The Phillies Defense Hasn't Been Great, But Their Range Is Worse

Guest post by Matt Hammond

Sure, the boots look bad.

But worse for the Phillies in the field this year are the plays that, well, aren’t.

Despite
an handful of errors so far -- including two in the first two frames in
last night’s loss as well as a could’ve-been-made play by Jimmy Rollins
that let the first scored runner reach -- the Phillies' .980 fielding
percentage is actually solid: eighth in all of baseball.

One-tenth of a percentage point higher and they’d be tied for fourth.

What's more, they've got the seventh-fewest errors with eight. Washington has the most with eighteen. 

Michael
Young, Ryan Howard, Domonic Brown, Freddy Galvis, John Mayberry Jr.,
and Laynce Nix have yet to commit an error. Nix and Mayberry at two
positions. Galvis at, like, all of them.

Revere
has erred, but is solid in center. Rollins has, too, though only three
big-league shortstops haven’t and Rollins’ fielding percentage still
ranks sixth at the position. Chase Utley’s ranks second-worst among
second basemen, though the feeling is his glove will come around.

And
games are scored pretty uniformly throughout baseball. You may be able
to count seven should’ve-been errors this week. So can fans in New York
and Boston and… every city.

Maybe the worst Phillie killer is a silent one: range.

Shocker: the third-oldest roster in baseball struggles with getting to
balls in play to get the chance to botch them. Their Ultimate Zone
Rating – which accounts for arm strength, double play-ability,
sure-glovedness, and, of course range – ranks sixth-worst in MLB.

Isolate for range, made possible by Range Rating, and they’re second-worst. 

It’s not only the old and injured. Much of it's inexperience, and guys taking bad routes. 

Howard's
lost about half his range, and ranks fifth-worst among first basemen.
Utley’s actually seventh in RngR among second basemen, though only last
year he was third. Rollins is currently 11th, and in a clear sign that
the first year of a “sabermetric component” in Rawlings Gold Glove awarding. He was ninth in 2012.

Young’s actually above Placido Polanco and even with David Wright – for fifth-worst.  

(Fun Polly note: not only does he have the best all-time fielding
percentage at two positions (2B, 3B) but he’s also got top-two range
factors among active players both. Even now.)

Even Revere and Galvis, great as they’ve been overall, are still minus range players. 

Revere
ranks only 17th of 25 qualifiers in center. (Denard Span, the other
center fielder the Twins dealt this winter, is first for the Nationals.)
Galvis is 17th of 22 at second (above Howie Kendrick), 16th of 27 at
short (Starlin Castro) and 13th of 22 at third.

Or, just three slots higher than Young.

He’s actually at his rangiest in left field, where he’s even with Mike Trout.

Just a small sample size for these two? Tough to say.  

Galvis'
RngR is down across the board from last year, from before he broke his
back and was tagged with a 50-game PED ban. Revere's on par with his
2012 RngR, but that was down from what would've been second-best in
baseball the year before. 

Either way, the reports on most of the rest seem about right.

Dom Brown is 17th of 21 qualifying left fielders, still better than
Bryce Harper (18), Ryan Braun (20) and Josh Willingham (21) at the
game’s second-least intensive position.

If Mayberry qualified, he’d rank seventh among right fielders, even with
Hunter Pence and just below Giancarlo Stanton. Ezequiel Carrera would
be 12th, or average. Nix would be 15th, or about exactly that of Josh
Hamilton and Jayson Werth.

Shane Victorino is second at the position.

Have fun setting the line on Delmon Young and/or Darin Ruf.

Dire as it is, the Phillies’ problem is likely limited to range. (Though that’s kind of a biggie.)

Across
the rest of the fielding categories, they’re mediocre at worst. In
Outfield Arm Runs (ARM), they’re ninth. In Double-Play Runs (DPR), 16th.
RngR is their downfall. 

And
while FP has been hotly discussed by the team and media throughout its
slide since 2008 (.985), from seventh all the way to 15th last year, the
drop-off in range over the span has been worse: third-best in their
World Series season to, now, this. 

So
the next time somebody muffs a grounder, botches a pop-out or sails a
throw, feel free to cock back the remote. Just don’t throw it at your
TV.

Or forget to do the same for the balls they don't get to. Because they can't.

*

Matt Hammond is the Phillies Insider and Morning Update Anchor for 97.3 ESPN in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter here.