Snider Capable of Adding Defensive Value

Corner outfield is one of the many question marks heading into 2013, but Starling Marte and Travis Snider appear poised to take the starting jobs.

Snider, acquired from Toronto for Brad Lincoln on July 31st, was slowed by injuries down the stretch. We were intrigued when we saw he was named a breakout candidate earlier this week by Baseball Prospectus. Here’s a portion of what BP’s Hudson Belinsky offered on Snider:

Despite hitting just one home run in 50 games with the Pirates, he has power potential and other offensive upside. But what about his defense?

We scanned the Internet to read up on his defensive abilities; here are a couple snippets of what we found…

- Jays’ blogger Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter after Snider was dealt to the Bucs: “He’s also turned himself into a really good defensive outfielder. When he first came up the feeling was that he’d end up a full time DH, but he gets good reads on balls hit to the outfield and has good speed, with a decent arm. He played some center field for us and didn’t look out of place.”

- David Heck of CBS Local Sports on Snider last March: “Combine that offense with above-average defense in a corner outfield spot … and Snider could be an important cog for a Toronto team that is gaining momentum as a playoff contender in the American League.”

Furthermore, there are plenty of sabermetrics in the baseball world to value a player’s defense. The ones we’ll use for Travis Snider are Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), Revised Zone Rating (RZR), and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS).

Here’s some info on each metric via FanGraphs, and how Snider stacks up…

UZR

Basics:  “…one of the most widely used, publicly available defensive statistics… UZR puts a run value to defense, attempting to quantify how many runs a player saved or gave up through their fielding prowess (or lack thereof).”

Evaluation:

Defensive Ability	UZR
Gold Glove Caliber	+15
Great	+10
Above Average	+5
Average	0
Below Average	-5
Poor	-10
Awful	-15

Snider’s Career UZR: 3.1
Ability: Average – Above Average

RZR

Basics:  “…measures ‘the proportion of balls hit into a fielder’s zone that he successfully converted into an out’ (Hardball Times).”

Evaluation:

Rating	RZR
Excellent	0.940
Great	0.900
Above Average	0.860
Average	0.835
Below Average	0.800
Poor	0.750
Awful	0.700

Snider’s Career RZR: .897
Rating: Great

DRS

Basics:  “…rates individual players as above or below average on defense… captures a player’s total defensive value.”

Evaluation:

Defensive Ability	DRS
Gold Glove Caliber	+15
Great	+10
Above Average	+5
Average	0
Below Average	-5
Poor	-10
Awful	-15

Snider’s DRS with Pirates: 3
Ability: Average – Above Average

In his short time with Pittsburgh, Snider passed the eye test by making some tremendous catches and covering lots of ground. The remarkable catch he made at Citi Field in September was unforgettable:

He had a number of other solid plays as well. Here’s a tough running grab he made on Scott Rolen:

Robbing Ryan Braun of extra bases:

A diving grab to retire Alfonso Soriano:

Covering a ton of ground on a gap shot hit by Norichika Aoki:

A slick sliding snag on Jean Segura:

As long as Snider can make the routine plays and stay consistent with some of his defensive metrics, he could definitely provide an impact with his defense. Starling Marte was regarded as a tremendous fielder with a cannon for an arm when he moved through the minor league system, and Andrew McCutchen has the wheels to cover plenty of ground. Snider will be a key third piece in solidifying a legitimate outfield. He won’t be spectacular out there, but has enough potential to succeed.

At age 25, there is still time for Snider to develop. An every day right fielder with power and above average defense can easily exceed the value of a reliever; the Travis Snider for Brad Lincoln trade could be a favorable one for the Pirates.

Photo: Tom Sullivan/Creative Commons
Stats courtesy FanGraphs.com