A CITIZEN'S BLOG

I do love Win Shares! They are a fun topic because I have yet to find an all-around stat that encompasses fielding, hitting or pitching that comes closest to giving you an idea about how valuable a player was to his team. Win Shares aren’t perfect, but they give you a great idea about a player.

I particularly enjoy a sub-category of Win Shares: Fielding Win Shares. In keeping with my obsession with baseball and defense, I’m always scanning FWS to see how is helping the team and who isn’t. I’ve argued that Bell’s tremendous glove-work significantly off-sets his weak bat and actually makes him a valuable member of the team.

Check out the Phillies Fielding Win Shares thus far. I’ve multiplied them by 1,000 innings to give you an idea about who is contributing (difficult to do by looking at the raw numbers since players play different amounts of innings):

The Infield:
Polanco: 5.08
Utley: 3.86
Rollins: 3.47
Bell: 3.41
Howard: 1.46
Thome: 1.38

Placido Polanco is a tremendous defensive player and you can see that here. While Chase probably isn’t the best 2B fielder in the NL, he’s pretty darn good. Clearly he’s the best the Phillies have at the moment with Placido in Detroit.

I’ve always been rather disappointed in Jimmy Rollins. All of that talent and he just can’t make it happen. He’s a good defender, but not great. He should be better. At the moment he ranks ninth amongst NL SS’s in Fielding Win Shares (non-adjusted), despite playing a ton of innings … David Bell is always a surprise: he’s third in FWS (non-adjusted) and really contributes beyond his shoddy work at the plate. George Will emphasized the importance of defense in Men At Work by asking why a double denied by a good defensive play wasn’t as valued as a double hit at the plate. It should be, and for that reason we should give David Bell a little praise.

Obviously the Phillies don't have Ryan Howard and Jim Thome in the lineup for their gloves.

Catchers:
Pratt: 7.06
Lieberthal: 4.95

Time is running short for the Phillies very own Crash Davis. Lieberthal is currently eleventh in FWS amongst NL catchers. Todd Pratt continues to be the perfect backup catcher.

The Outfield:
Michaels: 5.74
Lofton: 4.84
Abreu: 2.39
Burrell: 1.93

The Phillies don’t expect much from the gloves of Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell, but the Lofton / Michaels platoon in center turns in a decent performance. Interestingly, Jason Michaels has more FWS (2.6) than Bobby Abreu (2.1) in playing fewer innings. Michaels is actually twelfth in FWS and Abreu is eighteenth. Pat Burrell is thirtieth.

There you go, Fun with Fielding Win Shares. Monday I plan a post on Chase Utley & Philadelphia Magazine (you’ll see how the topics go together).