There’s no reason to give the franchise he was so awful for the finger, as if it’s the M’s fault he was abjectly horrible while he was here. His performance already did that. Let it be.

I wonder if Glenallen Hill would have a negative range

I continue buying Baseball Prospectus hoping that somebody will top the description of his defense one year:

“akin to watching a gaffed haddock surface for air.”

Wait, Wikipedia credits Brian Price with that quote. Whoever did it, that’s classic.

Coincidentally, that’s exactly how long it will take before he starts winning Gold Gloves that he will then no longer deserve.

The average defensive value of a replacement level player is just about the same as the defensive value of any other player. In other words, there is a massive pool of players who can play league average ML defense, but only part of that pool can also hit. The guys who can hit make it to the majors, and the guys who can’t hang out in Triple-A.

At some positions (notably first base), the average replacement level player is actually slightly better than average fielder.

This is why, when we’re doing player comparisons, we use an offensive metric that is runs above replacement and a defensive metric that is runs above average.

If we really wanted to, we could try to calculate defensive replacement level as the point a team is no longer willing to put up with a player and moves him to an easier position. I’m guessing, in most cases, this point is around -20 runs. But some teams (like the Reds) keep running out -20 defenders and not even blinking, so, it would really be different for each club.

And my suspicion (groundless, speculative, and from my bottom) is that defensive performance will have a very different curve than offensive performance. In fact, I bet guys peak defensively very young – 25 maybe – and continue a downward slope thereafter.

Yea. Tango and MGL have done a bunch of work on player aging patterns, and generally, defense peaks at age 24. MGL has found that a player generally loses about one run defensively per year after 24 through his early 30s. So, if Yuniesky Betancourt follows a normal decline, he’ll cease to be an elite defender in about five years. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve argued that this is probably about as valuable as he’s ever going to be.