Come To Think of it: Major League Baseball's Taking Note of the Value of Defense

I promise you, this is not going to be a lesson in sabermetrics, although there is some really good work being done these days to better measure defensive value in baseball.

There is no question that teams are placing more emphasis on defense than ever before, largely due to the success of the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.

Front offices and coaches have always known that defense is important, they just never had the advanced statistics like they have today to measure it.

Pitching and defense wins games, so goes the familiar refrain. But how do we measure defense?

Once upon a time, all we had were Gold Glove awards, which, to this day, basically use outmoded measures (such as fielding percentage) to determine the winners.

According to the Baseball Almanac, "The downfall to this statistic is that it almost rewards fielders who choose not to attempt a difficult play, thereby avoiding the error, to those that try to turn every hit ball into a possible out."

Now we have advanced stats such as Zone Rating, Range Factor, Plus/Minus, etc.

The point is, we now have objective rather than subjective measurements in which to judge defensive performance.

Is it perfect? Hardly. But at a minimum, we should all be well aware that how many errors a player makes can often have very little to do with how good he is at defense.

"I think people are putting more resources into it," said Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak. "There's a very healthy debate on how you actually capture it."

Yet, many fans and even general managers seem to downplay the importance of defense to a winning ball club via their actions.

Take my Cubs, for instance. In an effort to generate more offense, Lou Piniella decided it would be a good idea to put Micah Hoffpauir in right field.

As an outfielder, Hoffpauir is a pretty good first baseman. But it happens all the time.

True, most sabermetricians will tell you that defense is worth about half a win compared with offense, in terms of value to a ball club.

But it's enough to be concerned about, that's for sure. Meanwhile, there is still healthy debate over which stats are useful.

"As we feel better about the analysis and the quality of the information, we factor it in a little more," Cleveland Indians GM Mark Shapiro said. "It's not that we place more emphasis on the defensive side of building a team. But as we've felt better about our ability to measure it, we've factored it in more."

It should come as no surprise that the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies led baseball in plus/minus ratings in 2008, finishing with a plus-78 score in defensive runs.

In other words, the Phils "saved'' themselves 78 runs through their defense.

"I think teams are chasing it pretty hard," said Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes. "Some of the metrics are getting more reliable, more in line with true outcomes, you know, run prevention and the ability to win, and are more in line with what the traditional methods of what evaluation would be. Some teams put more faith in it than others, but it's obviously an important part of the game."

Still, it will take time before all teams make it a top priority. Good defensive clubs having success, like last year's Phils and Rays, will continue to give defense a boost.

So will the improving statistical data available to teams.

For example, Baseball Prospectus has something called "Defensive Efficiency." It is the rate at which balls put into play are converted into outs by a team's defense.

Based on that metric, the Pittsburgh Pirates lead all of baseball so far in 2009, which might help explain why they're off to such a surprisingly good start.

The Dodgers are second, followed by Toronto  It's still early, of course. And sure, there are teams with winning records that aren't doing as well defensively.

But the data does show there is a correlation between team defense and winning baseball.

Likewise, it might not surprise you to learn that the following teams brought up the rear in defensive efficiency last year: Texas, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Colorado, and Seattle.

Wondering who the best defenders in baseball are? Well, there is something called The Fielding Bible Award, voted on by ten experts, including John Dewan and Bill James.

Here are the 2008 winners:

• First Base: Albert Pujols, St. Louis (second: Mark Teixeira)
• Second Base: Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati (second: Chase Utley)
• Third Base: Adrian Beltre, Seattle (second: Evan Longoria)
• Shortstop: Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia (second: J.J. Hardy)
• Left Field: Carl Crawford, Tampa Bay
• Center Field: Carlos Beltran, New York Mets (second: Carlos Gomez)
• Right Field: Franklin Gutierrez, Cleveland
• Catcher: Yadier Molina, St. Louis (second [tie]): Jose Molina and Jason Kendall)
• Pitcher: Kenny Rogers, Detroit

So what does all of this suggest? Well, it certainly seems that if you want to build a winning team, you have to take defense into account.

Teams with the best information and analysis will have an advantage going forward, come to think of it.