SI Power Rankings

[brains and braun]

Has anyone else read these? Great analysis. Here's the Brewers' portion.

 

"One of the underrated keys to the Brewers success in 2011 was a surprisingly good defense, as they managed to convert a lot of balls into outs that other teams weren't able to get to. However, new third baseman Aramis Ramirez is a defensive downgrade, and Mat Gamel isn't much of a glove man over at first, so the infield defense remains a problem. While the Brewers' pitching is strong on paper, their National League-worst 5.65 ERA shows that the defensive support might not be in place to help the pitchers live up to expectations. If the Brewers are going to hang around in a tight NL Central race all year, they're going to have to address those defensive issues at some point"

 

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/04/16/power.rankings/index.html#ixzz1sH8Yl6mM

 

Keep up the good work.

 

(I added italics for emphasis)

[Schlitz001]

If it's true that the Brewers were able to convert more balls in play into outs than other teams, it was because of the extreme overshifts that RR employed and so far this year, he is using the same shifts. Yes, the infield defense is still below average, but it's an upgrade over last year.

 

I'm not sure how the author expects the Brewers to "address the defensive issues." Make Aramis the DH?

 

And of course trying to define the team from any stats 10 games into the season is just dumb.

[brains and braun]

I thought it was funny that any baseball analyst would assume the infield D got worse by replacing Prince and Casey McGehee. He probably ran out of words to describe the great Yuni B D. He was after all, the best SS in MLB amongst those unable to bend at the waist for a grounder.

[ninja33]

also the NL worst ERA probably has a lot more to do with being on pace to give up 200+ homeruns than a 10 game sample of infield defense.

[Thurston Fluff]

That might be the worst bit of analysis I have ever read. How can you be wrong on every aspect of something and still pull a check from SI?

 

He was after all, the best SS in MLB amongst those unable to bend at the waist for a grounder.

 

Clever.

[JohnBriggs12]

More Yuni bashing? Do you guys ever stop?

 

Betancourt was adequate. They won 96 games with him starting in a key defensive position. He didn't dive after balls that he couldn't turn into outs. Big deal. He made a few errors but nowhere near the likes of some past Brewer SS, notably Jose Valentin. I'd say his throws to Weeks in DP situations were consistently good, and that was his biggest plus as a defender. He generally handled himself well around the bag whether it was taking throws from Weeks or from the catchers too.

 

My point is there is more to playing SS than covering a lot of ground. The Brewer staff was and is not one that induces a lot of grounders either. For the most part they are fly ball, strikeout pitchers.

[TooLiveBrew]

Alright, I've held off on asking you but at this point i have to know -- are you related to Yuni, or is he just a close personal friend?

[monty57]

...as they managed to convert a lot of balls into outs that other teams weren't able to get to...

 

If it's true that the Brewers were able to convert more balls in play into outs than other teams, it was because of the extreme overshifts that RR employed

 

I've wondered on the new defensive stats on how they account for players essentially playing out of position. When Braun came in and played infield a couple of games last year when they needed to defend against a grounder late in games (leaving two OF), if he caught a pop-up on the mound, would his range be seen as immese, as he's the left fielder catching a ball on the pitcher's mound? Same with the teams that put the 3B on the other side of second for the left-hander shift (leaving the SS in his normal position). If the 3B fields a grounder is he seen as a player with tremendous range?

 

The Brewers' defense was bad last year, and is not going to be good this year. Gonzalez should be a significant upgrade over Yuni, but Ramirez is bad, and Gamel looks like he still has quite a bit to learn. They are only upgrades due to the terrible defensive players they're replacing (and I'm still not sold that Ramirez will be an upgrade, even over McGehee). Weeks worked from terrible to decent in his career, but now he's got a bum ankle and is aging, so I don't expect better than average defense from him.

 

But none of this is really news. For a national writer to say that the Brewers are going to be bad because of their defense must not have watched the Brewers last year.

[Funketown]

monty, with regards to the Braun infield fly ball situation I was under the impression that they threw out data for plays with extreme shifts, at least for UZR. I could be wrong though. I imagine that would be like a +1,000,000 UZR for a pop-up at the mound for a LF.

[monty57]

monty, with regards to the Braun infield fly ball situation I was under the impression that they threw out data for plays with extreme shifts, at least for UZR. I could be wrong though. I imagine that would be like a +1,000,000 UZR for a pop-up at the mound for a LF.

