Tell me about Sabermetrics?

[Boucher]

I wanna know what this WAR and UZR shit means

[FirstTimer]

FED!!!!

[EmpireWF]

"UZR (ultimate zone rating): The number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs, outfield arm runs, double play runs and error runs combined."

BBTF's Primate Studies Discussion :: Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), Part 1

BBTF's Primate Studies Discussion :: Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), Part 2


From Yahoo:

"Wins Above Replacement is a statistic that attempts to measure the "total value" of a player over a given season.

WAR calculates the total number of wins that any player adds to his team over the course of a season by comparing the player's performance with that of a fictitious replacement. A "replacement player" is assumed to be an average Triple-A callup who might appear in the majors only as replacement for an injured player, and whose hitting/fielding or pitching skills are far below league average. According to Baseball Prospectus, a team consisting entirely of replacement-level players would likely be historically bad, winning only 20-25 games over a full 162-game season.

Most regular position players will accumulate 3-5 WAR over a season. A legitimate All-Star-caliber player may have over 7 WAR. Over 10 WAR is a strong MVP candidate, while over 15 WAR is a "one-for-the-ages" season. On the flip side, a player with -1 WARP or less is probably in danger of disappearing from baseball."

[Warner2BruceTD]

Take all fielding metrics with a grain of salt. Most do not take into account the type of pitchers the fielder plays behind, and since most range based stats are based on chances and chances compared to the rest of the league, so for example an OF that plays on a team full of groundball pitchers has a disadvantage.

Fielding stats, even advanced ones that sabermetric guys swear are useful, should really just be looked at as a guide. They won't tell you a really bad fielder is good, or a really good fielder is bad, but be careful comparing similar players using these.

[Mogriffjr]

For example, I'm pretty sure one of these fielding sabr pretty much said Ruben Tejada was fielding WORSE than Luis Castillo...Castillo is probably the worst fielding 2B in the game right now, meanwhile Tejada showed a good understanding and nice range for someone that was learning 2B on the fly pretty much.

[EmpireWF]

For example, I'm pretty sure one of these fielding sabr pretty much said Ruben Tejada was fielding WORSE than Luis Castillo...Castillo is probably the worst fielding 2B in the game right now..

Perhaps, but Dan Uggla gives him a run for his money.

[FedEx227]

Take all fielding metrics with a grain of salt. Most do not take into account the type of pitchers the fielder plays behind, and since most range based stats are based on chances and chances compared to the rest of the league, so for example an OF that plays on a team full of groundball pitchers has a disadvantage.

Fielding stats, even advanced ones that sabermetric guys swear are useful, should really just be looked at as a guide. They won't tell you a really bad fielder is good, or a really good fielder is bad, but be careful comparing similar players using these.

Right now, yeah they aren't great... they are very subjective still and guys tend to flucuate year to year, which isn't always the most reasonable.

Coming soon though you'll start seeing them get significantly better. They've installed cameras at every park to track speed to balls, type of ball, how fast the ball is going, etc. it'll really blow the lid off fielding metrics. The problem though it's funded almost entirely by MLB and sold to MLB teams. The chances of us really getting our hands on it or being able to look at the data is most likely not going to happen for a number of years.

UZR and UZR/150 are the best we have now and while they aren't perfect, they are okay. More times than not people that you'd think are good fielders are proven to be good fielders.

Basically go here: Baseball Statistics and Analysis | FanGraphs Baseball
read their shit, read their glossary, read their blogs and start thumbing around on different player profiles.

[NAHSTE]

Perhaps, but Dan Uggla gives him a run for his money.

While nobody would say Uggla is a "good" defensive 2B, I think you're being hard on him. He is not that bad.

[Warner2BruceTD]

The Marlins had the worst fielding IF I've ever seen last year. Uggla, Hanley, and either Cantu or Helms at 3B. It was just atrocious.

[NAHSTE]

The Marlins had the worst fielding IF I've ever seen last year. Uggla, Hanley, and either Cantu or Helms at 3B. It was just atrocious.

That's pretty brutal, I agree. I was reading something though that said the infield surface at their ballpark is the worst in the league, and that players typically improve their defense upon leaving.

Probably just false optimism regarding Uggla but I still don't think he's the worst fielder in the world. He's below average, sure, but 30 HR makes up for that.

[FedEx227]

Uggla is pretty awful actually.

I know we mentioned defensive metrics aren't great, but he grades out pretty bad.

Last year in UZR he was 3rd worse only behind Skip Schumaker, Chone Figgins. Again though, he probably makes up for it via his power because he was top 5 in WAR among 2B (5.1).