By a show of hands, who here thought that the Mets would be a solid defensive team? Well, surprise surprise! So far this year the Mets rank 5th in the MLB for fielding percentage (.987) and errors made (13). In addition, of those 13 errors, 4 of them are from pitchers Jose Valverde and Bartolo Colon. Not counting those guys, the TRUE team defense is tied for best in the MLB with only 9 errors with the Cincinnati Reds. The improved team defense is having an extremely positive effect on #1 and #2 starters Dillon Gee and Jonathan Niese.
Neither pitcher relies heavily on strikeouts (Niese 6.6 K/ 9, Gee 5.9 K/9) but instead use good strike-zone presence to induce weak contact. If you remember from our story on Travis d'Arnaud, LD% can be a good indicator of how much solid contact batters are getting. Against Dillon Gee, batters only have a LD% rate of 15.4% which, while below his career rate of 18%, is not too far off. For Niese, batters actually have a LD% rate of 24.2% which again, while ABOVE his career rate of 21%, is not too far off.
What this proves is that batters are still getting relatively the same hit patterns from their swings, however, the results from those hit patterns are starkly different. Opponents batting averages on balls in play (BABIP) have taken a nose dive so far this year. Last Year's defense was ranked middle of the road so rightfully Niese and Gee's oBABIP's were a roughly league average .296 and .326 respectively. However, with this season's top tier defense, those oBABIP's are now and astounding .202 and .247 respectively.
As with batting averages, you can normalize pitcher's ERA's to reflect league average defense. This SABR stat is called Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) Unlike AVG's though, where you DO NOT have control over your opponents defense, ERA's can generally finish below their FIP's because YOU DO have control over your own defense.
We know full well that our team's OF defense with Young, Young, Lagares, and Granderson should finish near the top of the league. Travis d'Arnaud has show excellent defensive capabilities behind the plate with his framing skills. If Tejada, Mruphy, and Wright can continue their excellent defensive paces in the infield, there's no reason to not believe that this team can finish tops in the league defensively, which will in turn improve the team ERA even further.
1 comment:
Christopher -
You know me... I love all this SABR stuff... it's like reading the results of my blood test at the Veteran's Administration... LD%? That's the 'good' cholesterol, right?
SABR or not, Chris and I have said the same thing for years... pitching and defense gets you to the playoffs. You're seeing the perfect example of a team with serious offensive issues pull out a victory by supporting excelling rotational pitching with slick fielding.
No, we have not been used to that in the past 3-4 years. Think of the countless games I wrote about when the Mets would throw or kick away a game. It simply isn't happening anymore.
I credit Juan Lagares with starting this mindset. He alone taught us last year that one outstanding play in the field could be the difference.
Do you notice when MLB-TV has the 'plays of the day' segment? What is there, 8-10 plays? That means there are 1000s that are routine.
Defense, baby.
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