 

So that's why he was in the Gold Glove discussions :-)

[FVBrewerFan]

I hate power rankings, as the concept doesn't make sense to me. USA Today and all sorts of media sources do this for MLB, NFL, etc. All they do is bascially rank teams by their record. My question is this. Isn't that the same thing as looking at the standings? Wow, Dodgers have the best record. I need a whole separate power rankings analysis to tell me that? (Nevermind the fact that after 10 games what does it matter who's #21 in power ranking??)

[endaround]

It takes up space for little or no work and generates a large number of page views. Lists are great for sites.

[logan82]

Extrapolating anything from the stats at this point in the year for anything other than trivia is completely useless.

 

 

He made a few errors but nowhere near the likes of some past Brewer SS, notably Jose Valentin.

The Brewer staff was and is not one that induces a lot of grounders either. For the most part they are fly ball, strikeout pitchers.

Which makes it even more amazing that he was able to rank among league leaders in errors.

 

 

I'd say his throws to Weeks in DP situations were consistently good, and that was his biggest plus as a defender.

Easy to make good throws when you play at half speed.

[xisxisxis]

More Yuni bashing? Do you guys ever stop?

 

it's like history repeating. when the world is flat crowd continues to defend yuni, the world is round crowd has to point out that the world is,in fact, not flat. next we'll be arguing whether the sun revolves around the earth.....

[Ennder]

More Yuni bashing? Do you guys ever stop?

 

it's like history repeating. when the world is flat crowd continues to defend yuni, the world is round crowd has to point out that the world is,in fact, not flat. next we'll be arguing whether the sun revolves around the earth.....

 

Yeah, this is one of the more absurd topics I've seen on this site. Anyone who thinks Yuni wasn't terrible just isn't paying attention.

[DHonks]

Interesting that Gamel has been everything I expected and hoped for. He's probably made at least 6 or 7 picks that Fielder rarely would have made. So far so good

[pretendastronaut]

One of the underrated keys to the Brewers success in 2011 was a surprisingly good defense

 

THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE

 

the infield defense remains a problem

 

 

That's pretty rich.

[RWeeksFan23]

Our infield defense isn't bad at all.. we're strong up the middle with Weeks and Gonzalez, and Gamel will probably be about average. Only one weak link, and that would be Ramirez.

[brains and braun]

I agree RWeeksFan. I know to take the Power Rankings with a grain of salt. If you look at the rankings themselves, SI makes a point to mention they're not the usual kind based on record and tries to compare the record to the team's WAR. But then they make a bunch of off-the-cuff statements that reflect no knowledge or research of each team. The Brewers' infield D was a mess last year. To cite it as a strength and to then put the Brewers in the bottom fifth of the league based on the notion that ARam and Gamel are a huge step down from Casey McGehee defensively? That to me suggests that neither writer watched even one full Brewers' game last season.

[GAME05]

i'm not sure what you guys are really expecting from a short and crude listing of all baseball teams from a national outlet. the mission of SI and espn is to generate pageviews, not to actually inform the already-educated sports fan.

 

and yeah, i also bet that the writer indeed never watched a Brewers game last year. seems like watching one or two games would be a terrible way of developing broad generalizations of a team.

[Thurston Fluff]

monty, with regards to the Braun infield fly ball situation I was under the impression that they threw out data for plays with extreme shifts, at least for UZR. I could be wrong though. I imagine that would be like a +1,000,000 UZR for a pop-up at the mound for a LF.

 

Seems to me that eliminates a lot of information for a team who routinely does that. How can you make an apples to apples comparison when you eliminate so much information from some teams and not others?

[brains and braun]

 

and yeah, i also bet that the writer indeed never watched a Brewers game last year. seems like watching one or two games would be a terrible way of developing broad generalizations of a team.

 

Yeah, it's better to watch zero games, make the same broad generalizations and claim it's a scientific process because you threw WAR in there. Funny that the BoSox were still listed Top Six even though they had played just as poorly to that point. I guess I'm expecting too much from sports writers that they do an ounce of research into the topics they cover. Anyone on this board could have written an equally astute analysis off the top of his/her head.

[Nottso]

Anyone on this board could have written an equally astute analysis off the top of his/her head.

 

Not me; I'm an idiot.

[Funketown]

Anyone on this board could have written an equally astute analysis off the top of his/her head.

 

Not me; I'm an idiot.

 

Since when has that stopped anybody from writing for SI?

[Nottso]

Anyone on this board could have written an equally astute analysis off the top of his/her head.

 

Not me; I'm an idiot.

 

Since when has that stopped anybody from writing for SI?

 

I'm smart enough to know I'm an idiot.