SFR in the Infield - AL Central

Today we'll stroll through the AL Centeral and look at their infielders in terms of Simple Fielding Runs (SFR). Keep in mind that this list only includes players who were assigned 15 or more balls in their virtual area of responsibility.

                                                    Ex
Name                   Team      POS      Balls Runners Runners     SFR
Jon Garland            CHA        1          37       4       2     1.3
Javier Vazquez         CHA        1          30       3       2     0.7
John Danks             CHA        1          16       2       1     0.6
Mark Buehrle           CHA        1          37       4       4    -0.2
Jose Contreras         CHA        1          30       3       8    -3.5
A.J. Pierzynski        CHA        2          38       2       1     0.4
Paul Konerko           CHA        3         295      42      40     1.6
Darin Erstad           CHA        3          55       7       6     1.2
Pablo Ozuna            CHA        4          17       4       5    -0.8
Alex Cintron           CHA        4          41      10      14    -2.9
Tadahito Iguchi        CHA        4         369      89      97    -5.9
Danny Richar           CHA        4         218      57      66    -6.9
Joe Crede              CHA        5         149      31      24     5.1
Pablo Ozuna            CHA        5          21       4       7    -2.1
Angel Gonzalez         CHA        5          74      16      20    -3.0
Alex Cintron           CHA        5          48      11      15    -3.3
Josh Fields            CHA        5         266      58      66    -5.8
Alex Cintron           CHA        6          68      17      18    -0.9
Juan Uribe             CHA        6         703     186     187    -4.3
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Fausto Carmona         CLE        1          38       3       1     1.5
Jake Westbrook         CLE        1          28       3       1     1.5
C.C. Sabathia          CLE        1          27       2       3    -0.6
Paul Byrd              CLE        1          25       3       4    -1.0
Victor Martinez        CLE        2          25       1       3    -1.3
Travis Hafner          CLE        3          22       4       2     1.3
Victor Martinez        CLE        3          58       9       8     0.5
Ryan Garko             CLE        3         253      38      44    -4.8
Asdrubal Cabrera       CLE        4         160      41      38     2.1
Mike Rouse             CLE        4          37       9       7     1.4
Josh Barfield          CLE        4         533     135     137    -1.2
Chris Gomez            CLE        5          24       5       4     0.8
Casey Blake            CLE        5         417      90      89     0.7
Andy Marte             CLE        5          51      10      12    -2.0
Mike Rouse             CLE        5          23       5       8    -2.0
Mike Rouse             CLE        6          40      11       8     1.7
Asdrubal Cabrera       CLE        6          31       9       8     1.5
Jhonny Peralta         CLE        6         725     197     212   -10.7
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Nate Robertson         DET        1          27       3       0     2.1
Justin Verlander       DET        1          17       2       0     1.1
Chad Durbin            DET        1          17       2       2    -0.2
Jeremy Bonderman       DET        1          19       2       4    -1.7
Fernando Rodney        DET        1          16       2       4    -1.8
Ivan Rodriguez         DET        2          43       2       0     1.2
Carlos Guillen         DET        3          52       8       4     2.4
Marcus Thames          DET        3          45       7       6     0.6
Sean Casey             DET        3         232      34      34     0.0
Omar Infante           DET        4          57      14      13     0.4
Neifi Perez            DET        4          21       5       5     0.4
Placido Polanco        DET        4         564     140     142    -1.9
Ryan Raburn            DET        4          42      11      17    -4.2
Brandon Inge           DET        5         496     107      95     9.3
Omar Infante           DET        5          33       7       6     0.6
Ramon Santiago         DET        6          94      25      22     2.5
Omar Infante           DET        6          34       8      10    -1.4
Neifi Perez            DET        6          52      15      20    -4.3
Carlos Guillen         DET        6         565     157     176   -16.9
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Brian Bannister        KCA        1          20       2       0     1.3
Odalis Perez           KCA        1          19       2       1     0.6
Gil Meche              KCA        1          24       2       4    -1.1
Jason LaRue            KCA        2          16       0       0     0.3
John Buck              KCA        2          34       2       4    -1.3
Ross Gload             KCA        3         174      26      21     3.5
Ryan Shealy            KCA        3          99      15      11     2.8
Alex Gordon            KCA        3          39       6       3     2.2
Billy Butler           KCA        3          24       4       4     0.3
Mark Grudzielanek      KCA        4         410     103      97     4.9
Esteban German         KCA        4         154      37      37    -0.1
Fernando Cortez        KCA        4          16       4       5    -0.6
Alex Gordon            KCA        5         403      84      85    -0.9
Esteban German         KCA        5          79      18      22    -2.8
Tony Pena              KCA        6         658     178     175    15.0
Jason Smith            KCA        6          66      17      16    -0.1
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Johan Santana          MIN        1          27       3       1     1.4
Carlos Silva           MIN        1          29       3       2     0.7
Scott Baker            MIN        1          16       2       3    -0.7
Boof Bonser            MIN        1          18       2       3    -0.9
Joe Mauer              MIN        2          16       0       0     0.1
Justin Morneau         MIN        3         325      46      43     2.3
Luis Castillo          MIN        4         338      82      82     0.1
Luis Rodriguez         MIN        4          47      11      12    -0.4
Nick Punto             MIN        4         101      25      27    -1.0
Alexi Casilla          MIN        4         208      55      62    -5.4
Nick Punto             MIN        5         282      53      43     7.9
Jeff Cirillo           MIN        5          37       8       3     3.7
Luis Rodriguez         MIN        5          72      14      10     3.0
Tommy Watkins          MIN        5          21       4       3     1.1
Brian Buscher          MIN        5          60      13      19    -4.5
Jason Bartlett         MIN        6         634     174     166     4.0
Nick Punto             MIN        6         118      32      38    -5.4

Five Games Per Pitcher?

I just had to pass this on after listening to the MLB.com Daily podcast earlier today. In an interview with Twins broadcaster Dan Gladden the topic turned to what the Twins might do regarding locking up some of their players like Johann Santana and Justin Morneau with long term contracts. When the discussion turned to Torii Hunter Gladden had this to say.

"If you don't replace your gold glover in centerfield what you're going to have is Johann Santana, now that twenty-game winner he's gonna be a 15-16 game winner. All your other guys that are going to win 12, 13 ballgames now are going to win 9 and maybe 10 games because you're losing something in your centerfield. Torii Hunter wins at least wins five games a year per pitcher - three to five games per pitcher just with his defense in centerfield."

Five games a year with his defense per pitcher? So Hunter's defense is worth 25 wins? I'm sorry but even a non-stathead who has no understanding of sabermetric defensive metrics must realize how absurd this statement, when taken literally, is from a simple common sense persepctive. If he is worth 25 wins on defense then he's saving something like 250 runs all by himself.

But most likely what Gladden was thinking was not that Hunter "wins" 25 games all by himself but rather impacts 25 games with good defensive plays and so Gladden mentally attributes the win to Hunter since without the play the team might have lost. Even so, what that formulation leaves out is the fact that any centerfielder will make some percentage of those difficult plays and so it's not as if another player would simply have failed to make all of those plays and therefore cost the team all of those games. And of course he probably selectively remembers all of the good plays and never the cost of over-aggressiveness that sometimes results in errors that let in runs.

More realistically, in 2006 Hunter was slightly below average according to David Pinto's PMR and slightly above according to the Davenport Translations.