FanGraphs recently started listing John Dewan's +/- fielding metric. Many feel this metric is comparable to (or better than) UZR, so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to explore the players on which there were the largest discrepancies in 2009.
I took the +/- DRS component (defense runs saved) for each player and subtracted from it the player's UZR for the 2009 season. Here are the top 10 where +/- is higher than UZR:
| Name | DRS | UZR | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Hill | 19 | -2.3 | 21.3 |
| Jeff Francoeur | 9 | -6.1 | 15.1 |
| Chone Figgins | 31 | 16.3 | 14.7 |
| Andre Ethier | -2 | -16.2 | 14.2 |
| Yunel Escobar | 13 | -1 | 14 |
| Hunter Pence | 19 | 5.5 | 13.5 |
| Jack Wilson | 27 | 14 | 13 |
| Ian Kinsler | 22 | 9.6 | 12.4 |
| Curtis Granderson | 14 | 1.6 | 12.4 |
| Cody Ross | 5 | -7.4 | 12.4 |
Here are the top 10 where UZR is more favorable than +/-:
| Name | DRS | UZR | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando Cabrera | -33 | -15.3 | -17.7 |
| Alex Gonzalez | -5 | 6.7 | -11.7 |
| Felix Pie | -4 | 6.9 | -10.9 |
| Brendan Harris | -19 | -8.1 | -10.9 |
| Nick Punto | -5 | 5.8 | -10.8 |
| David DeJesus | 5 | 15.1 | -10.1 |
| Edgar Renteria | -10 | -0.2 | -9.8 |
| Michael Young | -18 | -8.4 | -9.6 |
| B.J. Upton | 3 | 11 | -8 |
| Erick Aybar | 0 | 7.8 | -7.8 |
I'm not sure what, if anything, can be gained from these lists, but I thought it was interesting to check them out. I don't know that it's fair to call either one better than the other, but it's nice to have multiple ways to view things. Not that this necessarily means anything, but the Mariners acquired 2 players in the top list since the middle of last season (Chone Figgins and Jack Wilson)
*Note: I filtered Jason Varitek from my list since his UZR, being a catcher, is 0.
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