Crawford & Belt ranked near the top in defense by TotalZone
Money quotes:
"Less of a surprise is Brandon Crawford, at +9 so far this year. He's a favorite of my college system, having posted a +10 in his final NCAA season."
"Brandon Belt has made a lot more noise with the bat, but has also been worth +4 in the field—pretty good for first baseman in the non-Hague category."
TotalZone is a system that was created by Sean Smith to more accurately measure defensive prowess of position players, and blogged about by Smith and Jeff Sackmann over at HardballTimes.com. It's a useful tool, when used together with other systems like UZR, to try to get a handle on how good a prospect's defense really is.
In this recent post, Sackmann reviews the best and worst of the current minor league season, separated by position played. Both Belt and Crawford are rated near the top of their positions so far this year. I was especially interested in reading this with respect to Crawford, because there is often some debate/confusion around here on how he rates defensively at SS. I think that it's safe to say that Crawford is altready major-league ready for SS in terms of D. The only reason he's still in the minors is that he needs to work on his hitting. Too bad he's lost the rest of this season due to the broken hand. Maybe hie'll heal up in time to play in the AFL again this Fall.
I just realized that I could have titled this post, "A Tale of Two Brandons"
almost 2 years ago
Fla-Giant
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Anyone have any comments on the accuracy/value of minor league defensive numbers?
Matt Graham is an anagram for .... why don't you ask the scrabble expert!
This article touches on that.
Crawford was rated fantastically last year as well, so his numbers this year are very encouraging.
Juan "Doesn't Cheat The Game" Perez, please keep hitting.
And apparently he passes the eyeball test too
Aaron King is still my homeboy... iffy mechanics and all
McFAQ for all you newcomers out there.
anybody who has watched a lot of UCLA baseball knows Crawford is a fantastic defensive player. Now if the guy could only hit even a little bit…
by FluLikeSymptoms on Jul 20, 2010 10:12 AM PDT up reply actions
I’m hoping he can be a .250/.310/.400 guy with usable, non-Velez speed. I’d be kind of thrilled with that.
by Grant Brisbee on Jul 20, 2010 11:35 AM PDT up reply actions
/under slides the bag by 10 feet.
Matt Graham is an anagram for .... why don't you ask the scrabble expert!
by say hey nation on Jul 20, 2010 1:09 PM PDT up reply actions
I was hoping for more than that.
Something like .265/.330/.450. But I wouldn’t complain about .250/.310/.400.
I guess I was too much of a sucker for his Cal League stats…I know BABIP.
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Long list of replacement level vets]—obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
My hope
.260/.330/.415
Ugh…those numbers look a little too Rowand-y
Proud father of Mike Krukow (who is more than 3 times my age)
Grab Some Pine, Meat
Still cheering for Kevin Frandsen
John Bowker: One of the 3 best OF's on the Giants roster
Yeah, but
throw in premium defense at a premium position and it becomes acceptable-ish.
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Long list of replacement level vets]—obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
Yeah that's true
Proud father of Mike Krukow (who is more than 3 times my age)
Grab Some Pine, Meat
Still cheering for Kevin Frandsen
John Bowker: One of the 3 best OF's on the Giants roster
And considering he'd be paid the league min
And not $12MM…BOOYA!
Juan "Doesn't Cheat The Game" Perez, please keep hitting.
I think that you can put real faith in these things when the same guy appears near the top year after year, and also when it’s confirmed by top rankings from other ranking systems. Crawford passes muster on both of those points, so I believe his D-prowess is the real deal
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
More info
If you read this interesting post, you’ll see that Smith puts a lot of thought and effort into his TotalZone system, and continues to tinker with it to make it better:
http://www.baseballprojection.com/articles/tz_hitlocation.htm
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
I wish Conor Gillaspie didn’t suck.
Jonathan Sanchez: Often maddening to watch, but capable of perfection on a moment's notice---just like his adoptive father.
Although, it’s not like Gillaspie did anything to show he had hitting chops last year in the hitter’s paradise that is the Cal League.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
meant in general
Gillaspie is actually doing about the same as last year in San Jose.
the other 2009 Baby Giants are blecch
The money lies in the RBIs
-- Jeff Kent
Last year Gillaspie had 55 BB's
This year he has 24. Ugh.
Proud father of Mike Krukow (who is more than 3 times my age)
Grab Some Pine, Meat
Still cheering for Kevin Frandsen
John Bowker: One of the 3 best OF's on the Giants roster
THE GIANT WAY!
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Long list of replacement level vets]—obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
We are never going to get our hands on the Sportsvision Field F/X data
This makes me sad.
Dearest, Susan - The Patron Saint of Patience
by Lars The Wanderer on Jul 20, 2010 11:51 AM PDT reply actions
Think of all the things someone else could to with that data!
by chilibean_3 on Jul 20, 2010 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions
I promise to use it for good instead of evil!
Dearest, Susan - The Patron Saint of Patience
by Lars The Wanderer on Jul 20, 2010 12:46 PM PDT up reply actions
My precious…
Matt Graham is an anagram for .... why don't you ask the scrabble expert!
by say hey nation on Jul 20, 2010 1:56 PM PDT up reply actions
Is Crawford still injured?
You can't solve your problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems - Albert Einstein to Brian Sabean
Yup
Out for the rest of the season, I believe.
Juan "Doesn't Cheat The Game" Perez, please keep hitting.
I'm surprised there's no Adrianza
Proud father of Mike Krukow (who is more than 3 times my age)
Grab Some Pine, Meat
Still cheering for Kevin Frandsen
John Bowker: One of the 3 best OF's on the Giants roster
He could be rated highly, but just not mentioned in this article because he’s not a well-known “name” or considered a surprise. I couldn’t find a link to the list that this guy was referencing, or we could see all of the data.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
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