Torii Hunter made another one of his patented spectacular catches today in the Angels' 10-7 win over the Dodgers at the Ravine. (Check out this wall-crashing grab.) Here's Mike Scioscia talking about Hunter's ability to make the impossible happen in the outfield with his glove.
We always say that "Defense wins championships" in all sports, but, it's not the part of the game that fans love. Bill James says, ""The interesting question is why defense is so much more difficult to quantify than offense in all sports. Perhaps defense by its nature involves more interaction between individuals than individual actions, and perhaps the way to get past that is to embrace the concept and measure combinations of players."
There is a statistic called the UZR (Ultimate Zone Ratings), developed by Mitchel Lichtman. The stat measures the range of a baseball player combined with his ability to make outs. Believe it or not, Torii Hunter is not among the league leaders in UZR for outfielders. In fact, he's only the 33rd best defensive outfielder in Major League Baseball this season according to Lichtman's analysis, and he's #13 in the American League.
According to up-to-date Ultimate Zone Ratings, the best defensive CF in all of baseball is Matt Kemp of the Dodgers. It's hard to believe that anybody would have walked away from Dodger Stadium today thinking that Kemp is better with the glove than Hunter, but that's the case according to this analysis.
Here are baseball's top 10 centerfielders according to UZR.
1. Matt Kemp, Dodgers - 7.4 UZR
2. Mike Cameron, Brewers - 6.6 UZR
3. Franklin Gutierrez, Mariners - 5.7 UZR
4. Curtis Granderson, Tigers - 4.5 UZR
5. BJ Upton, Rays - 2.7 UZR
6. Coco Crisp, Royals - 2.4 UZR
7. Willy Taveras, Reds - 2.2 UZR
8. Michael Bourne, Astros - 1.9 UZR
10. Dexter Fowler, Rockies - 0.0 UZR
Unbelievably, Hunter isn't even the best defensive outfielder on the Angels roster as Juan Rivera has a 4.4 UZR.
Before completely dismissing this as BS, keep in mind that the Red Sox, the A's and other organizations are using this sort of defensive statistic (although these front offices have developed their own proprietary versions of UZR). Torii Hunter has no errors this year for a 1.000 fielding percentage. The UZR is pointing to a defensive decline however. He's just not getting to balls that he would have gotten to a few years ago.
Torii is a smart guy. He actually pays attention to things like UZR, and earlier this month, he took issue with the world of statistical analysis. "I take great pride in playing center field at a high level," says Hunter. "I'm aware of some of the stat guys who are saying I've lost something, I'm not as good as I once was. Well, I just wanted to let you know I'm still me. I still can play the game. I know how to play center field. I still feel like I'm one of the best.That's not being cocky. That's confidence."
And, even if Hunter's range 'aint what it used to be, we still get to witness plays like this.
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