Another Friggin’ Thing

One other note on the Yankees-Angels series: Anybody who’s watched any amount of baseball this season has had to listen to the likes of Tim McCarver, Joe Morgan, and the YES crew lauding the Yankee defense, particularly Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano, in the face of all available statistical evidence.

This series–particularly if the Yankees lose–ought to clear that misconception up. The Yankee D has been abysmal, with several ground balls rolling right under the gloves of the Yanks’ otherwise-vaunted keystone combo (as I write this, Alfonso Soriano just muffed a potential double-play grounder to allow the tying run in the third inning of Game Four). The Angels defense, on the other hand, has been consistently solid, and exceptional behind Jared Washburn (6 double plays in 10 innings thus far).

The diffference in the two defenses can be seen via the two teams’ Defensive Efficiency Rating, which measure how often a team turns a batted ball into an out. The Angels led the majors with a .731 rating, meaning that batters hit .269 on balls in play against them. The Yanks’ DER was only .708, eighth in the AL and two points below the league average. This means that batters hit .292 on balls in play against them, a 23-point difference. Through the first three games, the difference between the two teams is staggering: the Angels DER is .767 (meaning a .233 batting average on balls in play against them), the Yankees’ is .670 (a .330 average). Needless to say, that’s an astounding difference that goes a looooooong way towards explaining why the Angels have the upper hand in this series thus far.