Tigers Will Not Miss Prince Fielder's Glove

In previous posts, I looked at the Revised Zone Rating (RZR) and Out-of-Zone Plays (OOZ) metrics listed at FanGraphs.  Links to these posts are provided below:

• Conversion of RZR, OOZ to runs (from 2012)

• Shortstops

• Second basemen 

• Third basemen

Now, for the first basemen.  Table 1 below contains the following information for 20 MLB first basemen with 800 or more innings in 2013:

• Inn = Innings

• RZR = Revised Zone Rating

• OOZ = Out-of-Zone Plays

• PIZAA =  Plays in Zone Above Average

• OOZAA = Out-of-Zone Plays Above Average

• PMAA = Total Plays Above Average

• RSAA = Runs Saved Above Average

Note that these statistics do not account for plays made receiving throws from infielders which is among the most important duties of a first baseman. They only consider performance on ground balls.  The top defenders in the majors in 2013 according to these measures were Cubs first sacker Anthony Rizzo (+23 RSAA) and Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks (+13).

Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder was last in MLB with -19 RSAA.  Not surprisingly, he was less horrible on in-zone plays (-7 plays below average) than out-of-zone plays (-16).  While Fielder rated below average on most advanced metrics, there is some disagreement as to how bad he was: -4 on Total Zone, -7 on FRAA and -13 on DRS. 

Based on RSAA, the combination of Fielder at first and Miguel Cabrera at third was a whopping -43 runs below average in 2013.  So, theoretically, the Tigers could have added four more wins if the two were just average defenders. Cabrera should be moving to first base next year with young Nick Castellanos perhaps taking over at third.  Neither is likely to be a good defender at his new position, but each should be significantly better than the extremes we saw last year.  It is reasonable to think that they could be a 30-run or three-win upgrade defensively over 2013 between the two of them.     

Table 1: Runs Saved by MLB First Basemen According to RZR, OOZ, 2013

Player	Team	Inn	RZR	OOZ	PIZ AA	OOZ AA	PMAA	RSAA
Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1,415	.871	43	13	16	29	23
Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1,446	.817	40	4	12	16	13
Freddie Freeman	ATL	1,290	.808	39	1	14	15	12
Joey Votto	CIN	1,430	.805	39	1	11	12	10
Brandon Belt	SFG	1,174	.859	26	8	3	12	9
Nick Swisher	CLE	910	.833	21	5	3	9	7
Mitch Moreland	TEX	1,176	.811	28	1	5	7	5
Mike Napoli	BOS	1,097	.876	15	12	-6	6	5
Adrian Gonzalez	LAD	1,291	.846	23	7	-2	5	4
Justin Morneau	- -	1,189	.823	24	4	1	5	4
Lyle Overbay	NYY	1,031	.767	29	-5	9	4	3
Mark Trumbo	LAA	1,030	.780	25	-4	5	1	1
Brandon Moss	OAK	801	.764	17	-4	2	-2	-2
James Loney	TBR	1,277	.796	23	-1	-2	-3	-2
Todd Helton	COL	910	.767	18	-5	0	-5	-4
Chris Davis	BAL	1,377	.799	20	-1	-6	-7	-6
Adam LaRoche	WSN	1,272	.793	19	-2	-5	-7	-6
Justin Smoak	SEA	1,084	.828	8	4	-13	-9	-7
Eric Hosmer	KCR	1,372	.805	16	1	-10	-10	-8
Prince Fielder	DET	1,323	.770	9	-7	-16	-24	-19

   Data Source: FanGraphs.com