Scranton Yankees TotalZone Ratings

Written by Sean P | 09 February 2010

Scranton is our last team to take a look at by way of TotalZone rating. Here's the info once more:

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.

NAME	POS	CHANCES	RUNS	RUNS/150
Doug Bernier	SS	183	4	11
Kevin Russo	2B	185	-6	-15
Yurendell De Caster	3B	68	2
Eric Duncan	3B	86	5
Juan Miranda	1B	194	10	13
Ramiro Pena	SS	79	5

John Rodriguez	LF	147	-6
Austin Jackson	CF	381	4	6
Todd Linden	LF	95	4
Colin Curtis	LF	109	7

Kevin Russo’s numbers are a little troubling. As a guy who could be in the mix for the utility infielder role, Russo’s defense is important. However this number is unusually low, well below his normally average ratings. Miranda’s TotalZone rating was very surprising and I’m not sure what to make of it. He’s been pretty bad before this year yet this is the most chances he’s had at 1B.
Austin Jackson actually posted some solid defensive numbers which is a little bit surprising. Looking at his career he as a pattern of HORRIBLE numbers one year (2006, -14/2008, -13) and then looking solid the next (2007, +3/ 2009, +4). I’m not really sure what to make of this either because the sample seems solid. Scouting reports are kind of mixed on him, rating him as average overall. Should be interesting to see what UZR says about him in Detroit this year though. Again here, Colin Curtis has a pretty solid showing as a corner outfielder. They're very similar to the numbers he posted in Trenton (LF +4). I think if he can develop a little further he could be a nice utility outfielder for the Yankees in 2011.