Barton and Davis Lead First Basemen in Fielding in 2010

In part four of my series on fielding metrics for 2010, I'll take a look at first basemen.  Other parts of the series can be seen here:

Series intro and third basemen
Shortstops
Second basemen

The table below looks at four fielding measures and takes the average for each player.  For a more detailed explanation, you can look at the Series intro and third basemen article.

First, you should keep in mind that the advanced fielding metrics don't work as well for first basemen as they might for other infielders because they don't address the ability of a first baseman to take throws from infielders.  That being said, the overall leader was Darin Barton of the Athletics at 12 runs better than average.  He did better on the pure statistical measures (20, 12, 10) than he did on the Fan Scouting Report (5).

The National League leader was Mets rookie Ike Davis at 8 runs better than average.  Like Barton, Davis fared better on the metrics (13, 10, 4) than on the fan voting (3).

Gold Glove winners Albert Pujols (3) of the Cardinals and Mark Teixeira (2) did just a little better than the average first baseman.  They did, however, do better on the fan survey (8) than any of their peers.  So, the fans once again agreed with the managers and coaches who made the Gold Glove selections.  So far they have agreed at every position except for AL shortstop.

As for our own Miguel Cabrera, the metrics all ranked him below average (-8, -6, -5), while the fans gave him a +1. Personally, I think his range is pretty good, but he doesn't always use it wisely.  He frequently goes too far to get balls which the second baseman should be handling.  

Table 1: Aggregating Fielding Measures for First Basemen in 2010