John Dewan on the Marlins defense

ACTA Sports, who are in the business of selling books, sends me stuff from time to time.  (Never the book, mind you.)  But excerpts from one of the new listings and I thought I would share this one with you.

The Fielding Bible II

Defensive Runs Saved is the hottest new stat this year. It offers a way of judging how many runs (and therefore games) a fielder saves or costs his team over a season.

Mike Jacobs played first base for the Marlins last year, and he cost the team 23 Defensive Runs, according to The Fielding Bible—Volume II by John Dewan, published in February by ACTA Sports. Using the rule of thumb that 10 runs equals one win, that means that Jacobs contributed at least two losses to the Marlins’ total with his fielding.

Rookie Gaby Sanchez will probably replace Jacobs this year. Sanchez has a good reputation as a fielder, and if he’s able to post an average number of Defensive Runs Saved, the Marlins will gain two wins from his defense alone.

Baseball can be boiled down to one thing: runs. Or, more specifically, scoring and preventing runs. There is no shortage of statistical models to analyze how teams score runs. But preventing runs with your defense: That’s the final frontier in baseball analysis. John Dewan’s Plus/Minus System, unveiled in the Volume I of The Fielding Bible, offered an objective way to measure a player’s defensive abilities that has previously been available only to major league teams. Now he returns in The Fielding Bible—Volume II to explore how many runs a defender saves or costs his team over the course of a season.

Defensive Runs Saved is the hottest new stat this year. It offers a way of judging how many runs (and therefore games) a fielder saves or costs his team over a season.

Below are the Defensive Runs by team for 2008. For information on every player in Major League Baseball with defensive opportunities last season, please see The Fielding Bible—Volume II. 

Team Defensive Runs for 2008 from The Fielding Bible—Volume II:

Better than average defenses:

 1. Philadelphia Phillies +78 
 2. St. Louis Cardinals +71
 3. Oakland Athletics +64
 4. Toronto Blue Jays +53
 5. Milwaukee Brewers +49
 6. New York Mets +41
 7. Atlanta Braves +33
 8. Cleveland Indians +29
 9. Tampa Bay Rays +26
10. Washington Nationals +22
11. Houston Astros +22
12. Boston Red Sox +18
13. Seattle Mariners +14
14. Florida Marlins +9
15. Chicago Cubs +7
16. Los Angeles Dodgers +2

Worse than average defenses:

17. Arizona Diamondbacks -4

18. San Diego Padres -5

19. San Francisco Giants -7
20. Colorado Rockies -10
21. Minnesota Twins -11
22. Pittsburgh Pirates -11
23. Cincinnati Reds -15
24. Detroit Tigers -15
25. Los Angeles Angels -15
26. Baltimore Orioles -21
27. Texas Rangers -29
28. Chicago White Sox -34
20. New York Yankees -43
30. Kansas City Royals -48

I'm not hyping the book but I will admit I do own the original Fielding Bible.

I'm just presenting this so that you know the tome is out and available if this is your cup of tea.

Also there is the fact that I'm low on content today.

The Marlins finishing +9 is something I'm going to have to ask Sky about.  It basically says that Cody was the man in the field and the others either evened out or chipped in a little.

But whatever the case, there it is.