Today's Fun Fact

by Jeff Sullivan on Sep 8, 2011 12:25 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners Stats

Last night, after the game, Mike Blowers made a point of mentioning how much fun it was watching Brendan Ryan play defense. Now, granted, Blowers didn't have a whole hell of a lot else to talk about, given that Charlie Furbush and Trayvon Robinson were pretty much the only other Mariners to do anything of significance. But Ryan also did make this play, and this play. It was a good night to be watching Brendan Ryan.

Listening to Blowers talk about Ryan got me curious about the Mariners' infield defense. Long story short, I'm in a rush, so here's how the Mariners' defense has done against groundballs:

OPS

Mariners, .448
Rays, .449
Blue Jays, .451
Angels, .456
Nationals, .460
Average, .493

BABIP

Angels, .217
Blue Jays, .218
Mariners, .218
Rays, .220
Reds, .221
Average, .236

This doesn't include errors, but the Mariners haven't been especially error-prone. It's strongly suggested, then, that the Mariners have featured one of the top infield defenses in baseball. Which is good, since they've featured one of the worst infield offenses in baseball. By OPS, the Mariners' infield offense is four points out of last place. Bless you, Minnesota!

I'm not sure how much this matters going forward. After all, guys like Jack Wilson, Chone Figgins and Adam Kennedy have put in a lot of innings over the season, and they're either gone or not likely to play much. But then, Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley and Ryan have been staples, and so the data is encouraging.

At worst, we can at least say that the Mariners have featured a good overall infield defense in 2011. At best, we can use this information to be encouraged about the future. It'll be interesting to see where these numbers are in three weeks, when the season's done. One imagines we'll see a lot of Smoak, Carp, Ackley, Ryan and Seager. If the BABIP remains just as low, then, hey, great.

The 2011 Mariners haven't had a lot of strengths, but infield defense has been one of them. And with Brendan Ryan at the core, there's a chance that could carry over into the future. Neat!

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Nifty

The non-Guti outfield has been a whole other story. But, then again, we haven’t seen any lawn darts. So there’s that.

http://www.sodomojo.com

by -Carson- on Sep 8, 2011 12:32 PM PDT reply actions

Well...

When Saunders was playing out there the first part of the season, he played pretty darn well. Problem is, he was so horrible at the plate that his “offense” (justifiably) attracted most of the Condor-related attention.

by Westside guy on Sep 8, 2011 12:44 PM PDT up reply actions

For what it's worth, Mariners RBBIP on groundballs by month

April: .246
May: .213
June: .232
July: .238
August: .283
Sep: .237

August was when Carp took over 1B and Ryan missed much of the month

by Matthew on Sep 8, 2011 12:37 PM PDT reply actions

Matthew, a bit of context - what's the league average for RBBIP?

does it stabilize at a rate in which would cause us to believe that Mike Carp is a bad defensive player and Brendan Ryan a good one just based on August?

by seattlebruin on Sep 8, 2011 1:01 PM PDT up reply actions

.268 or therabouts

And no, believing that is too big a stretch. It maybe hints at it.

by Matthew on Sep 8, 2011 1:19 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm not convinced Carp is any worse at 1B than Smoak. He might be better

(UZR has them essentially equal, but we don’t have enough data for that to be meaningful)

And yes, I realize “better than Smoak” isn’t much of a bar in absolute terms.

by J0SER on Sep 8, 2011 7:59 PM PDT up reply actions

Not just Neat

Fun!

by Freneau on Sep 8, 2011 12:57 PM PDT reply actions

It seems to me that there has been research on infield defense being more important than outfield defense?

Does anyone know where this came from? Because if it’s true, now would be a good time to believe in it.

by csiems on Sep 8, 2011 1:01 PM PDT reply actions

Brendan Wood Ryan continues to be one of my favorites of this season. Jack did a great job scoring him.

In my mind it makes up for Figgins. Which may be insane. But I’m sure I’ve posted nuttier things in the past. We’ve got the bro-est infield with a Kyle, a Dustin, a Justin and a Brendan. When Josh catches it really sounds like we’re a high school team in Wyoming.

by sea-townie on Sep 8, 2011 1:18 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs