You ask 100 fans that question, you might get 100 different answers. One thing is for certain, bad defense is going to cost you games. It cost the Dodgers a game only yesterday. Max Muncy blew what should have been an easy double-play grounder, and the Giants won, 2-1. As of today, the Dodgers are the 10th best fielding team in the majors. 6 playoff teams are ahead of them. The Diamondbacks have the highest fielding percentage and the fewest errors with only 55. The Dodgers have made 75. The Rangers are right there with the D-Backs with only 58 errors.
The Braves are ranked 16th. Worst in the majors? The Giants. Defense can win you games. If you think otherwise, just look back at the 2020 season. In the NLCS against the Braves, Mookie Betts was a one-man defensive highlight reel. His catches and throwing arm stopped a couple of Braves rally’s from ever getting off of the ground.
The Braves had a 2-0 lead in that final game. Defense saved the day, and some clutch hitting. We are indeed blessed with one of the best fielding shortstops in the league. We have a couple of Gold Glovers on the team, Betts, Freeman, Peralta, Heyward. We have some who also are very good and very dependable late inning replacements.
The one problematic position is third base. I have little faith in Muncy defensively. His offense speaks for itself. But his glove at third at least, is very suspect. Hernandez plays the position well as does Taylor. But their bats make them bench pieces.
The Dodgers have a ton of talent capable of playing second, Mookie, Rosario, Taylor, Hernandez, and Wong, who made a couple of really good plays there this week. Rojas is one of the best at short, Hernandez and Taylor are better defenders there than Rosario. But Miggy Ro will get most of the reps.
Freddie at first. Case closed. Muncy, Heyward and Hernandez can also be there if some sort of emergency were to arise. But Freddie will be there, every game, every inning.
The outfield. LF. Peralta and Taylor offer excellent defense and will get the bulk innings. CF. Outman, who is improving leaps and bounds defensively will be the bulk guy here. Heyward or Hernandez can play the position capably. RF. Mookie and Heyward have been an outstanding defensive tandem in the field. Hernandez has gotten some time here also.
C. Will Smith and Barnes are both very good defensively, IE few passed balls, and both call an excellent game. The bad part is the lack of being able to catch runners stealing bases. Smith’s 21% and Barnes 10% bode well for the opposition’s runners. The pitchers need to do a much better job holding runners.
P. The pitchers overall have made 12 errors this season. Not bad considering that there have been so many new guys on the roster. They have for the most part fielded the position well. Almost all of those errors are on throws.
The Dodger defense is solid. They will play only one team, Arizona, if they get there, with a better fielding team. But look for some spectacular plays in the post season. And you can pretty well guess who will be making those plays.
Discussion (20)
Disagree, not disagreeable
“Again and again, we see complicated topics immediately sacrificed to ideological framing, and sides taken, all before facts come out.”
https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/the-trevor-bauer-mess-can-the-media
A friend’s son is one of those stat geek analysts who helped build the Rays and now works for the Blue Jays. I was rooting for the Jays only because I enjoy his mom’s baseball posts.
But I’m happy for the Twins after so much post-season failure.
Still rooting for the Phils, and I hope every game against the Braves goes into extra innings.
Dodgers vs D-Backs in the NLDS, two teams very familiar with each other.
D-Backs have excellent speed
and hit the ball well. No Dodger let down like last year……let’s go Blue!
The reliance on athleticism over proper fundamentals showed up again on Bouchette’s lame pivot on the 3-6-3 dp attempt. He hot dogged the relay, throwing flat footed and wide to 1st. Little Leaguers are taught to move their feet, set up and throw on a routine play. Bouchette appears to think he’s too good to bother with proper mechanics.
I see so many poor tags at bases these days. The Twins Correa damn near blew the timing pick off of Vlad Jr. at 2nd with a needless reach to the runner on the tag. The throw from Gray was 3 feet high right on the base, where Correa was set and blocking with his right knee. For some reason, Correa decided to lunged at Vlad to tag him on the chest, the throw did not draw him toward the runner. The shitty tag arrived just in time, Just go to the bag with the glove and don’t chase the runner! A huge blunder by Vlad almost blown by Correa.
