New York Nine

In today’s post-steroid era of baseball, defense and speed have dominated the headlines and highlight reels of mainstream sports media. Thanks to the more rigorous testing where true home run hitters are harder to come by, teams are forced to find value in other ways, and as result the new wave of stars have been young, fast, and great with the glove. Jason Bartlett, Grady Sizemore, Yadier Molina, and countless others are lauded for their defensive prowess and their ability to make the slick play all over the diamond. All over the diamond, it seems, except for first base. Long considered a position where you throw a big lumbering guy who can’t do much, first base defense has been consistently overlooked in favor of the big bat, and in this way the Yankees for the last seven years have been no different. Signing the former MVP Jason Giambi because of his ability to hit it out of the park and sort of forgetting the fact he’s horrible in the field, the Yankees chose to forsake infield defense for the last seven years and in the process hurt themselves. But by signing the uber-talented glove man Mark Teixeira in the off season, the Yankees have reversed the fortunes at the plate and in the field, transforming the position from one of weakness to a strength that has helped them in more ways that can be measured.
As I mentioned earlier, the Yankees signed Jason Giambi in 2002 for his offense and in this way, at least for awhile he did not disappoint. Blessed with a great eye and prodigious power, Giambi slugged his way to a 1.034OPS in his first full season and for the length of his contract consistently had an on-base percentage over .400 and slugged over .500, but he was not without his faults. Aside from the steroid thing, which we won’t get into here, Giambi just flat out killed the Yankees with his porous defense. Posting fielding percentages consistently in .980s, numbers bad enough in themselves, but the more advanced fielding metrics are even more telling to just how bad he truly was. Giambi’s RngR or Range Runs above average showed a clear lack of fluidity and range at the bag, putting up some pretty poor numbers like –1.5, -2.1, -2.8 and –6.0, only to improve to –4.9 in his final year shows Giambi as a clearly below average defensive first baseman (note: negative figures indicate below league average performance). Ultimate Zone Rating is equally as unkind to the Giambino, generating some poor ratings in the –2.1, -4.8 and –7.1 range. Indeed, it seems the subjective and unpleasant experience of watching Jason bumble around the field fleshes out to be true in the numbers, and these numbers as a consequence hurt the rest of his teammates.
For sure, when you have such a below average first baseman like Jason Giambi, his inability will only make his other infielders look worse and the numbers seem to show this to be true as well. Take for instance, Derek Jeter, a shortstop who admittedly was not a great defensive player before, with Giambi, his weaknesses seemed to only be amplified. Unfortunately, Ultimate Zone ratings prior to 2002 are unavailable, but in the data available it seems clear that as Giambi’s glove work worsened so did Jeter’s going from a not great –0.3 to an absolutely horrendous –12.6, and –16.7 as Giambi’s tenure went on. Now of course, Giambi cannot be completely blamed for Jeter’s woes, after all he is a not a great defensive shortstop who seemed to be declining with age, but as Teixeira’s short tenure has shown, a great first baseman can make up for some of those problems with superior range and compensate for the bad throw at times. This is a skill that Giambi clearly did not possess.
Moving forward to the 2008 off-season, Giambi’s option is not picked up and in his place the Yankees sign two-time Gold Glover Mark Teixeira signs a jaw-dropping $180 million dollar deal, and his impact is sudden and immediate. After enduring years of Giambi’s corpse-like average range of 7.8, Teixeira’s superior range, now standing at 9.0 for the season (a number that is actually down from last year’s 10.1) has indeed been a breath of fresh air for the rest of the Yankee infielders and it’s easy to see why. For one, Teixeria has started at first 87 times already this year, a feat Jason only accomplished twice as a Yankee and when he’s in there Teixeria’s Zone Rating has been a respectable –1.7, a number Giambi never touched. For certain, as anyone can see watching him, the impact of Teixeria’s presence has been undeniable, picking it left and right, making acrobatic dives and throws look easy, and in the process helping guys all over the diamond, particularly the aforementioned Derek Jeter who’s having the defensive season of his life. Posting a career high 1.8 UZR and an even more impressive 4.5UZR per 150 games, Jeter’s numbers have seen a huge, huge spike and he’s not alone. Second baseman Robinson Cano has seen his UZR improve from –8.0 to 0.7 as well and his RngR go from –5.4 to –1.2. And this is all in a season where Teixeira is actually is a little bit down from his previous season where he averaged closer to 10 in range factor and 5 UZR! Imagine once Mark really hits his stride again defensively, then you really have to watch out.
Again, this is only a half season’s worth of statistics and some credit has to be given to the other defenders for their improvement, but the change seems plain in the results on the field. From being a below average defensive team, the Yankees have established themselves as a good team with the glove, setting a new record for consecutive games without an error and elevating themselves from the basement to the middle of the pack in this category. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not going to challenge the Rays or the Pirates, who have the highest rated defensive team yet, but the change is unmistakable. The team has become more balanced and efficient in the way they play the game and the change, along with the other off-season acquisitions have put them back atop the AL East. They say one player can’t change a team, but at least in matters of