Re: Speaking of Pedroia


<john.vampatella@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1178734916.143625.80080@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On May 9, 11:42 am, Throws like Mary <yank_ees_s...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 9, 9:28 am, Gnork <g...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> He is not only red hot at the plate, per ZR he is the best fielding
> regular 2B man in the league.

The problem I have with Pedroia is range. For a little guy who should
be fast, he seems to have a limited range.

I think the point of ZR (zone rating) is that he has, in fact, very
good range. I don't know how they calculate it, but I think the idea
of ZR is to give each fielder a "zone" - that is, an area that is his
responsibility. The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are hit
in his area that he successfully fields.

So if you have no range, you're going to have a low ZR, even if you
make few errors.

Example: Suppose Pedroia's "zone" (as they assign it statistically)
is 5 steps in every direction. Furthermore, let's say that out of
every 5 balls hit to him, it's an even distribution, so that 1 ball is
5 steps away, 1 is 4 steps away, 1 is 3 steps away, 1 is 2 steps away,
and 1 is 1 step away. Now, say he only has the kind of range to go 3
steps in every direction. That means that, even if he is has a 1.000
fielding percentage, he's only going to successfully field 3 out of
those 5 balls in his zone, for a very, very rough (and simplistic) ZR
of .600.

But suppose he only has a .900 fielding percentage, but he has 5-step
range. Out of those 5 balls, then, he's going to successfully field 4
of them, for a ZR of .800.

Thus, a player with great range but a worse glove (see: Lugo, Julio)
can be a better fielder than a guy with a great glove but limited
range (see: Ripken, Cal). By "better fielder" I mean he has the
ability to successfully field more balls hit into his "zone".

Obviously, this is a ridiculously simplistic picture of ZR, but it at
least gives you the rough idea of what the measurement is designed to
tell us. So if Pedroia leads the league in ZR, it means that,
according to the statisticians, anyway, he has excellent range.

Does that make sense?


Not to me really...but I'm not good at this stuff. But you started off saying this...

"So if you have no range, you're going to have a low ZR, even if you
make few errors."

Just seems to make it somewhat meaningless to me. My purely unscientific method is this...if I don't find myself cursing him out very often, I figure he's doing okay. :-)



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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Speaking of Pedroia
    ... >>> He is not only red hot at the plate, per ZR he is the best fielding ... The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are hit ... Out of those 5 balls, then, he's going to successfully field 4 ... player "should" have gotten to a ball or not. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)
  • Re: Speaking of Pedroia
    ... > fielding regular 2B man in the league. ... The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are ... hit in his area that he successfully fields. ... Nail Ozzie Smith's feet to the ground. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)
  • Re: Speaking of Pedroia
    ... fielding regular 2B man in the league. ... The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are ... hit in his area that he successfully fields. ... Nail Ozzie Smith's feet to the ground. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)
  • Re: Speaking of Pedroia
    ... fielding regular 2B man in the league. ... The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are ... hit in his area that he successfully fields. ... Ozzie got to them and made errors on them. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)
  • Re: Speaking of Pedroia
    ... fielding regular 2B man in the league. ... The ZR is meant to convey how many balls that are ... hit in his area that he successfully fields. ... Ozzie got to them and made errors on them. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox)