Behind the Rays' defensive success
Tampa has stayed in the AL East race behind its dominant, league-leading D
Ben Jedlovec
Baseball Info Solutions
ESPN Insider
With the draft rapidly approaching, many people have mentioned the Tampa Bay Rays' stockpile of draft picks, including 12 of the first 89 overall selections. The Rays acquired these picks, of course, because they sustained significant free agent losses over the offseason. With Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and relief pitchers Rafael Soriano, Grant Balfour, Joaquin Benoit, Chad Qualls and Randy Choate all joining new teams, it would have been easy to expect the Rays to fall out of contention.
However, Joe Maddon's club had other ideas. Plugging in Casey Kotchman, Sam Fuld and Reid Brignac, the Rays' lineup doesn't pack the same punch offensively, but on defense the Rays have taken their game to the next level. Led by Fuld and Evan Longoria, the Rays feature the top-ranked defense according to Baseball Info Solutions' defensive runs saved metric. With 39 runs saved, the defense has earned the team an estimated four wins in the standings.
<OFFER>Tampa Bay has also been making more than its share of Web Gems, with the second-most Web Gems points in baseball this year. Similarly, the team ranks second in "Good Fielding Plays," which are Web Gem-type plays categorized by video scouts at Baseball Info Solutions.
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Ray of light
Tampa Bay Rays defensive stats, 2005-11 (note: 2011 numbers accurate through June 2)
<TABLE><THEAD><TR><TH>Season</TH><TH>Runs Saved</TH><TH>MLB Rank</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=last><TD>2005</TD><TD>-5</TD><TD>21</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2006</TD><TD>-18</TD><TD>24</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2007</TD><TD>-69</TD><TD>30</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2008</TD><TD>26</TD><TD>9</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2009</TD><TD>57</TD><TD>3</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2010</TD><TD>42</TD><TD>8</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2011</TD><TD>39</TD><TD>1</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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The Rays' defensive emphasis can be traced to their 2008 awakening, when the team went worst-to-first and won the American League pennant. That season, the team improved from -69 runs saved (last in MLB) to 26 runs saved (ninth), an estimated 95-run (9-10 win) improvement on the defensive side alone.
Since then, the team has upgraded even further. Longoria has developed into a Fielding Bible Award-winning defender at the hot corner. After Akinori Iwamura's tenure in Tampa came to an end, the Rays gave Ben Zobrist an opportunity to play second base part-time, where he's excelled to the tune of 32 runs saved in barely one season's worth of innings. Sean Rodriguez, the player-to-be-named in the Scott Kazmir trade, sits at 18 runs saved in less than a full season's worth of innings, sharing time with Zobrist at second.
After Carl Crawford bolted via free agency and Manny Ramirez retired unceremoniously, Maddon shifted Johnny Damon to designated hitter and plugged Fuld in left field. While his bat cooled after a hot start, his glove sits atop the Web Gems points standings and has many Rays fans wiping away memories of their previous Fielding Bible Award outfielder.
What is the secret behind the Rays' defensive successes? Maddon recently tweeted: "One of our mottos is 'we catch line drives.' The sophistication of putting guys in the right spots on the field is big for us."
Indeed, Maddon's squad has been good at catching line drives. Batters across the league have hit .709 on line drives this year, but they've hit only .674 on line drives against the Rays, the fifth-lowest total in the league.
However, the team's strength is in fielding groundballs. The Rays have allowed only a .202 batting average on grounders, compared to the league's .226 average. Tampa trails only Texas' .185, though the Rays' infield has the edge in Runs Saved on groundballs.
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Gettin' shifty with it
The Rays lead MLB in number of shifts on balls in play, 2010-2011
<TABLE><THEAD><TR><TH>Team</TH><TH>Shifts</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=last><TD>Rays</TD><TD>256</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Indians</TD><TD>168</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Mets</TD><TD>151</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Brewers</TD><TD>113</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Angels</TD><TD>106</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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The second part of Maddon's tweet is also telling: the Rays are very aggressive with defensive positioning. The Rays have easily been the most aggressively shifting team in baseball over the past few seasons. In a division notorious for pull-happy sluggers, the Rays do their best to neutralize the impact of balls in play.
The Rays are clearly a leading defensive team, but will it be enough to keep the team in contention with a diminished offense? If the defense can continue its pace and approach 100 runs saved over a full season, that would be an estimated 60-run improvement over last year's strong defensive team. Sixty runs of defensive improvement would roughly balance out an equivalent offensive decline; however, at 4.18 runs per game the Rays are on pace for 120 fewer offensive runs than last season. The defensive improvement cuts that deficit in half, but the Rays will need to find another 60 runs in order to match last year's success.
