.  But for 48 games, it's horrendous.  Similarly, Zimmerman's 5 DRS at 1B is pretty impressive considering he didn't play that much out there.  (That's what the related "DRS/yr" stat does - scales it to a full season's worth of games to make comparisons easier.)

As for this team, the results seem to mostly match the eye test: Soto was about average, Thomas is a bad but not unplayably bad CF, and Kieboom is an absolute butcher, for example.

Thanks, Elvir.