FanPost

Cardinals Defense: 2013 to 2014

Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

First off, I would just like to say that I am a new member here, and this is my first post. I've been a Cardinals fan my entire life and have enjoyed reading VEB for a while now. As this is my first post, I appreciate any feedback you have on my writing.

This past summer, I interned at Baseball Info Solutions, where I watched games and collected data on a daily basis. One of our big focuses was defense, so last month, when I received my copy of The Bill James Handbook (published by Baseball Info Solutions each year), I was not surprised to see that a good portion of the book was devoted to defense.

I found the defensive data on the Cardinals to be espeically interesting. As many of you know, the Cardinals went from being on of the worst defensive teams in 2013 to being one of the best in 2014. In 2013, they were 15th in the National League in both Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating, only managing to best the woeful Phillies. In 2014 however, they were second in the NL in Defensive Runs Saved and third in Ultimate Zone Rating.

So what caused such a dramatic turnaround?

For starters, the Cardinals improved their defense at three positions with one move last offseason when they traded David Freese to the Angles for Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk. Matt Carpenter moved from second to third, replacing Freese, while Kolten Wong became a full-time starter at second. In addition, Peter Bourjos, a superior defender to Jon Jay, improved the center field defense despite being a part-time player for most of the season.

The team also saw several players improve their own defensive performance from 2013 to 2014. Here's a table of Defensive Runs Saved values for the Cardinals top position players from 2013 to 2014

2013

2014

Matt Adams

-2

8

Matt Holliday

-13

0

Jon Jay

-10

6

Yadier Molina

12

8

Matt Carpenter

0

-2

Kolten Wong

0

9

Jhonny Peralta

0

17

Peter Bourjos

-1

7

The Cardinals saw several players from their 2013 team dramatically improve on defense, including Matt Adams, Matt Holliday, Jon Jay, and Kolten Wong (although, in fairness, Wong barely played in 2013). In addition, Jhonny Peralta and Peter Bourjos, who were acquired last offseason, also improved their defense from 2013, with Peralta improving by a whopping 17 runs. In addition, there were no players who showed a significant defensive decline from 2013 to 2014. Yadier Molina probably would have gotten to 12 DRS (or more) if he hadn't missed time with injury. Matt Carpenter, the only other fielder who saw his DRS totals fall from 2013 to 2014, was actually a worse fielder at third base than second base, but not by much.

There are several possible explanations for this unusual defensive improvement. The Cardinals more than tripled their number of infield shifts from 2013 to 2014, going from 11th in the NL in 2013 to 3rd in 2014. Shortstop Johnny Peralta also went from a low shifting team to a high shifting team, as the 2013 Tigers were 13th in the AL in infield shifts.

The use of infield shifts can't explain the improvement made by Cardinals outfieders though. There is a strong case to be made that Peter Bourjos' -1 DRS in 2013 was a statistical anomaly, as he battled injuries and had not posted fewer than 9 DRS prior to 2013. Even so, Matt Holliday and Jon Jay improved their DRS totals by 13 and 16 respectively, despite seeing their defensive numbers trending down prior to 2014.

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Matt Holliday

7

-1

-6

-13

0

Jon Jay

-6

9

2

-10

6

So is there an explanation for this? This improvement could be due to any number of things, such as better outfield positioning, improved conditioning and technique, or simply statistical variation and luck. While I don't have an answer to this question, it seems pretty clear that the front office has embraced the importance of defensive analytics in recent years, with the acquisitions of Peter Bourjos and Jason Heyward. Perhaps the team has found a way to use defensive analytics to improve the defense of their own players as well.

Site Manager's Note: I got my start writing at Viva El Birdos in the Fanpost section of the site. I still read the community-member-authored posts in this section of the site and, on occasion, will promote posts I find interesting, well-written, and or thought-provoking (even if I don't necessary agree with them). This is one such post.