Renteria's Defense Getting Offensive
by Tim Daloisio
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
 When Edgar Renteria replaced Orlando Cabrera in between Bill Mueller and Mark Bellhorn in the infield at Fenway Park, Red Sox fans expected to see a solid defensive shortstop with good range, making few mistakes.
Unfortunately for Renteria, who has been struggling at the plate, Red Sox fans have seen anything but that.
With six errors in twenty five starts at shortstop of the Boston Red Sox, Renteria is on pace for a career high 36 errors. Renteria's previous high was twenty seven errors in 2000 and he has averaged around twenty errors a year at shortstop over the course of his career.
So far this season, Renteria has been pressing. According to Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy, Renteria is trying too hard in the field to make up for a slow start at the plate.
"He's been too good a player too long for this to continue" - Jerry Remy on Dennis & Callahan, WEEI 5/4/05 The types of errors that Renteria is making backs up Remy's thinking. Throughout 2004 with St. Louis, Renteria committed only eleven errors. Of those, only two were of the throwing variety.
Already this year, Renteria has three throwing errors. He is getting to as many balls as he usually does, but in his haste to not make a mistake, he is steering his throws. And before we go blaming the quality first baseman scooping those balls, Kevin Millar and Albert Pouljos are not any different in the field (unfortunately, we can't say that at the plate).
Chart represents the range of an average shortstop vs. Renteria in 2004 with the left side of the graph being balls hit towards 3rd base and the right side, balls up the middle.
By looking at David Pinto's new graphical analysis of defensive efficiency, you can see that Renteria is a consistent player in the field. He creates the outs that are expected of him and is better than expected at the ball up the middle.
For whatever reason, Renteria is not as good going to his right as his left. In my opinion, it is because of his use of the backhand vs. getting in front of many balls hit to his right. But this graph could easily be corrupted by the infield mates Renteria played with last year (Gold Glove 3rd baseman Scott Rolen and below average 2nd baseman Tony Womack). With Rolen and Womack on either side, I am sure that Renteria cheated to his left to fill a potential hole up the middle while being covered on the right by Rolen.
Chart represents the same range as above, but for line drives as opposed to ground balls.
Where Renteria does excel is in using his 6'1" frame to snare line drives on the glove side.
But how does he compare to other shortstops that we were familiar with?
He is better than Nomar.
Nomar's range isn't equal to Renteria's.
And very comparable to Orlando Cabrera.
Cabrera is better at the flashy plays at either end of the graph, but similar to Renteria nearer to the SS position.
If we compare these players using other defensive efficiency ratios, you see similar trends.2004 Nomar Cabrera Renteria
Fielding % 0.970 0.978 0.983
Range Factor 3.94 4.39 4.41
Zone Rating 0.753 0.838 0.855 The difference between Renteria this year and last year isn't found as much in his range (4.37, .849) as his fielding percentage (.947). As we have seen, this is mainly due to throwing errors that haven't been a problem for Renteria in the past.
So what should we expect from Renteria this year in the field? Like Cabrera when he came in last year and struggled defensively early before settling in, I think Renteria is experiencing those same moving pains. Like Remy said, he has been too good for too long to be this bad for the entire season.
It is time for Red Sox Nation to exercise something with Renteria's defense that doesn't come second nature to us; patience.
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