Justin Upton's Defense

Snakebitten — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:10:19 -0000

At times this season (okay, many times this season) it seemed as if our incredibly talented right-fielder (when he was actually on the field and not injured) forgot the basics of playig the outfield. Overrunning fly balls, misjudging careens off of the wall, the list goes on. Coupled with his many errors in only a month of play the previous season, I was worried that we had a major issue with fundamentals in RF.

However, as per this article, Jupton's defense was not as statistically bad as it appeared on the field. Due to fancy statistics that I only sort of follow, the rating that comes out puts the D-Backs at just barely above zero when comparing actual outs to predicted outs. The spreadsheet goes on to chronicle right fielders, where Justin Upton actually ranks 10th in MLB, delivering the D-Backs 6 outs above predicted, which the computer translates to 5 runs.

Since I really don't understand the math, I cannot assert the validity of these rankings. However, at least according to one metric, Upton's play in RF was not as bad as I had thought when compared to others at his position around the league.

The Outfield Mess

Snakebitten — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:45:43 -0000

Sparked by this article, I began thinking of the possibilities for the DBacks outfield next season.

Going into next season, the DBacks have a rather large logjam of players to play the three outfield positions. This logjam became exacerbated with Byrnes' injury, thus pressing younger players into service and requiring position switches. The beneficiaries of Byrnes' injury, CoJack and Romero, both played extremely well in light of the circumstances.

Depending on how the other positions shake out, specifically with regards to Dunn and Hudson, our outfield could get very crowded next season. The CoJack switch provided better dividends than I anticipated, and many players have play in the OF this season and acquitted themselves well. Among our possible returning outfielders (at least to this point) are; Byrnes, Young, Upton, Romero, CoJack, Salazar, Dunn, Burke, and possibly D'Antona.

OF those, Salazar and Burke are probably not in consideration for the starting spots and are hopelessly relegated to the spot-duty role which Salazar has done well with and Burke had his ups and downs with but possesses more versatility than Sally. D'Antona is being groomed for the infield, but could also be a spot-starter if need be.

I do not consider it a likely possibility that Dunn is resigned because our team has proven that they can draft well and the two picks we would get from not signing Dunn can help rebuild a rather well-mined farm system.

Young has a fairly good hold on CF because it is the hardest OF position to play and he has the most experience there. Thus, my lineup configurations will only focus on the corner OF positions.

Scenario 1:

Assuming the Position-Not-Lost-Due-To-Injury rule of thumb, the starting OF positions for next year would be:

LF: Byrnes

CF: Young

RF: Upton

This would assume that CoJack goes to 1B, Dunn is not resigned, and Tracy or Reynolds gets moved. If, however, Byrnes was moved instead, then we could keep Reynolds' power and pray pray pray that he cuts down on the K's.

Scenario 2:

Byrnes is moved, D'Antona/Tracy plays 1B, and Salazar/Burke remain our spot-starters.

LF: CoJack

CF: Young

RF: Upton

The advantage of this lineup is that it has the most consistency. CoJack is now acquainted with LF and can spend the entire off-season preparing for his new position. Upton, who has begun to really hit the ball well, gets to hopefully play his first full major league season at RF and get better at fielding the ball.

Scenario 3:

If Byrnes was traded, Dunn not resigned, the Tracy/Reynolds conflict resolved, and CoJack moved to 1B, then we would have a speedy, if inexperienced OF:

LF: Romero

CF: Young

RF: Upton

Unfortunately, this lineup does not have the hitting consistency to be much help to the team. CY and Upton at times can be pretty streaky hitters and Romero is still really young.

Scenario 4:

If D'Antona was put at 1B, the Tracy/Reynolds conflict resolved, then we keep CoJack's power in the OF and can move Salazar if we wish. However, this keeps either Upton or Byrnes out of the outfield, one who has tremendous potential and the other who is getting paid big money.

LF: Byrnes/CoJack

CF: Young

RF: Upton/CoJack

In any case, I think CoJack is too valuable to this team to move him and I doubt there would be many takers outside of the New York Knicks willing to take on Bynres' enormous contract.

I prefer an outfield of:

LF: CoJack

CF: Young

RF: Upton

with Byrnes moving elsewhere, but I do not consider it a likely scenario.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concers? Lamentations?

SB Nation User Blog: Snakebitten

Justin Upton's Defense

The Outfield Mess