The extremes management will go to change over a batting line up from LHB to RHB has never been more evident then pulling a successful Berrios in the 4th on 47 pitches. I don’t think he was a planned opener? It appears that a computer somewhere told the brass, this was a good idea. It wasn’t. Over-management to me, but what to I know?
Search for the new Frontline (public tv) episode on “The Astros Edge” for a very interesting show on the cheating scandal. Available online, at least temporarily.
Several players have entered free agency. Mostly part timers who spent some time in the bigs this season. Minnesota got out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the 6th by getting Matt Chapman to hit into a double play.
Texas sends the Rays home. They win 7-1. At last check, Minnesota was winning their game against the Jays. Story on Yahoo news said that the Giants are not going to pursue any starting pitching. Also read one that stated that the Mets are going to target Yamamoto rather than Ohtani. If true, that really limits his options.
We used to have a person on this blog who said, “I don’t care about defense.” He’s not here anymore because he felt people were picking on him. My advise was and is: “Don’t say stupid shit, then.”
I’ve heard Dodgers execs and players use the term “run prevention” which feels more comprehensive than just defense.
This led me to this article which is fascinating:
https://community.fangraphs.com/rethinking-how-we-look-at-team-defense/
Two big findings that I found great:
Which Positions Have The Greatest Defensive Impact?
Based on the defensive spectrum, here are the most important positions:
Catcher
Shortstop
Center Field, Third Base, Second Base
Corner Outfield
First Base
What should we take away from this?
Yes, defense does help when it comes to outperforming FIP and allowing a lower BABIP, though the effects of defense are still limited compared to simple variance. For the most part, however, you shouldn’t tailor your defense to your pitching, though a whiff-heavy pitching staff would allow you to not focus on defense as much, and vise versa.
I think defense is extremely important. Runs saved count as much as runs scored and seem to take more wind out of the other teams sails a little more. Impressive comeback by Dbacks. Facing them has me a little more concerned than brewers being in that they know us real well and got that payback, tired of being whipped on revenge intangible going similar to padres last year plus their a pretty feisty good team when on their A game. We gonna need to be battle ready not taking anything for granted whoever we play and hope last year is not forgotten. I’m wondering what percentage of game one winners take series in a three game set. Pretty high would imagine
Just like last year?!!!!
I saw 2 very flawed teams last night. Its the postseason and ANYTHING can happen but we are head and shoulders better than both those teams last night.
Like him or not, recent info after the settlement of Bauer’s case points a pretty damning picture of his accuser.
I am thinking about 2024…How about this trade?
Burns + Yellich + $10 million for each of his remaining contract years for Busch, one young catcher and a young pitcher?
not a lineup i would want. no Taylor starting. no heyward starting. and between Lux and Vargas , one of them probably doesn’t end up starting. i agree eventually Lux either plays outfield or gets traded if Mookie plays 2nd.
Even the best of the best have days that don’t go well. I’m sure there’s been performances on stage for you Bear that you wish such thing as a do-over button was available. We’ve all seen the Dodgers have flat games and there is no telling when that can occur. The Dodgers aren’t a good team, they are a great team. With a chip on their shoulders and a spark that won’t fail I can promise they’ll be the last team standing. That I whole heartedly believe. The crap-shoot is Monday can be any day and we all hate Mondays.
Next year:
C–smith
1b–freeman
2b–betts
Ss–lux
3b–vargas
LF–Taylor
CF–outman
RF–heyward [back on fa deal]
DH–muncy
Bench–barnes, rojas, busch, deluca
This won’t happen but it could
Wish busch could play 2b
I saw a really cool photo on X, what used to be twitter. I wish I could post it here. It was a photo of the Padres on the field sitting and watching a TV. The caption said, “Hey Padre fans, your team getting ready for the playoffs.” Fitting and poetic I thought, Francona officially stepped down as manager of the Guardians. There are at this point in time, four MLB managerial positions open. Giants, Guardians, Mets, and Angels. Machado had surgery to repair a tendon.
Look at what happened to the Rays. Defense killed them.