Tampa has stayed in the AL East race behind its dominant, league-leading D
Ben Jedlovec
Baseball Info Solutions
ESPN Insider
With the draft rapidly approaching, many people have mentioned the Tampa Bay Rays' stockpile of draft picks, including 12 of the first 89 overall selections. The Rays acquired these picks, of course, because they sustained significant free agent losses over the offseason. With Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and relief pitchers Rafael Soriano, Grant Balfour, Joaquin Benoit, Chad Qualls and Randy Choate all joining new teams, it would have been easy to expect the Rays to fall out of contention.
However, Joe Maddon's club had other ideas. Plugging in Casey Kotchman, Sam Fuld and Reid Brignac, the Rays' lineup doesn't pack the same punch offensively, but on defense the Rays have taken their game to the next level. Led by Fuld and Evan Longoria, the Rays feature the top-ranked defense according to Baseball Info Solutions' defensive runs saved metric. With 39 runs saved, the defense has earned the team an estimated four wins in the standings.
<OFFER>Tampa Bay has also been making more than its share of Web Gems, with the second-most Web Gems points in baseball this year. Similarly, the team ranks second in "Good Fielding Plays," which are Web Gem-type plays categorized by video scouts at Baseball Info Solutions.
<!-- begin inline 1 -->
Ray of light
Tampa Bay Rays defensive stats, 2005-11 (note: 2011 numbers accurate through June 2)
<TABLE><THEAD><TR><TH>Season</TH><TH>Runs Saved</TH><TH>MLB Rank</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=last><TD>2005</TD><TD>-5</TD><TD>21</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2006</TD><TD>-18</TD><TD>24</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2007</TD><TD>-69</TD><TD>30</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2008</TD><TD>26</TD><TD>9</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2009</TD><TD>57</TD><TD>3</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2010</TD><TD>42</TD><TD>8</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>2011</TD><TD>39</TD><TD>1</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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The Rays' defensive emphasis can be traced to their 2008 awakening, when the team went worst-to-first and won the American League pennant. That season, the team improved from -69 runs saved (last in MLB) to 26 runs saved (ninth), an estimated 95-run (9-10 win) improvement on the defensive side alone.
Since then, the team has upgraded even further. Longoria has developed into a Fielding Bible Award-winning defender at the hot corner. After Akinori Iwamura's tenure in Tampa came to an end, the Rays gave Ben Zobrist an opportunity to play second base part-time, where he's excelled to the tune of 32 runs saved in barely one season's worth of innings. Sean Rodriguez, the player-to-be-named in the Scott Kazmir trade, sits at 18 runs saved in less than a full season's worth of innings, sharing time with Zobrist at second.
After Carl Crawford bolted via free agency and Manny Ramirez retired unceremoniously, Maddon shifted Johnny Damon to designated hitter and plugged Fuld in left field. While his bat cooled after a hot start, his glove sits atop the Web Gems points standings and has many Rays fans wiping away memories of their previous Fielding Bible Award outfielder.
What is the secret behind the Rays' defensive successes? Maddon recently tweeted: "One of our mottos is 'we catch line drives.' The sophistication of putting guys in the right spots on the field is big for us."
Indeed, Maddon's squad has been good at catching line drives. Batters across the league have hit .709 on line drives this year, but they've hit only .674 on line drives against the Rays, the fifth-lowest total in the league.
However, the team's strength is in fielding groundballs. The Rays have allowed only a .202 batting average on grounders, compared to the league's .226 average. Tampa trails only Texas' .185, though the Rays' infield has the edge in Runs Saved on groundballs.
<!-- begin inline 2 -->
Gettin' shifty with it
The Rays lead MLB in number of shifts on balls in play, 2010-2011
<TABLE><THEAD><TR><TH>Team</TH><TH>Shifts</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=last><TD>Rays</TD><TD>256</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Indians</TD><TD>168</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Mets</TD><TD>151</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Brewers</TD><TD>113</TD></TR><TR class=last><TD>Angels</TD><TD>106</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- end inline 2 -->
The second part of Maddon's tweet is also telling: the Rays are very aggressive with defensive positioning. The Rays have easily been the most aggressively shifting team in baseball over the past few seasons. In a division notorious for pull-happy sluggers, the Rays do their best to neutralize the impact of balls in play.
The Rays are clearly a leading defensive team, but will it be enough to keep the team in contention with a diminished offense? If the defense can continue its pace and approach 100 runs saved over a full season, that would be an estimated 60-run improvement over last year's strong defensive team. Sixty runs of defensive improvement would roughly balance out an equivalent offensive decline; however, at 4.18 runs per game the Rays are on pace for 120 fewer offensive runs than last season. The defensive improvement cuts that deficit in half, but the Rays will need to find another 60 runs in order to match last year's success.
