Friday, January 28, 2005

Bobby Hill and Jose Castillo

We need better defensive statistics. We often hear about how bad or limited Bobby Hill looks out at second, and how good or promising Jose Castillo looks out there. But what do our numbers say?

Here's another tidbit from the Bill James Handbook which I grudgingly admire in so many ways. Castillo played 951 innings at second base. His fielding percentage was .980 and his Range, and I sure don't know how they compute that for this book, was 5.03. Middle of the pack for second basemen.

Bobby Hill's fielding percentage was .994 and his range was 5.61 in 255 innings. That's better than Castillo and better than Castillo.

Was Castillo better at turning the double play? He turned 81 in 951 innings. That's one every 11.7 innings. Hill turned 22 in 255 innings. That's one every 11.6 innings. Hmmm.

How does that grab you?

FWIW, I still think Castillo has more potential with the bat. And Bobby Hill was one hell of a pinch-hitter in 2004.

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