The Charleston Riverdogs are the next team we'll examine defensively through TotalZone rating. Here again is a quick reminder of how it all works:

TotalZone invented and calculated by Sean Smith of Baseballprojection.com. "Runs" is relative to league average. The meaning of specific numbers varies from position to position, but in general, +10 is a very good fielder, +15 or more is outstanding. Below -10 is not very good at all. Runs/150 estimates runs saved per 150 games, and is shown for players with at least 1/3 that playing time at a position. This article describes preliminary work in translating across levels.

The article describing the translation is a must read for fully understanding what these numbers represent, but in short, infield numbers are slightly more reliable than outfield ones and sample size issues are in play with any infielders with less than 350 chances and outfielders less than 1000 (2 full seasons roughly). Also these performances are relative to their league, so a AA third baseman would be slightly worse than a AAA third baseman. Reading the whole article is definitely recommended.

Infield

Outfield

Corban Joseph’s numbers are definitely worth noting for a few reasons. Joseph who was a natural SS out of high school was moved to second base because he just didn’t have the range to play SS every day. The second base experiment had its up and downs as you can see, but when they randomly tried to fit him in at 3B, it worked very well. The numbers seem to back that up. Joseph’s bat definitely profiles better as a second baseman however so the Yankees will keep plugging away and see if he can handle it. Garrison Lassiter also had a tough time of it in 2009, but he’s relatively new to his position as well and is really a work in progress in terms of defense. Jose Pirela in his 2 seasons in the US so far has enough of a sample at SS and 2B to reasonably conclude he’s about 5 runs above average at the position.

The Charleston outfield was just ridiculous this year. I had heard plenty of things about Almonte and Mesa’s defensive attributes, but Grote and Kruml come as a surprise. Sample size issues apply with each of them, but Grote was also +4 in RF this year as well. Almonte had a nice season in what is his second as a CF. He was converted last year from 2B and most scouting reports mentioned a lot of defensive improvements with him. Melky Mesa on the other hand has a lot bigger of a sample to draw from and he seems like a solid +5 outfielder for his career, however switching fulltime to RF may have been part of the reason for the solid defensive season.

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