Raul Ibanez on Pace for Worst Defensive Season in the Last Decade?

It's no secret Raul Ibanez has struggled at the plate this year, but not as many people have noticed his atrocious defense in left field.

His struggles defensively in Seattle were no secret. Transitioning to a less spacious Citizens Bank Park and taking over for Pat Burrell camouflaged some of his weaknesses. However, at 39, it's hard to hide those weaknesses no matter what park you're in.

While advanced statistics are a bit further behind in fielding compared to hitting and pitching, when they are in agreement across the board, you can have much more faith in them. And at the least, they are still much better than amount of errors and fielding percentage.

But when it comes to Ibanez, the advanced fielding metrics are pretty much in agreement, he has been the worst left fielder in baseball this season. His season is actually on pace for one of, if not the, worst fielding seasons at his position over the past decade.

His Ultimate Zone Rating of -16.1 runs below average is currently last among left fielders by a healthy margin. Juan Pierre is the next worst at -7.9. Using UZR/150, which extrapolates the run total to 150 games, his -34.4 would be the second worst since 2002, only beating out Manny Ramirez's -35.0 runs in just over 1,000 innings.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, Ibanez will probably get near 1,300 innings in left field this year. Given those extra innings, Ibanez may eclipse Ramirez's -25.6 total runs for that season.

The Fielding Bible's total defensive runs saved metric also does not look favorably on Ibanez's defense. His -11 runs saved is, again, last at his position, far behind Pierre's second-worst -3.

With just 713 innings in the books, double-digit runs is very significant. Only two other players have totaled at least 11 runs below average in less than 725 innings. Ryan Klesko, thanks to a baby arm, recorded -15 runs in 723 innings, and Dmitri Young recorded -11 runs in just 512 innings.

Fortunately, their managers put them in left field for the entire season. If Ibanez continues at the same pace, at 1,200 innings, his season total would escalate to -18. Since 2003, when the metric began being tracked, only one player achieved -18 runs in a full season and that was Adam Dunn in 2007.

While people have been criticizing Ibanez's lack of offense, his defense has been much worse. Hopefully Charlie Manuel begins to realize this to and replace Ibanez as the everyday outfielder.

Not only are Domonic Brown, Ben Francisco and John Mayberry Jr., better offensively, but each are vastly better defensively.

Unfortunately, not too many managers are going to keep a $12 million player as a pinch-hitter.