December 16, 2008
Izzy an Oriole
Cesar Izturis takes over at shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles:
The Baltimore Orioles finally filled their hole at shortstop, signing free agent Cesar Izturis to a two-year contract Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Izturis batted .263 in 135 games with the St. Louis Cardinals this year. He ranked third in the NL with a .980 fielding percentage.
"This is a good opportunity to play every day," Izturis said. "I think they needed a defensive shortstop. I just want to help the team win; it will be fun."
Amazingly, despite Izturis's poor career numbers as a hitter, this is actually an improvement at the position over last year. Cesar's career line is .260/.299/.331, so it tells you just how bad the Orioles were at shortstop in 2008.
Defensively, the Orioles were in the middle of the pack in 2008 according to the Probabilistic Model of Range. Izturis should improve that as well.
This signing is a small step in the right direction for Baltimore. They needed to fill a hole, and they got halfway there with Izturis.
In an earlier Gordon vs Doerr discussion, my listing Doerr's career fielding pct being .010 above Gordon's was criticized by many as not a good guage of fielding ability, yet here on the new O's SS
his 2008 fielding pct is listed for his stats. Doerr also accepted more total chances per game than Gordon at 2B & had higher DPs per game avg. Probable range, etc., is just what it is: probable by a stat man. Will the real fielding indicator please stand up!
David quoted that section of his report so any criticism of the fielding percentage stat would be best done by clicking on the click and posting there. It is not a very good stat for measuring defence.
However, David in his usual excellent reporting, didn't only mention fielding percentage. He also brought up his PMR model and cited how Izturis should improve their overall defensive ranking.
You bring up an interesting point about the O's SS defense last year.
For the first two months of the year the O's were at the top or near the top of majors for Defensive efficiency (along with the Rays.) But after June the O's def eff dropped, ending up more or less in the middle of the pack.
What happened? The Orioles released Luis Hernandez at the end of May. I know he couldn't hit a lick, but the O's defense suffered significantly after his departure. Maybe there were other factors involved, but it appears that Hernandez was a pretty good defensive SS.
You wrote that the O's were in the middle of the pack in terms of PM o R, but how were they starting in June?
I'm not just wondering about Hernandez either. First of all, the O's were competitive through those first two months (though, if I remember correctly, the offense wasn't very good). Secondly, it was after June that Daniel Cabrera became his maddeningly inconsistent self.
Is there any way to evaluate how important Hernandez was to the O's generally and Cabrera specifically? I'll acknowledge that Hernandez did not play every game and that his hitting was atrocius. But there seemed to have been a correlation between his release and the O's collapse.
You should look at the fielding charts for the various Baltimore shortstops.
