Dissecting Martin Prado's defense at third base

[Bayless2Budinger]

A majority of his time has been in left field or 2nd base the past couple of years, so I didn't want those figures to weight into his evaluation. Looking at his defense at third base last year I found out the following.

Out of players fielding at least 150 innings at 3rd base he ranked 27th in RZR.

Revised Zone Rating (RZR) measures, “the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that he successfully converted into an out”

RZR measures a player’s range, taking three things into account: the amount of Balls In Zone (BIZ) a player receives, a player’s total Plays Made, and a player’s total amount of Out Of Zone Plays Made (OOZ). It is, essentially, a simplified version of UZR.

He ranked behind a limited offensive player like Cody Random but ranked far ahead of Roberts and Johnson who came in at 39th and 50th. I'm surprised that Roberts ranked anyone near the top 50 as he really had no right to play 3rd base as was a huge liability.

In 2010 and 2011, Prado came in at 20th and 9th. I think it's safe to assume that considering his lack of consistent time there, that he was about average when it came to range. Either way it should be a improvement over Ryan Roberts and Chris Johnson.


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Looking at his UZR/150 which as stated above, is a little more complicated, we found the following.

2009 - 4th w/ 18.3
2010 - 37th w/ -7.8
2011 - 30th w/ 5.7
2012 - 12th w/ 14.6

Seems to vibe with what was found earlier with his range. He will provide average defense although more time might show a result that varies for the good or bad. Still it will be a noticeable improvement over what we have had for the past few years.

 

[Matt L]

I really am not a fan of the trade but I do think with him at 3rd and a defensive upgrade at short, the team will be better for 2013 and should win more games.